Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

dockbarx

DockBarX 0.90.3 has been released. For those not familiar with DockBarX, this is an application launcher / switcher that works as a GNOME2 panel applet, Avant Window Navigator applet or as a stand-alone dock. With the new version, I've also packaged it for MATE so you can use it as a MATE panel applet.

DockBarX features: 
  • pin applications to the taskbar
  • quick access to recent, related and most used documents with the help of Zeitgeist
  • Unity quicklists, badges and progress bars support
  • Window previews (requires Compiz and the KDE Compatibility plugin enabled in CCSM) - this feature is buggy with recent Compiz versions
  • DockManager support (so you can use Docky helpers in DockBarX)
  • Media buttons support (play/pause, etc.)
  • Highly configurable, both in appearance and functionality (keyboard shortcuts, etc.), includes beautiful themes by default
  • DockX (DockBarX as a stand-alone dock) can be positioned anywhere on the screen, supports panel and dock modes, comes with autohide, dodge active window or all windows, can be resized and more


New features in the new DockBarX 0.90 series:
  • the stand-alone dock supports applets; included applets: Cardapio menu (requires the Cardapio PPA), a clock, appindicator (running appindicators are displayed on DockX), volume control and namebar (can show the window buttons / titlebar on the dock)
  • new / updated themes which now work with both horizontal and vertical dock orientation without any changes
  • updated appearence tab in DockBarX Preferences
  • the width of window titles in window list can be specified now if no previews are used
  • bug fixes

Here are a few DockBarX screenshots:

dockbarx
DockBarX running as a MATE panel applet (Linux Mint MATE Edition)

dockbarx
DockX (stand-alone dock)

dockbarx
DockX using the panel mode

dockbarx
DockX - vertical panel mode



Install DockBarX in Ubuntu / Linux Mint


To install DockBarX in Ubuntu / Linux Mint, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dockbar-main/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dockbarx

Then launch "DockX" from the menu.

MATE Desktop users: instead of the last command above, use:
sudo apt-get install dockbarx-mate
killall mate-panel

Installing the MATE package remove the other DockBarX packages, because I've set them up as different packages (to avoid conflicts), but all the functionality is still there, so even if you install dockbarx-mate, you can still use DockX if you want.

To install the DockBarX Avant Window Navigator applet, addthe PPA using the commands above and then install the applet using:
sudo apt-get install awn-applet-dockbarx

Arch Linux users can install DockBarX via AUR (includes optional MATE support). For other Linux distributions, download DockBarX via Gnome-Look.

Report any bugs you may find @ Launchpad.