Best of Linux Docks

Everybody loves docks!! Whether you're a developer, an OS X person, a Windows person or a Linuxer ;), you are just bound to fall in love with them too. Not only do they look great, but also provide a fancy medium for quick and convenient access to favorites. I've been a great fan of docks and I've been following them for a long time! The following is what I'd call the Cream of the 'dock' crop! :)

Cairo Dock

Cairo-dock is one of the best Linux docks ever made. As far as configuration goes it can't be beaten. It requires some kind of composite environment like compiz fusion to provide full functionality. So, you may need to enable desktop effects.

GLX-Dock

This one is actually a visually enhanced version of Cairo-Dock. When I installed Cairo-dock from the repos in Ubuntu Karmic, I found that I had actually 2 version of Cairo-dock. One without OpenGL (the above screenshot) and the other was GLX dock (Cairo dock with Open GL enabled). So, its not a completely different dock its just another version of Cairo-dock.

It is obviously more resource intensive than the other but its worth it. Have a look at the screenshots and you will see the difference yourself.

Avant Window Navigator

AWN is probably the most widely used Linux dock. The reason for its popularity could be because of its close similarity in feature and looks with Mac OS X. Like Cairo Dock it needs a composite environment too.

Wbar

Wbar is a fast and simple Linux dock. It has many configurable options and is not resource intensive. It doesn't even need any composite environment to work. And as far as old computers go this is probably the best dock for them. You can download it from their project's webpage.

SimDock

As the name suggest it is a simple Linux dock. It doesn't need any composite manager i.e. it doesn't require compiz so it is also a good choice for users who use old computers or just need a simple Linux dock. It is not highly configurable but does its job pretty well.

Gnome Do Dock

All gnome users will be aware of Gnome-Do. A small and fast appliation launcher.  Just type in the keywords and it will quicklly search the applications for you. Its developers have also added a dock interface to it, Docky.

A great thing about Docky is its integration with gnome-do searches. The applications searched more frequenctly get automatically added to the Dock.

KoolDock

Kooldock is the Linux dock application for KDE. It aims to be similar to Mac OS X dock. Trying to run it on Gnome won't be a really good option because you will have to install a lot of KDE libraries.

Confused !! Let me help you, if your system is technologically sound then you can try any one of them. You won't be hindered  by resource consumption problems. I would suggest you to try GLX-Dock or AWN in that case. But if you don't like composite environment managers or are just looking for the basic Linux docks then try the simple ones, SimDock or Wbar.

I might have missed some Linux Docks here. If you know about anyone which I haven't included then please leave a comment mentioning them. I would love to add them here.