Is plank the only option for docks?

Thoughts & Feedback
1

I like the Cupertino layout for Ubuntu MATE, but I don’t like how the icon stays on, and how the dock is green. Is there a dock option for UM that acts similarly to GNOME’s dash to dock extension?

2

And by icon, i meant the plank icon.

3

There is the MATE Dock Applet, which can be added to a MATE panel. I’ve used this for a while, and it’s used by Mutiny, but it’s not as full-featured or slick as Plank.

You can fix your Plank issues:

  1. Hide Plank icon:
    gsettings set net.launchpad.plank.dock.settings:/net/launchpad/plank/docks/dock1/ show-dock-item false
    (or use dconf-editor)

  2. Green dock: Ctrl + right click the dock, choose Preferences, and them change the Theme option to something like Matte or Transparent. (You could probably also do this from dconf-editor.) You can also change the Position and Alignment options, as well as auto-hiding settings. I haven’t used Dash to Dock in a few years, but I think these options would get you close.

1 Like
4

Thanks man.

How does one use the dconf-editor?

And also, can you tell me in detail what the CLI command you gave me does? I want to know the step-by-step process so that I can use it with other occasions.

Thank you!

5

gsettings is the base command.

set makes a settings change. (You can replace it with get to see the current settings, just leave off the final value.)

The dns/path-like part is the the app and its settings categories. Most are just reverse DNS like com.solus.brisk-menu, but this one has the path part I think because it could support having more than one dock (dock1 would be dock2 etc).

Then the specific settings and its after the value. Some settings are true/false, some take strings (which must be surrounded by ‘single quotes’, and there are others.

If you want to see all the available settings (it’s a long list!), run

gsettings list-recursively | sort -u # alphabetize and remove duplicates

dconf-editor is a GUI for doing all this, which is pretty self-explanatory but kind of annoying to use since they redesigned it as a GNOME 3 app. You’ll need to install it

sudo apt install dconf-editor

and then open it like any app.

4 Likes
6

@coolpolygons - I also like the mate-dock-applet, like @elcste mentioned. There's also Docky, but I haven't tried it. Found another old thread that mentions it:

1 Like
7

Hi coolpolygons,

I’ve made a video how to use plank in English and German in 2016. Perhaps it helps a little bit. I like plank more the dash to dock. It has more options.
You can change the themes and download many more from the net with the plank --preferences dialog.
You will find the themes in /usr/share/plank/themes.
If you have knowledge in css it is very easy to change the themes for your needs.

1 Like
8

Thank you! I was looking for ways to tweak this thing. I guess I’ll have to learn CSS for tweaking things in the Linux world.

Again, thank you for the help! :smiley:

9

Currently within Ubuntu Mate 17.10 I use the Plank Dock, but if to compare all the avalable docks for Linux, I prefer Cairo Dock, far superior towards Plank and Docky !