How can Docky, AWN, Cairo Dock and Unity be compared? [closed]
It would be very nice to see a comparison between features, icons and usability.
I will try to be impartial and objective. Help and suggestions are welcome ;-).
I'm very grateful for the important contributions of these buddies:
Alaukik, Kaustubh P, Uri Herrera and Mandy.
First of all, the question is tricky. Putting all this together may lead someone to think of Unity as a Dock, which it is not. Actually, it is a User Interface (see this as reference to this affirmation and this for the definition of a Dock).
Second: the Unity Launcher can't be moved from left edge.
To make this answer be more suitable, I will focus on features that are common to all and on those which are (at least to me) most desired.
Applications Menu
This is more easily answered with images:
Unity:
Cairo Dock:
_
AWN:
AWN own menu:
YAMA (has "Places" and bigger icons):
I wasn't able to find this feature for Docky but maybe it has it.
Workspace Switcher
Unity:
You can't preview the workspaces from the Launcher:
But when you click on the icon, you will see:
Docky:
No preview:
AWN:
Cairo Dock:
Notification Area
Unity:
AWN:
Cairo Dock:
I wasn't able to find this feature for Docky but maybe it has it.
Monitoring:
Battery
Unity:
Docky:
AWN:
Cairo Dock:
Processor
Unity:
and
obs.: check What Application Indicators are available? to see how to install this and others indicators.
Specifically for this indicator: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:indicator-multiload/stable-daily && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload && indicator-multiload
Docky:
AWN:
Cairo Dock:
RAM
Unity:
Docky:
AWN:
Cairo Dock:
Internet Connection
Unity:
Docky:
AWN:
Cairo Dock:
Hard Disk
Unity:
AWN:
Cairo Dock:
I wasn't able to find this feature for Docky but maybe it has it.
Dropbox
Unity:
AWN:
Cairo Dock:
I wasn't able to find this feature for Docky but maybe it has it.
Weather
Unity:
Click here to install.
Docky:
AWN:
Cairo Dock:
Date and Clock
Unity:
Docky:
When you click on it:
AWN:
Cairo Dock:
Clipboard
Unity:
Docky:
Cairo Dock:
I wasn't able to find this feature for Docky but maybe it has it.
Some extra features
Unity: When you drag an app to the launcher it lights up the apps that can open it .
Docky:
AWN:
This applet shows items related to what you are doing
Cairo Dock:
It is very beautiful and has lots of visual effects and configurations. Let's see some:
Sub folders
Widgets
Recent Events
Lightness on system
On average, this is what top shows me for processor (P) and memory (M) usage:
Unity:
P: 1 M: 0.4
Docky:
P: 1-2 M: 1.2
AWN:
P: 0 M: 0.3
Cairo Dock:
P: 0-1 M: 1.5
Final Overview
Unity:
Docky:
AWN:
Cairo Dock:
Websites
Unity: unity.ubuntu.com
Docky: www.go-docky.com
AWN: awn-project.org
Cairo Dock: glx-dock.org
Installation
Unity: It comes with Ubuntu 11.04 and later.
Docky: docky
AWN: avant-window-navigator (I would suggest you also install awn-applets-all)
Cairo Dock: cairo-dock
No further comments or posts yet? Issue discussed in Distrowatch now: http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20130304#comments
Not sure why you defend Unity as NOT being a very inflexible, irresponsible taskbar. Unity can be used along with AWN, Docky, etc. It can be removed completely, if needed from any Unity based distro, if needed (above url in Distrowatch):
"8 • Re: 7 rolling releases (by hobbitland on 2013-03-04 12:48:17 GMT from United Kingdom) I've stayed with Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS but with Gnome 3 fallback and will move to XFCE for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. I don't like rolling release as I heavilly remaster Ubuntu 12.04.2 with unity removed and gnome 3 fallback included plus lots of other tweaks."
My up-to-date Mint-KDE & Netrunner can emulate all of the above, and more: Unity, Docky, Awn, Windows7, IOS, Cairo, Gnome, Mate, Cinnamon, etc - but not E17, which is too confusingly complex for a novice to modify atm.
Your survey neglect XFCE-based distros, that have seemingly unlimited taskbars on the 4 sides, intellihide, resizable, etc.
All the smaller taskbars (Docky, etc) can emulate the power-hungry bigger brothers by adding more apps; Compiz, etc. Not sure why you seem ignorant of this.
The so-mentioned deficits of Docky come from your unfair exploration of Docky, versus your biased explorations favoring Unity. Docky allows easy removal, adding, ordering, re-sizing of its icons better than almost any other taskbars, including Unity. If you need cubic or wallpapers of your desktops, just add the apps that allow this, such as Compiz or Cairo.
Personally I favor XFCE for fast, light distros on slow or simple setups, plus add-on apps (Compiz, etc) if needed. Independent bench tests suggest that I use the latest versions of KDE now for CPU, GPU, memory & resource savings. Hence my current uses of Netrunner & Mint-KDE on my multi-booting i7, 8GB DDR3 pc.
Chief Information Officer (Retired 1984), Australian Capital Territory