For what seems like an eternity, I have been searching for a dock in Linux that emulates physics that are closer to what RocketDock for Windows offers. I have tried them all — from AWN to Cairo to Kiba, I just could not ever find one that felt smooth enough, or wasn’t extremely limited in functionality in one aspect or another. That’s when a friend of mine told me about Gnome-do.

The dock is very fast, and snappy, not choppy or sluggish like other docks seem to perform on my Jaunty system. The appearance customisation is good enough. You are able to adjust the height and width of the dock, as well as the color of the backdrop. In the future I would like to see a zoom ratio, and possibly different backdrops similar to AWN, but for now it blows all the apps out of the water as far as responsiveness and UI.

Calling Gnome-do a dock just doesn’t do it justice though. The plugin support for Gnome-do really puts it a step ahead of all the other docks. I haven’t been able to locate a large repository for Gnome-do plugins yet, but it comes with enough to keep you entertained for a while. Gnome-do is perfectly described by its name. Gnome do _________. Fill in the blank as you see fit. This app literally does just about anything you need Gnome to do. Launch an app, search for files on the disk, even do things like post to Twitter. If you already are happy with another dock application, thats fine, because Gnome-do takes many shapes and forms. This app is also a Launchy replacement for Linux. If you never used Launchy on Windows, it is a Start menu eliminator, using Alt+Space (or a key combination of your choice) to bring up a prompt, and you are able to type a name of an app and it would launch it. This is helpful for people who don’t like switching from mouse to keyboard a whole lot. Gnome-do mimics this effect in its non-dock forms using the Super+Space key combination by default.

What I can’t believe is why I haven’t heard about this app before, and why it isnt making a huge scene in the desktop apps department.  I have done a fair amount of searching, and Gnome-do was barely mentioned in many dock discussions. This is one heck of a killer app for Gnome, yet I haven’t heard as much as I feel like I should have.  Perhaps I am just more annoyed then most people over not being able to find a decent dock on Linux, or most people are just happy with what AWN or Cairo offers, but if you are using those apps and feel like there is just something missing, I seriously recommend giving Gnome-do  look.

You can download Gnome-do here, or use apt-get with the command:

sudo apt-get install gnome-do

UPDATE: According to Jason over at Gnome-do HQ, the bzr version of Gnome-do includes many of the features I was longing for in the article.  Instructions for installing this can be found here.