A Look Back At Docky in 2009

By , Published December 31, 2009

Dock application 'Docky' only came into its singular being this year yet already is one of the most popular 3rd party applications available for Linux (though here's hoping it makes it into ‘the repo's come stable!).

As with a few other of my favourite Linux applications, Docky has an incredibly insightful and focused team who hare a passion for making Docky awesome €“ as proven by its breathtakingly fast development speed!

So, to Docky €“ my favourite application of 2009!

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Quick over-view of Docky in 2009

GNOME Do Docky

Docky entered Do-ers lives officially around the end of January last year /early February, but many of us were using the alpha's from dubious PPA's or botched sources before then.

image 

Docky has issues running smoothly with some graphics cards, leading me to have to use the 'classic' interface for most of the time €“ but switching it to Docky to take a screenshot!

Rock Out With Your Dock Out

The official release title for GNOME Do Docky was titled €œRock out with your Dock out€. Somewhat sadly i remember reading lots of forum threads and posts on what a terribly rude name it was€¦

A further release or two adding new features and fixing bugs (like the awful slow-dock Nvidia users suffered from) and Docky really hit the ground running. You couldn't find an Ubuntu screenshot without Docky sat proudly at the bottom. (Well, unless they were FOSS zealots €“ GNOME Do/Docky are MONO applications).

rowydo

Criticisms, feature wishes and 'Why can't it do this?' questions started to crop up as people became invested in the awesomeness of GNOME Do Docky and saw potential. Users wanted multi-dock docklet laden stack-happy 3D mode bars with compiz integration and cherries on-top.

Docky goes solo

If this was the Victorian era some mid-rate author would probably write the day Docky left GNOME Do down in a fit of pseudo-poeticism in order to preserve the fateful day€¦

€œThe sky darkened, clouds swam o'er and the lands fauna resumed foetal positions, in comfort for the oncoming storm. The day was lost in the sea of October two-'ousand and nine. The folks of Do village had littler prepared for their livestock a-turning€¦ A-turning into something shiny an' gay. Something with multiple glassy disguises an' the power to stride any-side of your display. An it got a postman-messenger who sat on it an told yee' of any forthcomin' post€¦ O'lord we prayed, let it be by thee name of Dockiee.€ 

Yep, we've reached the point where Docky €œleft€ GNOME Do and became its own application. It causes a ton of reaction across the blogosphere as people wondered what was going to happen to their precious dock.

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People needn't have wondered long, as we pinned down Docky dev Jason Smith for an interview to excise the answers needed! We even went all grandiose and named it €œThe Future Of Docky – Docky Creator Jason Smith Tells Us Why Docky Is Going To Get Even More Awesome€. You couldn't write that on a postage stamp!

Boy oh boy did Docky live up to Jason's word€¦

Docky Gets New€¦ (well, what doesn't it get!?)

Aside from a shiny panel mode, a slew of new docklets, multi-dock support, some application 'helpers'(Banshee control, tomboy control, etc), zeitgeist integration, 3D view, third-party theme support, gorgeously slick panel-painting and a ton of potential new docklets that take Docky even further into the realms of being a killer-app.

What is possibly left to come?!

I have no-doubt that 2010 will be just as fruitful for this incredibly young application and some of Docky designer Dan Rabbits' mock-ups are starting to become reality (grid view, pulseaudio), docklets will continue slipping through (there's an awesome Dropbox one on the way)

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And I’m sure we'll start to see some tight Compiz integration (with scale and thumbnails.)

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As always you'll find the latest Docky going's on here at omgubuntu.co.uk, so why not subscribe to our RSS or follow us on twitter?

[BTW, fact fans, out of 436 posts since this blog started €œproper€ in August, this is  only the 15th post on Docky...]

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

  1. Enable 3-D Mode In Docky [Updated]
  2. Official Docky Development PPA
  3. The Future Of Docky – Docky Creator Jason Smith Tells Us Why Docky Is Going To Get Even More Awesome
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  • Critic

    Oh I’m sorry. I must have typed the wrong address. I meant to go to OMG Ubuntu! But looks like I’ve come to OMG DOCKY!

    Happy new year anyway!

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      This is the 15th post on Docky out of over 200… and it’s the first of several other “look backs” that will be popping up today.

      • Anonymous

        My first thought was exactly with Critic above. I found this post superfluous since most of the Docky posts have been recently. Docky posts, great when we learn something, otherwise…Docky posts are 7.5% of all posts? And you think that’s not a lot?

        • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

          Not particularly. Docky only went “rogue” in October, this blog only started in September. Development has been really fast = lots of news = posts.

          Sadly though, you’re probably going to hate a little feature coming up in January >_<

          Most people like docky posts (judging by the amount of diggs they get compared to posts on other stuff).Regardless of whether it is a lot (i’ve probably blogged just as intensely about OpenShot or Google Chrome/ium) They don’t take precedent over any other news. I don’t put something else on hold just to write about Docky. If you subscribe in a feed reader you can easily “dodge docky” by not clicking a post with docky in the title.

          • Anonymous

            I like the docky posts! docky is by far the most modern and best new app of 2009!

            keep it up d0od!

      • kelles

        The thing is that there’s hardly any other app which you’d mention in more than 2 posts besides Docky. What about Cairo Dock? There never was a review of that…

        • Anonymous

          I agree, what about Cairo Dock? I don’t understand this focus on Docky when it’s still working towards what Cairo Dock already does. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that that there are a number of Ubuntu dock options, but why the intense focus on a single dock?

          Is it because of its fast development pace? I can see that OpenShot is rapidly on its way to becoming a friendly, feature packed editor, but its in an area in which Linux has largely lagged behind Mac OS X and Windows options.

          Despite being puzzled by this quirk, I love your blog — thanks

          • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

            Docky and Cairo Dock are two totally different kettles of fish – if you think mimicking Cairo-Dock is where Docky’s plans lay you’ll be surprised! But yes the development rate does have something to do with it.

            Docky has vision, potential and is above all else consistently designed, works incredibly well (no quirks) and looks gorgeous.

            I’ll be expanding more on this in a day or so, but if you’re just looking for a dock Cairo Dock is perhaps acceptable, but if you’re looking for integration, thoughtful design and a productive experience then Docky is the choice for you.

            I use this example quite a lot, but my sister can’t tell an operating system from a word processor. She uses Ubuntu (despite not knowing what “a linux” is – Cairo Dock is the type of application that should she use she’d be phoning me up asking why its crashing/doing x y x, with Docky i’ve yet to get a single phone-call DESPITE the fact it’s Alpha.

            Above all of that is the fact there is no sticker or disclaimer on this site promising that i’ll write about every application under the sun – i tend to write and follow the best..

          • kelles

            Yes, Docky and Cairo Dock are very different, but why not review it and stress what they’re doing right and wrong? In the end it will help to develop both (if the devs are willing to listen).

          • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

            It’ll be coming up in the next few days ;)

          • Anonymous

            I appreciate you taking the time to explain, and I look forward to your further articles on Docky. Please do write and follow the best, but it does sometimes help to understand how an app. is “the best” by comparing it to and distinguishing it from other apps. in the same class. I do read your blog to find out about the best, but why Docky was the best was eluding me. Thanks for explaining.

  • http://twitter.com/ahfornitani Augusto Fornitani

    Maybe drag and drop, too? Sometimes I need to drag a cover art to Rhythmbox. Afaik, there’s no other way to put images there, other than using gnome-panel or resizing windows till they get small enough, then I drag the image from the browser window (or other place) and drop it on Rhythmbox.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      That’d be a pretty awesome little feature – because the “cover-art on docky” doesn’t change often enough, and the fact i have very few albums i don’t have covers for, i’ve yet to see what the “no cover” icon looks like on docky – but being able to drag and drop a cover on to it to change it would be crazy good!

  • rAX

    Umm, unlike the others, I enjoy your posts about Docky, they keep me updated because I’m still an AWN fan, so it’s nice to know about other applications (but don’t overdo it :P).

    • Anonymous

      The one thing I miss from Gnome Do/Docky is the desktop switcher. I didn’t really use the Do part of the former marriage so much. I’ll be happy when I can completely replace the functionality of the notification panel with Docky.

      • rAX

        Let’s wait and see :)

      • Anonymous

        I agree with you on that one, I only have a little panel in the corner with the menu and notification area. I’d like to somehow have those integrated into Docky so I can just use that.

  • http://orkutcidio.deliriocoletivo.org Peterson Espaçoporto

    I’m currently using AWN because it is the only dock which can replace completely the panels. But I’d happily use Docky if it could replace AWN the way I use it now, it’s awesome.

  • http://ndrw.me AndrewNoNumbers

    “like the awful slow-dock Nvidia users suffered from”
    I realize this is talking about the original GnomeDo Docky, but I have an nVidia card and I’m using Docky 2.0 Alpha. And it’s painfully slow compared to GnomeDo Docky. It hasn’t bothered me much since it’s only an Alpha release, anyone else having this problem?

  • Mel

    Docky should be adopted by Ubuntu as it’s standard launcher/tray! Nah, but at least as the launcher since the devs at Ubuntu are working hard on Gnome’s crappy panel, I know they’ll come up with something cool.

  • Yi Sun-sin

    I like Docky very much but there is something I miss in the new version : the menus had a very nice curve at the bottom, that linked them to the icons they belonged to. The new squared version is not as pretty in my opinion.

  • Martini1179

    Now if only they’d bring back the application launcher, Docky would be more useful than aesthetic.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jesuszelda17 Jesus Galvan

    I like Docky and all but I can’t seem to be satisfied with any of the ways it has to work. First and foremost, it needs a compositor to run correctly. I have been able to run it without a compositor but this gives me a really ugly black “missing space” wherever Docky is placed (i.e. in the bottom of my screen) I have nothing against using a compositor except the fact that none of the compositors I have tried (which are most of the popular ones) seem to perform well for everything. With the Metacity built-in compositor it runs flawlessly but then my VLC videos and Flash render horribly fullscreen and even windowed. There is no “sync to V-Blank” option with Metacity’s compositor. With Compiz it runs really well but I still get an annoying (even if ever so slight) tear with my videos. Furthermore, Cooliris, a plugin for Firefox which renders photo libraries in a cool 3D “wall” works choppy with Compiz on. Docky runs laggy/choppy in KDE and only works if I have Desktop Effects turned on (again the compositor requirement). With Mutter and Gnome-Shell in GNOME Docky runs like the way it runs in KDE even though Gnome-Do Docky runs just fine with the same window managers. This could all just be an isolated case or a flaw in NVIDIA’s drivers since I have used their most recent drivers and even their betas. I own an NVIDIA 9800GT with the NVIDIA proprietary driver 195.30 which was just released last week for beta testers.

    Update: I guess it is my graphics card that refuses to work well with Docky in certain window managers =D Guess I should have read more before posting this long rant :D

  • http://code-saturne.blogspot.com/ Wayne

    I like Docky very much, however, unfortunately, for some reasons I have to use 9.04 rather than the latest 9.10. I don’t know why the PPA source of Docky doesn’t support 9.04. Do you guys think I have to compile it by myself? or by compilation it is actually, I guess, difficult to make it up-to-date everyday. Docky is still in development and as such I think update is very important. Any ideas about my difficulty? Thanks a lot :)

  • Navneeth

    Seeing that you are the biggest Docky fan I have found so far, could you tell where I can find the release notes for Docky? I installed Docky using the PPA, and I have searched their site for what’s new in each (daily!) update without avail.

  • dong

    I read in your post that nvidia-users initially had some issues with performance using docky.
    I am atm using the proprietary nvidia driver 173.14.22, because there’s no other nvidia-driver supporting my old geforce fx 5950 ultra and I still am experiencing awfully bad performance using docky (Docky 2.0.0-Alpha-1 bzr docky r1025).
    I am aware that this probably isn’t the right place to ask, but I did a lot of google search about this and was not able to find any solution. Is anyone using the same driver-version or the same graphics-card with docky who can help? I really would love to use docky. The thing I’m most excited about is it’s use of zeitgeist. Thanks for any help.