Once upon a time, Linux dock apps were a rich, plentiful species, ranging from innovative ‘panel painters’ like GNOME Do/Docky to all-out bling-kings like AWN, DockBarX and Cairo Dock.
Yet it was the rather more humble Plank dock that proved most popular.
Thing is, Plank hasn’t had received any major development effort in years. Though it just-about works as-is, there’s scope for improvement, fixes and even a few new features.
One developer certainly thinks so, and has decided to do something about it.
Enter, Plank Reloaded.
Plank Reloaded: Plank Fork
Plank Reloaded is a new fork of the original Plank Linux dock, albeit with a twist: it’s focused on improving compatibility with the X11-based Cinnamon desktop environment.
“Like its predecessor, it aims to be the simplest dock on the planet, providing just what a dock needs and absolutely nothing more. It remains a library which can be extended to create other dock programs with more advanced features,” says its developer.
Plank (proper) is technically still maintained but it’s last major release was back in 2016, with only the occasional compatibility bump pushed out to keep the app ticking over (i.e., build and work on newer Linux distributions).
That upstream version is stale but it is also something of a stalwart: in use across a multitude of Linux desktop environments, distros, and setups by a great many users. Steering development of the original project to satisfy just one DE wouldn’t please everyone.
Which is a reason why forks happen.
Plank Reloaded is still Plank: the same APIs, Docklets, and theme system, it’s just focused on making those APIs, docklets, and themes work in Cinnamon.
In addition to static app launchers, Plank Reloaded improves on existing and introduces new Docklets, which let you add interactive or dynamic features to the dock:
- Apps – access a traditional app menu/launcher
- Battery – now with UPower integration
- Clock – now shows pop-up calendar on click
- Clippy – improved layout and text handling
- Separator – put divider between dock icons
- Workspaces – switch between workspaces
Plank Reloaded also offers new features:
- Option to anchor specific icons/docklets to the end/start of dock
- Option to zoom icons on mouse over (up to 400%)
- Option to set a gap between dock and the screen edge
Visually, the new ‘Matte’ and ‘Matte Light’ themes (based on the Arian Plank Theme) better ape the look of the modern Cinnamon desktop, though the default theme (a thin bar) remains most synonymous with Plank and likely preferred by long-time users.
Beyond that, Plank Reloaded offers bug fixes, stability improvements, and code clean ups. It’s developer has begun scouting feedback from users on what features they’d like to see added next.
Want to try Plank Reloaded?
If you use Ubuntu Cinnamon or Linux Mint and you want to try Plank Reloaded out, you can: it made its first public release recently, and a DEB package is available to download from the GitHub project page.
Be aware that Plank does not support Wayland, but as Linux Mint doesn’t default to Wayland yet, and Cinnamon’s own support for it a work in progress, that shouldn’t be an issue for the target audience.
Important: If you have the original version of Plank installed, remove it first:
sudo apt remove plank libplank-common libplank1
Then, download the latest DEB package from the project repo release’s page. Double-click on the DEB package to install it.
Finally, open Plank Reloaded from the desktop app menu and it will appear on the bottom of the screen (it can be moved) – just keep in mind if you your desktop has a bottom panel (as Cinnamon does) it will be hidden behind it, so adjust your desktop layout to suit.
To access Plank Reloaded settings, right-click on an empty part of the dock (taking care not to activate an item). A preferences panel appears with appearance, behaviour and docklet options, letting you reposition, re-style, and add extra items to suit your needs.
While testing in Linux Mint 22.1, Plank Reloaded worked reliably enough for me. It was great to see the battery docklet (incongruous icon provided by Mint-Y aside) working. The Applications docklet (app menu appears on right-click) did duplicate entries (a bug, soon to be fixed).
This is just the start.
With an active developer eager to revive and reignite interest in this app, and the possibility of Wayland support on the horizon (as Cinnamon’s own Wayland support matures), Plank Reloaded has a bright future ahead of it.