Desktop Environments

Avant Window Navigator – dock-like bar

Avant Window Navigator (Awn) is a Mac OS X like panel for the GNOME Desktop written in C. In addition to launchers that can be dragged onto the bar, it features a taskbar that behaves similarly to the Mac OS X dock. The window navigator uses the composite extension for transparency and other effects.

It can be used for anything from the launching of simple programs to complex multi-tasking. This application compares to The Mac OS X dock in functionality, allowing the user to specify its position on the screen.

The look and feel are fully customizable, and theming support is also available.

Key Features

  • Based on the workspace concept, but the space is two dimensional.
  • Customise the bar:
    • Choose between two ‘engines’:
      • Glass engine. All the gradients can be changed to your taste
      • Pattern engine.
    • The border & internal border colours can be changed.
    • The ‘glow’ (the background of an active window icon) can be changed, to be as simple or as lavish as you need.
    • Choose between sharp or rounded corners.
    • Choose the text & shadow colour of the window title text.
  • Each time you move to a new, unvisited workspace, a terminal window is automatically launched, emulating TTYs’ behavior.
  • Delete an entire workspace, killing all the window launched in it.
  • Delete an entire dimension, deleting all the residing workspaces.
  • Order windows on the fly.
  • Proc-like interface.
  • Launchers.
  • Task lists.
  • Plugins:
    • Music software: Audacious, Rhythmbox, Banshee, Exaile, Quod Libet, and Amarok.
    • Internet software: Deluge,Pidgin, XChat, and Epiphany.
  • Awn Extras provides a number of important applets (not unlike the panel applets for GNOME and Xfce) in a single package, along with a number of plugins that allow applications to better interface with Awn’s task manager. These applets range from a Trash applet to fancy workspace switcher.

Website: github.com/p12tic/awn
Support:
Developer: Neil Jagdish Patel, haytjes, Miika-Petteri Matikainen, Anthony Arobone, Ryan Rushton, Michal Hruby, Julien Lavergne, Mark Lee, Rodney Cryderman
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

Avant Window Navigator

Awn is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.


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Read our verdict in the software roundup.


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Read our verdict in the software roundup.


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