Ubuntu – How to Docky, AWN, Cairo Dock and Unity be compared?

awncairo-dockdockyunity

It would be very nice to see a comparison between features, icons and usability.

Best Answer

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:

enter image description here

enter image description here

Cairo Dock:

enter image description here _

AWN:

AWN own menu:

enter image description here

YAMA (has "Places" and bigger icons):

enter image description here

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:
enter image description here

But when you click on the icon, you will see:
enter image description here

Docky:
No preview:
enter image description here

AWN:
enter image description here

Cairo Dock:
enter image description here

Notification Area

Unity:
enter image description here

AWN:
enter image description here

Cairo Dock:
enter image description here

I wasn't able to find this feature for Docky but maybe it has it.

Monitoring:

Battery

Unity:

enter image description here

Docky:

enter image description here

AWN:

enter image description here

Cairo Dock:

enter image description here

Processor

Unity:

enter image description here

and

enter image description here
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:

enter image description here

AWN:

enter image description here

Cairo Dock:

enter image description here

RAM

Unity:

enter image description here

Docky:

enter image description here

AWN:

enter image description here

Cairo Dock:

enter image description here

Internet Connection

Unity:

enter image description here

Docky:

enter image description here

AWN:

enter image description here

Cairo Dock:

enter image description here

Hard Disk

Unity:

enter image description here

AWN:

enter image description here

Cairo Dock:

enter image description here

I wasn't able to find this feature for Docky but maybe it has it.

Dropbox

Unity:

enter image description here

AWN:

enter image description here

Cairo Dock:

enter image description here

I wasn't able to find this feature for Docky but maybe it has it.

Weather

Unity:

enter image description here
Click here to install.

Docky:
enter image description here

AWN:
enter image description here

Cairo Dock:
enter image description here

Date and Clock

Unity:

enter image description here

Docky:

enter image description here
When you click on it:
enter image description here

AWN:

enter image description here

Cairo Dock:

enter image description here

Clipboard

Unity:

enter image description here

Docky:

enter image description here

Cairo Dock:

enter image description here

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 .

enter image description here

Docky:
enter image description here

AWN:
This applet shows items related to what you are doing
enter image description here

Cairo Dock:
It is very beautiful and has lots of visual effects and configurations. Let's see some:
Sub folders
enter image description here

Widgets
enter image description here

Recent Events
enter image description here

Lightness on system

On average, this is what top shows me for processor (P) and memory (M) usage:

Unity:
P: 1 M: 0.4

enter image description here

Docky:
P: 1-2 M: 1.2

enter image description here

AWN:
P: 0 M: 0.3

enter image description here

Cairo Dock:
P: 0-1 M: 1.5

enter image description here

Final Overview

Unity:
enter image description here

Docky:
enter image description here

enter image description here

AWN:

enter image description here

enter image description here

Cairo Dock:
enter image description here

enter image description here

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

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