For 11.04 and earlier:
Unity does support custom launchers from .desktop files. To create custom launcher from a .desktop
file you need to create a *.desktop
file for your program.
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/name.desktop
The .desktop
file should look something like this:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=the name you want shown
Comment=
Exec=command to run
Icon=icon name
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
In your file manager open your home folder and navigate to:
(You may need to press ctrl+h to show hidden files to see the .gconf
directory.)
.gconf-> desktop-> unity-> launcher -> favourites
you'll see a bunch of folders starting with "app-
".
you need to create a folder for your program. Use the same name.desktop you used in /usr/share/applications
. Go into 1 of the folders for something that is already on the dock & copy the xml file and paste that into your new folder. Open it with your text editor and change the name of the *.desktop
to your name.desktop
.
Open gconf-editor (you can open gconf by running the command gconf-editor
in the Terminal) & go to:
desktop-> unity-> launcher -> favorites
Double click the list on the right & add your name.desktop
.
Log out & back in and you should see your launcher.
(thank you kerry_s on the Ubuntu Forums for helping with this answer)
Unity also has a feature called Lenses. By default, you have two in Unity: Applications and Files. In the future, you will be able to install and create a lot more. There is some info about that on the Ubuntu wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity/Lenses
Give a try to Cairo Dock, whose interface is easy to set up as you wish and its gadgets includes stacking with several fancy features.
Screenshot from my Desktop:
More screenshots from the net:
Parabolic style sub-dock:
Dock over dock style
Slide style sub-dock
Rainbow style sub-dock
Good luck!
Sorry, I forgot to mention the Panel Mode, which is cool, an illustration is placed here:
Best Answer
Ok, after googling around I found the answer. It's quite simple. The answer is a combination of the two answers above plus a few more. Open a Terminal and type the following command:
That's it. Now all the changes will appear for the new user. This worked for me. I tested the changes by creating a new user.
Note that this will not change the launchers for already existing users, just for newly created users.