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josinalvo
Asked: 2016-03-25 16:30:00 +0800 CST

A dock for ubuntu that has keyboard shortcuts for open programs

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I am looking for a dock application to replace the unity dock.

The nice property that unity has is that, once you open an application, you can access it via a keyboard shortcut. (as in the picture)

unity dock

What other dock applications have this same property?

shortcut-keys

3 Answers

  1. Cairo-Dock

    sudo apt-get install cairo-dock-core

    BY default press Super+Return (you can change this by configuration menu) to activate keyboard control. Then you can navigate by typing numbers.

    enter image description here

    If you want to change the shortcut for keyboard control: Right click on the dock - Configure - Configuration - Shortkeys.

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  2. Call me an i3 fanboy, I don't care :)

    My solution (no dock at all): You want a bit geeky, use the i3 tiling window manager. It is very customizable. I am using it and never regret the change. http://i3wm.org/

    A demo and start up guide here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1I63wGcvU4

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  3. synapse pictureYou can try synapse. It works similar to Unity to find apps or even documents. I typed "fir" and the list gets smaller as you type more. It is quite useful if you have Lubuntu.

    You can also install cairo-dock to get an Apple look and feel. 

    sudo apt-get install cairo-dock

    I could not get it to work from the standard repository. But this worked nicely.

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:synapse-core/ppa 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install synapse

    Try the suckless-tools package. It includes dmenu, which is ultra fast. You can set up a keyboard shortcut to activate it. Even the super key, but you may lose other super key functions. Install like so:

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install suckless-tools

    Then create a script called dmenu-run.sh which will generate a menu. For example:

    #!/bin/bash 
dmenu_run -b -i -fn '10x20' \ -nb '#000000' -nf '#ffffff' -sb '#d64937' -sf '#000000'

    Make the script executable, then make a keyboard shortcut as you wish, to call the script.

    This combined with cairo-dock is a decent combo I use on Lubuntu for the same reasons: I like to type to call my apps. dmenu is super fast too. Warning: it is geeky and ugly. This might be a stepping stone to Lubuntu or Xfce Desktop as well where fast matters more than looks. Xfce has a launcher dock at the bottom. Ugly, but fast. If you combine it with dmenu, you will be quite happy.

    You could also install Gnome Desktop which also has a typing launcher too via the super button. I think Gnome or Xfce will do the trick for you. Or combine either of them with Cairo if you want an Apple-like dock.

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