stdout.

Avant window navigator is a Mac OS X like dock for your Linux system. It works as an application launcher/switcher, and also has a wide range of other apps for your convenience. It is also very easy to set up to boot!

Note: you must have a 3D compatible graphics card driver for this to function correctly. Also note that this guide is written with Ubuntu in mind; however the configuration setup should be largely the same for any distro.

Step one:

Type the following into your terminal:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator awn-applets-python-extras awn-applets-c-extras

Step two:

Open up AWN (Applications>Accessories>Avant Window Navigator)! This should load a dock at the bottom of the screen.

Now open up the manager (System>Preferences>Awn Manager) and it’s time to start configuring! I find that these are the best settings:

General Tab:

Show windows from all viewports
Auto hide bar when not in use
Keep below maximised windows when not in use.

I left the rest of the settings here default for now.

Applets tab:

These are the applets I added:

Showdesktop applet
Separator
Launcher/Taskmanager
Separator

I considered placing my recycle bin there too but decided to place it on my desktop.

Launchers:

Now time to set your launchers! Place your favourite/most used applications here. I placed Firefox, Evolution and Pidgin here. You may have different requirements.

Theme:

Finally the theme tab. You can download themes here:

http://wiki.awn-project.org/index.php?title=Themes
http://www.queervisions.com/arch/2007/10/awn_avantwindow.html

I chose the Ubuntu Human Awn theme from the first link.

Final product:

Posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 7:14 PM UTC in Linux | rss feed for comments| Leave a response, or trackback