Linux has long been known as a powerful, beat-down, eye-candy-less server OS with a few cult users on the desktop platform, but those days are coming to an end. Slowly but surly, the Linux community is creeping up on Windows Vista and Mac OS X in terms of desktop user usability. Admittedly, Mac OS X Leopard is still many miles in front of Linux in the race to usability, Linux is making rather fast jumps towards Vista.
One of these jumps is the Avant Window Navigator. or Awn for short. The application is intended to replace your bottom Gnome or KDE panel, and comes with support for launchers, the window list, a workspace switcher, a trash can and weather applets, and much more.
Awn attempts to mimic the Mac OS X dock, with a few extra twists. Instead of just bouncing, many other effects are supported, such as glowing, twirling, and squishing. The dock is theme-able, so you can get a theme to match the rest of your distro’s interface. Over all, Awn really can add some flair to your Linux desktop to compete with your Vista and Mac friends.
With the ability to add launchers and a main menu, Awn is almost a complete replacement for your Gnome panels. The only thing that remains lacking is support for a notification area – the system tray.
There are, as always with Linux, a few quirks.
- You’ve got to run a composite desktop for it to work. On Ubuntu, this is simple: Just go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance, click on the Visual Effects tab, and select “Normal” or “Extra.”
- While the Awn preferences manager shows support for adding launchers, it doesn’t always work. If you can’t add launchers from the Awn preferences manager, you can click and drag the .desktop file from Nautilus onto the dock. Chances are, most of your .desktop files can be found in /usr/share/applications, so you can navigate there in Nautilus through the Go -> Location feature of by pressing Alt + F2 and typing “nautilus /usr/share/applications”. You can click and drag any of those .desktop files directly onto Awn to add them to your dock. To reorder launchers, use the Awn preferences manager.
- Awn is still a beta product, some applets don’t work. If you add an applet and get a thin white bar, chances are it’s broken or your using the cocaine applet.
Overall, a combination of Awn and Ubuntu’s built in desktop effects can provide both more usability and speed then Windows Vista can. Linux is finally pulling ahead in the race.
In case any of you want to steal the theme I’m using, you can find it here: http://thelinuxmovement.blogspot.com/2007/09/ubuntu-human-theme-for-awn.html.
