Cairo-Dock For Linux

Cairo-Dock (also known as GLX-Dock) is an open source and free dock-like application for your GNU/Linux desktop environment and operating system. It comes with many applets, uses the Cairo and OpenGL libraries to render nice graphics with hardware acceleration, it is highly customizable and it comes with a lot of ready-to-use themes.

A dock can be used on any Linux kernel-based operating system to modernize the desktop environment, make it more attractive and usable, in the style of the interface of the Mac OS X operating system.

Cairo-Dock is a sophisticated software powered by a state-of-the-art plugin architecture, which allows users to add functionality and customize it as they see fit. Its looks can also be customized via themes, which can be created by users or downloaded from the Internet.

Cairo-Dock implements a vast amount of standards and protocols, including Desktop Entry Specification, Desktop Menu Specification, Startup Notification, Window manager specification (X11 EWMH and ICCCM), as well as the system tray protocol.

The desktop base directory spec, Ubuntu's indicators, Ubuntu's Launcher API, Ubuntu's Global Menu, StatusNotifierIcon, MPRIS 1&2 and RSS protocol are also implemented in Cairo-Dock.

Cairo-Dock supports a wide range of interfaces, including Compiz, GNOME-Shell, Zeitgeist, KWin, Cinnamon, DisplayManager, ConsoleKit, logind, systemd, desktop notifications, accounts, UPower, kernel stats from /proc and screensaver.

At the moment, the project is compatible and has been successfully tested with several open-source desktop environment, among which we can mention GNOME Classic (GNOME 2), MATE, LXDE, Xfce, Cinnamon, as well as various window managers, such as Openbox, Enlightenment and Fluxbox.

It is compatible with many distributions of Linux, from which the user can easily install the latest version of the Cairo-Dock using the default software repositories. Both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware platforms are supported at this time.