Ubuntu Linux has many eye candy softwares but all the dock applications available for Ubuntu do not match their counterparts in Windows. But, there is one dock application which works as smoothly as the compiz desktop effects and with perfectly smooth transitions as well. This software is available across many Linux distros.

Avant Window Navigator

With Avant Window Navigator, you can dock window lists, launcher and third party applications in the AWN dock which rests at the bottom of your desktop primarily.

As a windows list, it stacks up similar applications into the same icon, as an application launcher, it can let you launch applications, maximize, minimize with single clicks as if it were just another Window. You can also set the visibility of these windows to hidden of always on top. That way, it forms a complete replacement for the bottom panel in Ubuntu Linux.

This application requires a composition manager like Beryl or Compiz to function properly. It is also available for the Xcfe desktop environment.

You can also drag and drop applications on applications in the dock to perform an “Open with” operation. It has an excellent glass engine on the background. Written in C, AWN uses the GTK+ frontend to deliver sleek graphics and transition effects.

Currently AWN is available for Gentoo, Ubuntu, Fedora and for OpenSuse.

To install AWN on your Linux distro, go to the installation page here .