Avant Window Navigator
Encyclopedia
Avant Window Navigator is a dock
-like bar for Linux, which sits on an edge of a user's screen and tracks open windows. Instead of representing open windows as buttons or segments on a bar, it uses icons to minimize screen space and add visual appeal. Avant Window Navigator was created by Neil J. Patel and is currently in the beta stages of development.
Both the appearance and functionality of Avant Window Navigator may be customized, and plugins and applets are available, such as to display the progress of a download in Mozilla Firefox
or to control a music player
like Rhythmbox
. The plugins use the D-Bus
IPC
system, and applets can be written in C
, Python
, or Vala
. There is a sister project, AWN Extras, which is a collection of community-contributed applets and plugins. Its releases are usually kept in sync with AWN.
One of the major requirements to run older versions of Avant Window Navigator is a composited
environment. Therefore, the user was required to install a compositor, such as Compiz
, which could tax performance on low-end systems. Some alternatives were to use Xfce
, which has a compositing manager since version 4.2.0, or to enable compositing in Metacity
when using GNOME
. However, support for non-composited environments is available in version 0.4.0.
Dock (computing)
The Dock is a prominent feature of the graphical user interface of the Mac OS X operating system. It is used to launch applications and switch between running applications...
-like bar for Linux, which sits on an edge of a user's screen and tracks open windows. Instead of representing open windows as buttons or segments on a bar, it uses icons to minimize screen space and add visual appeal. Avant Window Navigator was created by Neil J. Patel and is currently in the beta stages of development.
Both the appearance and functionality of Avant Window Navigator may be customized, and plugins and applets are available, such as to display the progress of a download in Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
or to control a music player
Audio player (software)
An audio player is a kind of media player for playing back digital audio, including optical discs such as CDs, SACDs, DVD-Audio, HDCD, audio files and streaming audio....
like Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox is an audio player that plays and helps organize digital music. Originally inspired by Apple's iTunes, it is free software, designed to work well under the GNOME Desktop using the GStreamer media framework. However, Rhythmbox functions on desktop environments other than GNOME.-Music...
. The plugins use the D-Bus
D-Bus
In computing, D-Bus is a simple inter-process communication open-source system for software applications to communicate with one another. Heavily influenced by KDE2–3's DCOP system, D-Bus has replaced DCOP in the KDE 4 release. An implementation of D-Bus supports most POSIX operating...
IPC
Inter-process communication
In computing, Inter-process communication is a set of methods for the exchange of data among multiple threads in one or more processes. Processes may be running on one or more computers connected by a network. IPC methods are divided into methods for message passing, synchronization, shared...
system, and applets can be written in C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
, or Vala
Vala (programming language)
Vala is a programming language created with the goal of bringing modern language features to C, with no added runtime needs and with little overhead, by targeting the GObject object system. It is being developed by Jürg Billeter and Raffaele Sandrini. The syntax borrows heavily from C#...
. There is a sister project, AWN Extras, which is a collection of community-contributed applets and plugins. Its releases are usually kept in sync with AWN.
One of the major requirements to run older versions of Avant Window Navigator is a composited
Compositing window manager
A compositing window manager is a type of window manager. A window manager is software that draws a graphical user interface on a computer display – it positions windows, draws additional elements on windows , and controls how windows interact with each other, and with the rest of the desktop...
environment. Therefore, the user was required to install a compositor, such as Compiz
Compiz
Compiz is one of the first compositing window managers for the X Window System that uses 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management. The effects, such as a minimization effect and a cube workspace are implemented as loadable plugins...
, which could tax performance on low-end systems. Some alternatives were to use Xfce
Xfce
Xfce is a free software desktop environment for Unix and other Unix-like platforms, such as Linux, Solaris, and BSD – though recent compatibility issues have arisen with regard to BSD Unix platforms...
, which has a compositing manager since version 4.2.0, or to enable compositing in Metacity
Metacity
Metacity was the window manager used by default in the GNOME desktop environment until GNOME 3, where it was replaced by Mutter. The development of Metacity was started by Havoc Pennington and it is released under the GNU General Public License....
when using GNOME
GNOME
GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
. However, support for non-composited environments is available in version 0.4.0.
See also
- Dock (computing)Dock (computing)The Dock is a prominent feature of the graphical user interface of the Mac OS X operating system. It is used to launch applications and switch between running applications...
- DockyDockyDocky is a dock for the GNOME desktop, very similar in functionality to Mac OS X's Dock. Originally it was an integrated part of Gnome Do, but the two projects separated in late 2009. It is available for distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE and Arch Linux.-External links:* *...
- Kicker (KDE)Kicker (KDE)Kicker is the main panel used in K Desktop Environment 3 and earlier. It can be customized by the user. By default, it has the K Menu, a Desktop Access button, a Home button, a Konqueror button, a Kontact button, and a Help button...
- GNOME Panel
- Mac4Lin
External links
- Avant Window Navigator at LaunchpadLaunchpad (website)Launchpad is a web application and website that allow users to develop and maintain software, particularly free software. Launchpad is developed and maintained by Canonical Ltd....
- AWN Extras at Launchpad
- AWN Wiki (contains, among other things, installation instructions and a list of FAQFAQFrequently asked questions are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be commonly asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic. "FAQ" is usually pronounced as an initialism rather than an acronym, but an acronym form does exist. Since the acronym FAQ originated in textual...
s) - AWN Forums
- Avant Window Navigator (AWN) Mac OS like Dock in openSUSE at susegeek.com
- Neil J. Patel's Blog
- Planet AWN (An aggregation of the developers' weblogsBlogA blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
)