Show HN: Docking – Extensible Linux dock in Python

Show HN: Docking – Extensible Linux dock in Python(docking.cc)

26 points by edumucelli 44 days ago | 18 comments

Hi HN,

I’ve been having a lot of fun building Docking, an open-source dock for Linux written in Python with GTK 3 and Cairo. It includes an extensible applet system, 38 built-in applets, 12 themes, multi-monitor support, auto-hide, and works across several Linux/X11 desktop environments.

It also has prebuilt releases for x64 and arm64 across multiple package formats: AppImage, .deb, RPM, Flatpak, Snap, Arch, and Nix outputs.

GitHub: https://github.com/edumucelli/docking

Feedback is very welcome!

proxysna 42 days ago |

heuh https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=docking

szszrk 41 days ago | |

Words have many meanings and we somehow don't change old ones because someone used them in dirty context.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docking_and_berthing_of_spacec...

edumucelli 40 days ago | |

Haha, I am not native speaker as you can imagine. The idea here is more of a space ship/rocket docking into a base.

proxysna 40 days ago | | |

Hehe, yeah i understand, just something that popped up. Great project!

jitl 41 days ago |

X11 only is a bit of a bummer although I’m not surprised - i don’t think i’d target Wayland either for this sort of thing if i was a happy x11 user already.

yjftsjthsd-h 41 days ago | |

I'm actually curious about that - this seems like something that should at least partially work through XWayland? Blindly speculating, it might not work against existing windows, but I'd expect things like system monitors and launching apps to not care.

edumucelli 40 days ago | | |

To be honest, I am not sure, I will be working on those as the next big thing for Docking. I am uncertain of how much I can achieve on Wayland. Looking forward.

edumucelli 40 days ago | | |

Tested today, most of it works using XWayland. Some applets won't like windows killer as it uses xkill, also some feature like window preview as Wayland do not give access to other screens, but also features like having the dock follow the mouse across different monitors.

edumucelli 40 days ago | |

Yes, indeed. The next I will be working with is Wayland. Let's see how hard that will be. I am sure there will be applet that I will never be able to port like Window killer that users xkill, etc.

h1fra 42 days ago |

very cool project with a very unfortunate name

edumucelli 40 days ago | |

The rocket docking into a base was the meaning, regardless of the other usages :-)

acrophiliac 41 days ago |

Error installing from .deb: Dependency is not satisfiable: python 3.10. So I have to downgrade from 3.12 to use this?

edumucelli 40 days ago | |

I have a tentative fix on the way https://github.com/edumucelli/docking/commit/7ddcdeae42e8277... -- the deb file will be arch specific now as well

edumucelli 40 days ago | |

Thanks, I will fix that one and get back to you

nsonha 41 days ago |

You have a customizable bar in your DE, put everything you need into that bar, why a second bar?

edumucelli 40 days ago | |

I do not have a bar that I can put everything I want, so I created it, as many other developers have created a dock bar, just like MacOS has its own, etc, et.

nsonha 40 days ago | | |

MacOS has a dock because the menu bar it has is useless. Very few Windows users install this kind of dock app because the taskbar is NOT useless. On Linux, most DEs allow you to customize the bar. I use quickshell and gnome, but kde or polybar same.

People make software to bloat other people's computers, that's true

functionmouse 42 days ago |

lollll