Redesign Gnome for a better looking desktop

Unfortunately, we'll need to add a couple of repositories to Synaptic to get the better version. With Synaptic open, go into Settings > Repositories and look under the Third Party tab. Click the Add button, select Binary from the Type drop-down menu and enter the following piece of text in the URI space: http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu

In the Distribution space, type 'hardy', 'feisty' or 'gutsy', and in Components type 'main'. Click on OK and the close the Repositories window. Back in the main Synaptic window, hit the Reload button, then select Search and enter AWN as the search string.

From the results, select the most recent version of AWN (0.3.1 at the time of writing) and also select awn-extras-appletstrunk, which should have the same version number. Hit Apply and wait as the software is installed

The dock of the bay

AWN can be launched from Applications > Accessories > Avant Window Navigator. When it's launched a sparse OS X-style dock should appear at the bottom of the window and the configuration toolbox should open. If the toolbox doesn't open, right-click on a blank space on the dock and select Dock Preferences.

There is a lot going on inside this toolbox, so we'll go through the most important jobs here and leave the more esoteric options as happy surprises. The main configuration sections are listed down the left of the window. Selecting one of these will display options or more tabs on the right Click on the General section.

In here we can ensure the application starts on launch (a good idea), hide the bar when it's not in use, and make it so that ordinary windows don't go into the dock when maximised – basically making applications aware of the top of the dock.

We can also choose one of the many 'hover' effects for icons, which will change the icon on the dock in some way to make it clear that the mouse is on top of it. OS X has its fisheye-type magnification, but there are quite a few different ones in AWN – LXF is particularly partial to the Spotlight effect, which puts a shaft of light over the icon when the mouse hovers.

The Task Appearance tab enables us to define the text labels that appear on hovered-over icons and also to add a small arrow beneath active applications. The Bar Appearance tab, meanwhile, allows us to set the colours and borders of the dock background.

There's also a 3D Look checkbox which, when clicked, will angle the dock into the screen so the icons look like they're sitting on it, complete with reflections. You can also give this 'platform' rounded edges and, under the Glass Engine tab, change its opacity.

Add more apps

There are many different small programmes in the Applets section, which you can add to the dock. Select one from the list and click the Activate button. The selected applet will shift to the bottom section of the window and appear on the dock.

To remove an applet, select it from the bottom and hit Deactivate. One of the useful applets is the Stacks Applet which can display the contents of a folder in different ways, including the OS X-like fan. Once you've added a Stacks Applet, right-click on it and select Preferences to define the folder it should relate to. You can add as many Stacks Applets to the dock as you like.

The third section, Launchers, provides tools for adding any application from the system to the dock. As we're retaining the main Applications menu on the top bar, the dock will be home to our most frequently used applications.

To add an application, click on Add, provide the requested details, then click on the icon button. If you don't know these details, do System > Preferences > Main Menu, find the application in question, right-click on it and select Properties to see the required values.

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