How To Use Glx-Dock/Cairo-Dock On Ubuntu 12.04

Yeah, go ahead and add Cairo dock to Ubuntu. What you end up with is a cluttered desktop mess! Why would anyone want launchers in Unity's unholy mess and also along the bottom in a dock? On a sane distribution using a traditional desktop paradigm, I can see it; otherwise no. Just use Mint.

After testing Unity and Gnome-Shell for about a month or two I have to say that Unity is the better desktop in my opinion. I think Unity multi-tasks better, has better visual indicators of open windows/applications, and handles dual monitors much more effectively.

That being said both take a backseat to KDE, Xfce, LXDE, Fluxbox, OpenBox, Icewm, etc.

I use Cairo-dock with KDE now (used to be gnome). I hide the KDE panel, as well as autohide Cairo-dock. What I'm left with is more screen real estate. Plus, KDE very handily permits forcing certain apps to certain virtual desktops,... and Cairo-dock plays with that as well nicely. What I'm left with is something that vaguely resembles a cross between a Windows desktop and a Mac desktop, but easily exceeds both.

For my X86 tablet machines,... I include a second Cairo-dock for selecting screen rotation and on-screen keyboards. In the one with a resistive screen, I include Cellwriter, for "inking." All very nice... On one machine, I have virtual box installed with an X86 build of Android.

It's all very slick, but at the same time functional. Translucency helps navigate open app windows, and use the in screen keyboards, having both a traditional panel and Cairo-dock helps me get my apps fast and efficient. I strip KDE of unnecessary bulk and it behaves well, even on a lowly EEE PC 702 (w/ 8GB SSD & 1 GB RAM). Of course, that machine is for email, communication, light surfing and using home automation interfaces only... Very kiosk-like.