Take the tour ×

I think the title explains itself quite well, but gotta put content. :)

So basically, how could I achieve Mac OS X's dock-like experience. Where all the apps are there sitting, but when you open them they show there's one of that app open. And when you minimize it it's just an icon in the dock.

That and the menu bar on top. I don't mind if all the apps have a menu bar, would be nice if they didn't, and that was exactly like on OS X but it's not necessary. Basically I need a thin bar that's always present, which shows basic info like time and lots of other crap I'm gonna add myself.

Any help is appreciated. :)

share|improve this question
Try a combination of cairo dock and tint2. –  terdon Apr 18 at 23:12
@terdon I'll check that out. Thanks! –  Greduan Apr 18 at 23:43
What shell are you using also...? –  AthomSfere Apr 19 at 0:26
@AthomSfere I'm using Zsh. I don't see how that's relevant though? –  Greduan Apr 19 at 0:38
add comment

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I don't know of amy way of having an OSX style menu bar. For the dock, the most OSX-like ones I know are:

These are my two personal favorites but there are quite a few others out there. See, for example, here.

The top bar you are describing (not menus, just a place where you can have information like "time and lots of other crap I'm gonna add myself") is called a panel. They used to be standard in most window managers but have fallen out of favor lately. My favorite is:

  • tint2 : Highly configurable and lightweight with some advanced features (image from here, tint can be placed on any edge of the screen):

    enter image description here

As with docks, there are many panes available, see here for some examples.

share|improve this answer
That's the answer I was looking for. I was aware of both of these, but wasn't able to find any good examples myself. Thanks! –  Greduan Apr 19 at 13:33
add comment

If you are really looking to put the top global menubar like the mac, you'll need to find the appmenu-gtk, appmenu-gtk3 and appmenu-qt packages (likelly in AUR) and also get yourself the appmenu applet for whichever panel you prefer between the gnome3, kde, xfce or mate panel component (you probably find those in AUR as well). Then you need to run the panel component and add the appmenu applet to it (along with any other applet you wish to use).

share|improve this answer
add comment

Your Answer


