Cinnamon option to look like a dock?

[eugenialoli]

I'd love for a Dock mode, that auto-resizes. Basically, when such an option is selected, the panel becomes a mini-panel (like a dock), centered in the screen, that auto-resizes when more icons are added.

Also, please redesign a bit the panel settings window, it doesn't fit on 1366x768 screens (I have 4 such laptops...). Thx!

[100savage]

To tweak your panel settings take a look at this https://github.com/orgs/linuxmint/discussions/374

[eugenialoli]

I don't see how this helps me. This is about the system settings window, not about the cinnamon panel.

[Hilyxx]

Plank is a good alternative for users that want a dock. This app is light and is able to auto-resize when more icons are added.

[eugenialoli]

Plank is not stable. I just need Cinnamon to auto-resize. I don't think that this is too difficult for the devs to implement, and it would add dock functionality to the OS, which is a feature that a lot of people are after.

[ChrisHonegger]

I've been using Plank for quite a while and I like it. However, there is no Wayland support. Therefore, it is no future option.

[leonsk29]

Plank is unmaintained, people need to move to Plank Reloaded (https://github.com/zquestz/plank-reloaded). But others are right, having this functionality natively would be nice, since Wayland is coming and no dock is Wayland-compatible yet.

Oh, and native blurred transparency would be nice, too, like COSMIC's "frosted glass" effect.

[100savage]

It also works for the systems settings. I'm only trying to help you and you come off as rude to me. If you don't want suggestions don't ask for help.

[eugenialoli]

I didn't actually ask for a hack that gets overwritten every time you update cinnamon. I asked for an officially supported feature, that has a gui in the panel window. I want this to exist for all users, not just a one-time thing for me. It's a feature request, not a question.

I came to this page after following the links of Linux Mint's github page (from their bug report page) for "feature request". If this is supposed to be a forum instead, I apologize, but I was lead to believe that these are the feature request pages.

[Jopp-gh]

Well for new users (I include myself) Mint isn't exactly the same as the commercial OS's we were exposed for years.

I think suggestions / feature requests are always helpful. On the other side, there are more experienced users who try to help and maybe have great alternatives.
These helping people shouldn't be seen an obstacles that try to downvote feature requests.

Mint is continually improving. Still, developers have priorities what's really important to implement. Also, coding isn't simple and requires context-aware knowledge.

I also had a nice discussion because I wanted and still want a workspace related dock. Example, to show in workplace "office" just office apps and nothing else, like online apps, etc. Meanwhile I use workspaces and open apps with the cinnamon main panel, some few apps are in my panel. This works for me right now and my feature req isn't my main concern anymore. If the developers have time and see the value of my request it will be implemented.

After a initial period of confusion I feel now pretty much at home on Mint

[eugenialoli]

I've been using Linux since 1998. I simply wanted to post a feature request. As for Mint continually improving, it is, but the actual Cinnamon panel received only a handful of commits in the last year here on github. It's not exactly thriving or expanded in any way. It's now considered "it's what it is". That's stagnation in my opinion.

[Hobson318]

I would like to see this issue raised again. To add the ability to resize the panel's horizontal width. I use an ultra-wide and have moved the applets to the center but the system icons are still way over in the corner. ZorinOs has this option built in. So the code to do this exists already. I don't want to hide the panel and use a dock to fix an issue that shouldn't be hard to implement. It's being done elsewhere. I know the devs have priorities but this should be an easy one since mint and zorin aren't that far apart from each other. I just don't know how to do it. Please and thank you.

[ghost]

I think the best way to implement this is to have "floating panels". If you go to panel edit mode and add a panel, you can only add panels that stretch along one side of the screen all the way to the end. A "floating" panel could be pinned to the middle or side of an edge, and be designed to be "elastic" where it grows and shrinks depending on the contents. I could foresee it being easier to still only have one panel per edge.

I think you can use the existing panel system, just have a setting where you can set it to span, center align, left/top align, or right/bottom align

Attached is an example of two floating docks, one pinned to the center of the bottom edge for apps, and one pinned to the right of the top edge for the utility icons. both would be treated as auto-hide or intelligently hide

[BeatLink]

KDE has a really good implementation of this.

[BeatLink]

Now that Cinnamon is becoming more stable on Wayland, this issue is growing more important. The wayland architecture means that certain variables and functions that docks rely on (such as window size and positioning) are only available to the compositor. Its why plank-dock isnt able to be supported on wayland.

The functionality is mostly there in Cinnamon with panel autohide and the left, center and right zones for separating applets. All that's needed is some CSS to make the panel transparent in areas where there aren't any applets.

[agentl074]

I second a native dock option. For me, Plank had issues, and while Cairodock works fine, a native option would create less fuss. Maybe a dock mode that extends the existing panel -- much like MacOS or Gnome does this?