Auto-extend dock to from edge to edge

nexter · **Posted:** Sun May 03, 2026 3:13 am

Nezbit wrote:

Winstep wrote:

...I just implemented the ability to extend the background of a dock...

I think some of the people that wanted to do this were thinking of the Cupo RocketDock skin by Guillen Design. There were also several other similar skins released at the time. When done properly, the look was quite effective.

I don't know that it would work for anything else though, other than an Ubuntu Style Sidebar that the OP was looking for.

Ugg-ly. (Apart from being a waste of screen estate!)

As for the Ubuntu "sidebar" - 1) it's called and is the dock. 2) It only occupies the whole of the side (or bottom) when fully populated - when it isn't it behaves just like Nexus, i.e., it only occupies what space is taken up by icons.

nexter · **Posted:** Sun May 03, 2026 3:34 am

vldto wrote:

Since the thread got so lively and there were quite a few replies, I guess I owe everybody one from my side.

First, I'm not going to pretend I know the difference between different UI elements. I guess you're right, Jorge, when you say that a dock is not supposed to behave like a taskbar. I guess I want a toolbar, or a sidebar, something that docks to the left side of the screen, and has some icons and applets in it. I now understand that Nexus is not supposed to be able to do this, since it's different in nature to the Ubuntu sidebar that I'm trying to mimic. Nevertheless, thanks for the understanding, and thanks for implementing the "stretch" feature in the application (I just read the message).

@nexter: I'm not a big fan of Ubuntu tbh, neither of Gnome (I don't dislike them, I simply don't feel either way about them). However, I think the idea of having a vertical toolbar that occupies space permanently is actually quite smart, given that most monitors (at least those that I use) are at least 16:9 and have much more horizontal real estate than vertical. But I still like the way the Mac dock (including the original Nexus look) looks and feels.

I did try to play around with shelves, a little, to see if I can get one to do what I want it to do. However, I opened the configuration file(s) for one of the skins and I was overwhelmed with the amount of options, so I simply gave up.

In the end, I did manage to create some kind of a Frankenstein combination of 3 overlapping docks, one using a heavily padded skin (both left and right) and the others not so much. The top dock has some launchers, the middle one contains only running apps, and the bottom dock contains some applets. The middle one overlaps the other 2 and is the only one that actually changes in size.

It looks quite nice TBH, but I suppose that there is room for improvement (I doubt that my creation is very tolerant to resolution changes), but this is the first iteration, the next one will be better, I guess. Screenshot attached.

That's about as ugly as can be. :/

As I said previously, the Ubuntu dock - which incidentally can be docked left, right, or bottom (left is the default) - is *not* a sidebar, and is based on Cairo, an early Linux dock. It will only occupy the full screen edge if enough icons are present. If there are more icons than screen edge, it simply scrolls, which is the optimal solution.

Nezbit · **Joined:** Mon Sep 19, 2022 6:08 pm **Posts:** 103

nexter wrote:

...it's called and is the dock.

I knew the moment that I typed "Sidebar" that you would reply with the correct term. I was just too lazy to look it up.

I haven't used Ubuntu since version 15.10 or so. I believe it was called the Unity Launcher back then, although I remember seeing the term sidebar in some of the forums.

I did install Ubuntu on an early (2015) 13 inch MacBook Pro for a neighbor last year. It ran unbelievably fast. It automatically installed a printer connected to Wi-Fi, and worked flawlessly. It also looked very polished. It gave new life to a MacBook that had reached its end of life. I might give it a try again.

The Cupo RocketDock skin served no purpose other than changing the look. It was something different in a sea of skins. To quote a wise old moderator, "whatever floats your boat".

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 13057

nexter wrote:

That's about as ugly as can be. :/

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I don't dislike it, for instance lol

nexter wrote:

If there are more icons than screen edge, it simply scrolls, which is the optimal solution.

Ah-ah! Caught you, you old purist, docks DO NOT scroll!

Nexus docks, for instance, will automatically reduce the icon size to fit (until a minimum of 16x16 at which point the dock simply gives up and lets you go beyond the screen edge if you are so keen on it lol).

nexter · **Posted:** Sun May 03, 2026 9:36 pm

Nezbit wrote:

nexter wrote:

...it's called and is the dock.

I knew the moment that I typed "Sidebar" that you would reply with the correct term. I was just too lazy to look it up.

LOL! Well, we can all overlook that, I'm sure...

Nezbit wrote:

I haven't used Ubuntu since version 15.10 or so. I believe it was called the Unity Launcher back then, although I remember seeing the term sidebar in some of the forums.

It's remotely possible that some newbs might have referred to a "sidebar", but no self-respecting serious Ubuntu-er would have. But yes, it was - and still is in the current Ubuntu Unity flavour - referred to as the Unity Launcher, or just Launcher. Which is a valid term really, as the original NeXT dock was exactly that, too - apps only, no folders; though the Ubuntu version added Devices - *nix speak for disks and partitions.

Nezbit wrote:

I did install Ubuntu on an early (2015) 13 inch MacBook Pro for a neighbor last year. It ran unbelievably fast. It automatically installed a printer connected to Wi-Fi, and worked flawlessly. It also looked very polished. It gave new life to a MacBook that had reached its end of life. I might give it a try again.

Yeah, Linux - and especially Ubuntu (and Fedora) flies even on pretty old hardware. One of my laptops dates from about 2012/13, with UEFI Bios updated 2015, and the speed is outrageous!

You might be amazed how smooth everything runs if you give it another go. It's an OS you work *with* instead of *against* as with Windoze, and the OS works with you and not against you.

Nezbit wrote:

The Cupo RocketDock skin served no purpose other than changing the look. It was something different in a sea of skins. To quote a wise old moderator, "whatever floats your boat".

Yeah, I can live with that.

Or, whatever gets you through the night. :lol:

nexter · **Posted:** Sun May 03, 2026 10:55 pm

winstep wrote:

nexter wrote:

That's about as ugly as can be. :/

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I don't dislike it, for instance lol

Indeed, you're not wrong there Jorge, beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder.

winstep wrote:

nexter wrote:

If there are more icons than screen edge, it simply scrolls, which is the optimal solution.

Ah-ah! Caught you, you old purist, docks DO NOT scroll!

LOL! Docks *DO NOT* 'shrink' a la Nexus either!

winstep wrote:

Nexus docks, for instance, will automatically reduce the icon size to fit (until a minimum of 16x16 at which point the dock simply gives up and lets you go beyond the screen edge if you are so keen on it lol).

Well, let's go back to the daddy of all docks, the original NeXT one, for a moment, shall we? It was limited to apps and a few system icons only - no folders, nothing. The Recycler was positioned rigidly at the end of the theoretical dock space, with a gap between it and the default dock. If the icons then extended to the Recycler, that was it - no 'shrinking' of icons, and no scrolling either. There was a third party app that let you add sub-docks in a limited way, and of course a third party additional dock, "Fiend". It's behaviour was similar to the OS-supplied dock, but allowed for sub-docks and supported a kind of virtual workspaces. But again, no 'shrinking' and no scrolling. (At least, if memory serves - though it's just possible that I'm mistaken and it might have scrolled. It's such a long, long time ago now!)

Anyway, the Ubuntu dock supporting scrolling, to be objective, is clearly the more elegant solution to limited space than shrinking the dock's icons. And it also 'wins' in not supporting folders and their ilk and thus remaining truer to the original concept of an app launcher, albeit with a few system icons in the form of devices, i.e., disks and partitions.

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Auto-extend dock to from edge to edge