Plank – A Lightweight Application Dock For Linux

There are a lot of different ways to launch applications in Linux.  You can use the menu system.  You can use the Run Dialog.  You can open a Terminal and type in the name of the program.  You can open the /usr/bin/ folder and double-click on the launcher inside.  You can create Panel shortcuts.
For computer users coming from Mac OS X, the lack of a Dock can be, if not disappointing, then certainly a little bit of a change.  Fortunately, Linux users have a lot of different Dock replacements, from Docky to Avant Window Navigator, but in this article, we’ll be discussing a brand new project, called Plank.

Plank, by its own description, is “Stupidly Simple,” and yet if all you’re looking for is a nice looking point-and-click method to launch your favorite applications, then it’s probably worth trying out.  When installed and configured, this is what it looks like.

elementary OS Review Part 2 – Default Applications

Web Browser: Midori

For instance, instead of Firefox as the default web browser, there is Midori.

Midori is a lightweight GTK web browser.  It offers compatibility with Netscape plugins (not to be confused with Firefox extensions), and although not installed by default, can use Flash and Java, and includes ad blocking software.
As lightweight as it is, however, Midori is still a fairly new project, and doesn’t have nearly the eco-system of extensions and addons as does Firefox, or even Google Chrome.  As much as Firefox has a reputation for being a memory hog and being slow or bloated, it felt much quicker than Midori.