Installing Wbar in Ubuntu 8.10

Wbar is a quick launch bar. It's developed with speed in mind and is highly tweak-able. It’s more than an application launcher, because It doesn’t let you “dock” programs, but it can launch useful number of applications.

So Why using Wbar anyway? because :

It's cool eye candy
It's designed with speed in mind
It's coded in c++ using imlib2
It's lite & fast
It's released under the General Public License (GPL), so it's free.

The best part of this little “dock” is that it doesn’t need a composite manager to run, such as compiz, etc. So it’s perfect to add some eye-candy if you are running low-end hardware.

So, Let's begin by installing it.

1. Download .deb file here

2. Run the .deb file to install wbar. Click "Install Package" to get started.

click for larger images

3. Before running the wbar application, there might be some consideration :

Wbar looks perfectly in non-composite manager condition. you can see the difference as follows :

with compiz enable (click for larger image)

with compiz disable (click for larger image)

So, it's recomended that any composition manager is disabled.

Wbar would not run optimally if it's placed above or under the panel, because some part of it is hidden behind the panel.

at the bottom position behind the second panel (click for larger image)

Wbar at the top position behind the main panel (click for larger image)

So, It's recomended if all panel placed at the bottom, while Wbar is placed at the top.

Wbar at the top position, and all panel at the bottom (click for larger image)

4. To lauch Wbar, Press "Alt+F2" and insert this code :

to refresh the Wbar view, just simply right-click at the Wbar area.

5. To get Wbar running from the start, just go to
System>Prefferences>Session