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Introduction
Avant Window Navigator (AWN) is a dock-like bar for Linux, which sits at the bottom of a user's screen and provides the user with launchers for their applications and keeps track of open windows. AWN is a very customisable piece of software with many themes, plug-ins and applets available.
AWN requires a composited environment in order to run. 
(Actually AWN runs fine with no compositing, you only need to enable it if you want use all the themes or nice effects like true transparency) Therefore, it is necessary to have a compositor installed and running (e.g. Beryl/Compiz/Compiz Fusion/X Compositing Manager/Cairo Compositing Manager).
Installation
Although AWN packages may be found in the Universe repository, it is recommended to install AWN from Personal Package Archive (PPA) maintained by the AWN developers so that you install the most up-to-date and stable version of AWN.
From the PPA
First add the repository to your software sources list. This can be done by opening the Software Sources dialog, System > Administration > Software Sources. Click on the Third Party Software tab, click Add... and paste in the appropriate line from the PPA page. For example, for Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex):
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/awn-testing/ubuntu intrepid main
and click Add Source.
Then, open Synaptic Package Manager (System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager) and install the following three packages: avant-window-navigator-trunk awn-manager-trunk awn-extras-applets-trunk
Launching AWN
There are two options for launching AWN:
From the menu: Applications > Accessories > Avant Window Navigator
Press Alt+F2 and type avant-window-navigator and press Enter.
AWN should appear at the bottom of your screen. It is best to remove the bottom GNOME panel by right clicking on it and pressing Delete This Panel.
Configuring AWN
AWN Manager needs to be running to edit the configuration, this can be done by right clicking the dock and selecting Dock Preferences or launching it from the menu via System > Preferences > Awn Manager.
All the settings for AWN can be found in the manager. Themes which can be downloaded from here and are installed by dragging the file you downloaded into the manager, highlighting it and clicking Apply.
See Also