[herbsman]

i recently got hired at a company and they gave me dell tower for my workstation. they gave me the option to choose between either windows xp or ubuntu for the OS. i pleaded for a mac but their policy is that macs are only for graphic designers. so i naturally chose linux over windows mainly because i'm going to have to do some command-line tasks to make things for my job easier.

but i will really miss having features like expose and spotlight which really gets my workflow in top form. i'm hoping there is someone here on the forums in a similar situation who has managed to modify ubuntu to the point where a lot of functionality from OS X is also there. there is no replacement for OS X of course!

[besson3c]

If your video card supports Beryl, there are several docks you can install.

I don't know of any Spotlight or Expose copies. Perhaps you can make multiple desktops a part of your workflow?

[patrix]

Check the Ubuntu forums, I vaguely remember a thread or two about that topic over there. I think there was an article on osnews.com too. There are a few expose clones for GNOME and KDE, never tried them to see if they work great or not.

Patrix.

[herbsman]

thanks all

[TheoCryst]

Beagle is a decent replacement for Spotlight. I can't speak for the Dock or Exposé, though.

[stuh84]

Most of the functionality can be gained through Compiz Fusion.

An expose clone is activated by default in Compiz Fusion, the dock you are best going for Avant Window Manager, use Deskbar Applet as an aside to Quicksilver, and as mentioned, Beagle for Spotlight.

I've owned Linux PC's longer than Macs (although I've been using Macs a lot longer, just couldn't afford one till a few months ago), yet I use them completely differently since I've been using OS X. Then again, my Windows PC at work has a dock, no taskbar, a quicksilver equivalent, and I did try at an expose clone, but it sucked.........

[besson3c]

I just wish Compiz/Beryl would work on the Radeon x600, which is the video card I'm stuck with.