Pop!_OS and Ubuntu both contain an application dock on the left side of the screen. In Pop!_OS, the dock is only visible when the Activities menu is open. In Ubuntu, the dock is always visible. By installing a GNOME extension called Dash to Dock, you can adjust this preference, move the dock to the bottom of the screen, and more.

Dash to Dock on Pop!_OS

To install Dash to Dock on Pop!_OS, visit the extension's page in Firefox.

If you see a purple message at the top about GNOME Shell integration, click the link to install the Firefox browser extension, then click the blue "Continue to Installation" button, and finally the blue "Add" button.

After refreshing the web page, you should see an On/Off switch at the top right of the page. Click the switch to toggle it to the "On" position.

On the resulting pop-up, click Install to download and install the extension.

At this point, Firefox can be closed. The dock will display on the left side of the screen.

To customize the dock's settings, right-click on the "Show Applications" button and click "Dash to Dock Settings."

In the Dash to Dock Settings window, you can choose which screen edge to display the launcher on, such as the bottom of the screen:

You can also choose to extend the dock into "Panel mode," which looks similar to Ubuntu:

Dash to Dock on Ubuntu

Ubuntu includes a lightweight version of Dash to Dock, which is why the dock already displays on the left side of the screen by default. When you enable the full version of Dash to Dock, it will override the built-in version.

To install Dash to Dock on Ubuntu, you will first need to install the "native host connector," which allows Firefox to install and remove GNOME Shell extensions. This component is installed by default in Pop!_OS, but it is not installed by default in Ubuntu. Open a terminal and run this command to install the native host connector:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

Enter your password and press "y" to confirm if necessary.

Next, visit the extension's page in Firefox.

If you see a purple message at the top about GNOME Shell integration, click the link to install the Firefox browser extension, then click the blue "Continue to Installation" button, and finally the blue "Add" button.

After refreshing the web page, you should see an On/Off switch at the top right of the page. Click the switch to toggle it to the "On" position.

On the resulting pop-up, click Install to download and install the extension.

At this point, Firefox can be closed. The dock will now display on the left side of the screen, but not in Panel mode.

To customize the dock's settings, right-click on the "Show Applications" button and click "Dash to Dock Settings."

In the Dash to Dock Settings window, you can choose which screen edge to display the dock on, such as the bottom of the screen:

Moving the Application Launcher in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS includes its own dock as part of the Unity desktop environment. If you'd like to put the dock at the bottom of the screen in 16.04, enter this command in a terminal:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Launcher launcher-position 'Bottom'

This will set the dock to the bottom of the screen:

To reset the position of the dock to the left, run this command:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Launcher launcher-position 'Left'