When comparing DockbarX vs Synapse, the Slant community recommends Synapse for most people. In the question“What are the best app launchers for UNIX-like systems?” Synapse is ranked 9th while DockbarX is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Synapse is:
Synapse is pretty rock solid. Works as expected and launches applications fast.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easily customized
DockbarX has inbuilt settings that allow the user to easily customize the look of the dock, from changing the text color to the background color.
Pro Great plugin to help blend in to XFCE4 panel
DockbarX has an available plugin called "DockBarX Xfce4 Panel plugin" that allows DockbarX to blend in seamlessly with the XFCE4 panel, which is great for XFCE users due to the limited options of the default panel.
Pro Easily the best Win 7 taskbar functionality
If you want a combined launcher/manager, a la Win 7, this is it.
Pro Rock solid
Synapse is pretty rock solid. Works as expected and launches applications fast.
Pro Can run commands just as a terminal would
Users can run commands such as sudo apt-get update
from within Synapse, making for a convenient way to open or run items/commands.
Pro Zeitgeist powered
Synapse searches the Zeitgeist log, which tends to be a pretty quick way to do searches over other app launchers.
Pro Includes a Zeal plugin
Includes a Zeal plugin to make searching faster.
Cons
Con Not actively updated
Less than a dozen updates since 2014: https://github.com/M7S/dockbarx/commits/master
Con Synapse is an abandoned project
The latest release was 7 years ago and the Launchpad page is a ghost town
Con Unable to search whole system
Due to Zeitgeist being used the search is not as robust as if it were using Tracker. Of course using Tracker has its own downside like battery drain, so currently there is no "best" solution.
Con Bound to control+space
Due to this it interferes with common IDE layouts for recommendations. Modifying hotkeys file doesn't adjust this.
