When comparing Mutate vs DockbarX, the Slant community recommends DockbarX for most people. In the question“What are the best app launchers for UNIX-like systems?” DockbarX is ranked 10th while Mutate is ranked 24th. The most important reason people chose DockbarX is:
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.
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Pros
Pro Has hotkey support for quick actions
Pro Allows users to easily find apps and files
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.
Cons
Con Latest commit eaa0637 on Nov 5, 2015
Con Not actively updated
Less than a dozen updates since 2014: https://github.com/M7S/dockbarx/commits/master