How to not always show left Ubuntu Dock in gnome-shell?

Question

I installed a fresh Ubuntu 17.10 (GNOME).

Its GNOME Shell appears to have been modified to behave similar to the Unity shell, and hence on the left side panel I always see a panel (aka Ubuntu Dock) providing icons to start different apps.

I find it especially annoying with programs running in full screen windows.

How can I make the sidebar always disappear during normal mode?

I don't mind seeing it when in the "Activities overview" accessible by default through the super key, yet I don't want to see when I am on the desktop or in different apps.

I want to keep the title bar.

In the end, I am looking for a similar experience that was provided, if one switched to the GNOME shell on Ubuntu 16.04.

Solution 1

You can auto-hide the Ubuntu Dock by going to Settings > Dock and the toggling on "Auto-hide the Dock".

If you wish to have a pure GNOME experience, follow this Q&A: How do I get a vanilla GNOME after Ubuntu 17.04?

Solution 2

This solution applies for an ubuntu gnome desktop, tested in Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04

built-in solution:

Like stated in the post from @pomsky you can Auto-Hide the Dock in vanilla ubuntu.

Settings->Dock->Auto-hide the Dock

gnome shell extension

For me, this solution is not enough. I want to have the bar fully hidden. Like in a vanilla gnome desktop. To achieve this, I am using the Dash To Dock Gnome Shell Extension. Install it by pressing switch on the right:

Navigate your browser to this site to see all locally installed extensions. Note that this needs the chrome-gnome-shell package to be installed.

After successful installation, right click the dock and open the Dash To Dock Settings.

Here you will find the Option for Intelligent autohide. Enable it and go to the preferences:

In the following settings page disable both options:

• Autohide
• Dodge windows

That's it. No annoying dash popup anymore.