Update April 20, 2010 : Actually the new applets are not less than earlier AWN, I haven't install  awn-applets-python-extras when I wrote this post, I thought it would be automatically upgraded when I upgrade from 0.3 to 0.4. Sorry, my mistake.

Avant Window Navigator is my favorite dock. Docky is good, but the absence of Main Menu applet is the deal breaker (or am I missing something here?).
The latest version of awn is 0.4 and will be included by default in Lucid Lynx (10.04) repository. For earlier Ubuntu, it has to be added manually from here.

awn 0.4 configuration window

On the good side AWN 0.4 has :

• better auto hide mechanism,
• looking better look awesome,
• flexible dock placements and arrangement, other than in the bottom of screen, it's a good thing for people with dual monitors setting as you can place the dock freely.
• auto-grouping opened applications, but it comes with consequences
  
• more options to tune awn to your liking
  

The bad side :

• the auto grouping mentioned on the good side works when the applications grouped are actually have a same name. but for Wine and Prism applications it comes out messy. All Wine applications no matter how different they are, will be grouped as one application.
  There's an option to customize how much the matching factor (in advanced tab -> Task Manager -> Matching Strength), 25 will do, the Wine apps will be un-grouped alright, but they will shared same icon, and it looks confusing . On the other hand if grouped they will have their own icons when you expand the grouped icons.
  
  
  
  
  

  On the left hand side, the Facebook icon shows there are two grouped applications, actually they are two different Prism applications. On the right hand side there are 3 same icons used for 3 different Wine application. To group or not to group, tough choice.
• less dock applets than earlier awn (but it will grow, I believe)

Overall awn 0.4 is a good version especially if you can live with auto grouping issue until the fix arrive and limited applets for now.

keyword : awn 0.4, ubuntu 9.10, karmic koala