I am at the moment using "plank" on my desktop to see if it can replace "cairo-dock", especially with an ultralight 32bit Elive version in mind.
Found there are some minor tweaks that can be done with the "plank --preferences" command. Or hold CTRL and right-click on the dock.
On top found an existing python program called "planksettings" which doesn't as of yet work due to an import error concerning Gtk (gtk3).
Will look into that later (prolly a complile setting).
Here's what it looks like for now.
Glaring omission is of course Elive Menu. hint,hint,nudge,nudge @Thanatermesis 
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cairo-dock is not so light, but it features many extra goodies, which is a good thing for a more "simpler" desktop like e16 
Agreed but cairo (as you stated yourself) is fairly RAM hungry so plank might be better for a 32bit (light) version.
Replying to myself 
I solved the import problem. Now there are others like not connecting to dbus.
The optional extra settings are not very spectacular so not putting anymore energy in that.
"tint2" is a viable option too.
Very easily configured and themed and as a pro: light on resources.
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if in live mode, try loggin-out to relogin in the desktop, 3.7.5 includes a dbus verification before to continue with the boot (that should only affect to live mode)
Bumping up this thread as maybe relevant again for E16 Retro release.
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Ok, as said before cairo-dock is much more featured and for sure preferred, BUT since is memory hungry could be a good option to have one of these as alternative (if the user just wants a beautiful app launcher), for example on the installer from when the machine is detected to have low resources
now we need to look for a candidate, we need to know how much memory they consumes and the features that offers (plank, tint2... other candidate? old engage? lol)
a simple way to see "how much ram takes" is by watching conky while one or other is running
I think plank is not worth, uses gtk3 and the ram consuming is like 25 MB (almost similar as cairo-dock so...), but tint2 instead is extremely light (only 3 MB? hum), the icons launcher is not so beautiful but i don't think is too important if we are searching for a lighter alternative
renamed title of thread removing "plank" as the candidate for the alternative 
That would make a very strong case pro "tint2".
The offered themes are fairly soso but undoubtedly there's a community somewhere that's dedicated to theming it. 
If they can't be found we'll have to do it ourselves with IMO a launcher (even if only "kupfer") as a major must-have.
to replace kupfer is also a good alternative 
(it takes a few MB too)
Even if they have a fast machine...some people hate cairo.
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oh, why?
which reminds me that in fact we don't need it in the installer and we can provide this option directly on the new desktops creation step (where you select if you want to have cairo-dock, conky, and composite)
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My cousin thinks it looks too "Mac-like"...but tint2 really doesn't look like mac.
And i didnt realize that you could uninstall cairo.
I think we should have this in the installer. it wastes disk space (I know not much, but there are people like yours truly who are completely stupid and have a 16gb partition for linux and use a usb everywhere else)... thoughts?
Mucking about with "tint2" as a panel I came across quite a few themes.
The point is that Bunsenlabs uses a more recent version of tint2 than Debian does (so maybe we should do that too just did that from their git repo, doesn't really differ much) to allow for all themes to run well.
As a starter/launcher "kupfer" is not very nice but "rofi" isn't at all bad.
I added it to tint2 with the elive starter icon and themed it to comply somewhat with the excellent E16 retrowave theme.
It (rofi) does require some getting used to and what you see in the screenshot is what you get when clicking the starter icon. Typing will help find apps.
I suspect "rofi" itself will be very configureable allowing for simpler menu-like options and maybe even icons.
Else we could use "xdotool" to have the menu but there's no real reason to have that as clicking anywhere will do the same....IMO it has to differ, unlike in E24.
If we can agree on "tint2" as a viable lightweight "cairo-dock" replacement, I wont mind throwing more effort into it's theming and applications......and maybe create a separate thread for theming "tint2".
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Did a totally fresh install on my (broken) Helix2 Thinkpad and put 3.8.13 on it.
Using solely E16, the retrowave theme, changing the pager to my liking (I'm no lover of those 2 pagers down under), a simpler background and Kicked "cairo-dock" for a customized "tint2" panel.
Here's what I get (with Firefox running): only 830Mb RAM usage. 
@muhibbij Any Ubuntu version would've been at 1G RAM or more.
IMO we should be proposing something like this: A minimal, light desktop desktop with all the extras a full desktop provides, if wanted. Not competing with gnome-desktop or KDE nor on the other end i3 but give all that's available .... just a click or 2 away, definitely not "in your face".
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Nah, Cinnamon runs with 768MB,
with PaleMoon around 830, too - just btw.....
Anyway,
I like your setup 
Well done 
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Shhhh, you're advertising for ubuntu!
Mhm, Cinnamon runs on Debian, too 
I clearly wrote FF not palemoon ..... compare that.
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well, hating Mac is a personal preference and I think there's more likes than dislikes 
in any case, back to the docker topic, the last version 3.8.19 uses the software-based rendering instead of GL (and without asking), just for compatibility / safety among different hardware, it doesn't consume more cpu (in fact is safer than gl) but I have see a minor visual difference, which still nice looking
About Tint2, the thing is that cairo-dock is very well featured (have we all tried all the launchers / options that are included by default? ), while tint2 is just a basic launcher (if I'm not wrong), and that's important since e16 may lacks some extra features, let's say for example if you plug an USB you have a notification and you can open it from there, a clipboard history (so multiple copy-pastes), volume control by scrolling the icon, custom launchers, music control...
The bad thing about cairo-dock is that consumes some amount of RAM (I think removing launchers makes it lighter, but...)
So Tint2 can be a good alternative for those who wants a simple dock with nothing more, or especially for the low-resources computers (I didn't tested the ram usage of both btw), the bad side is that maintaining 2 launchers is a little more difficult, but I think that can be a good thing to:
- in the low-resources feature of the installer (only appears if low resources) ask if to replace cairo-dock for this one
- ask it in the "composite / cairo-dock" window in live mode if the computer has let's say less than 2 GB of ram
And maybe a future "very light" special version of elive could be good to have (that requires some work but could be nice, I just don't know how / where to do that, maybe as a subproject of elive )
