“Those of you who use Windows on a regular basis are undoubtedly very familiar with the taskbar that has been a part of the operating system since Windows 95. It has a variety of components, and although we’ve been able to work with it for quite some time, it’s by no means a perfect representation of what a taskbar should be. For example, if you have an abundance of open items sitting on your taskbar, they can begin to become crammed together, and when this happens, the buttons for each item start to shrink, and this causes any of the useful information that may have been contained within to become just another glob of goop on your taskbar,” Brandon Watts writes for OSWeekly.
Watts writes, “Windows XP does contain a feature called taskbar grouping that can group the taskbar buttons of several windows from the same application into one button, and this helps to some extent, but even with this approach, you’re still not getting the whole picture at a glance.”
Watts writes, “Aside from the taskbar, the dock presents open applications and frequently used programs in its own unique way. When you think of the dock, you probably think of OS X, however, the dock has been around longer than Apple’s latest versions of its operating system; and you can see this by looking at NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP. Apple’s version is so memorable because they redefined what a dock was, and they then launched it into the mainstream. Computer users suddenly realized that the Windows taskbar isn’t the only solution, and experimentation with this newfangled dock started to take place.”
Watts writes, “Personally, I prefer the dock to the Windows taskbar, and it’s one of the things that really drew me to OS X… it’s nice to look down at the dock and see, in a graphical way, how many e-mail messages and RSS feed entries are available for me to read. Instead of having to open the applications to see this information, it’s already right in front of my face, so I know what to expect. In certain cases, when an application is working on something, you’ll even see a graphical progress bar. It’s also nice to see a snapshot of the content of a window when you minimize it to this dock.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’d prefer a root canal to the Windows taskbar. We’re interested to hear your ideas on how to make the Mac OS X Dock even better and also how you use your Dock. For example, we run our Mac OS X Docks as small as possible, always visible, on the bottom, with magnification disabled (the text rollovers and our grouping and memories work for us to quickly locate what we need. The magnification, while pretty, tends to slow us down since hitting a moving target isn’t as efficient as a stationary one.) We also place folders and hard drive icons in the right side of the Dock on all of our Macs; why Apple doesn’t ship Macs with the hard drive already in the Dock by default is beyond us. We also use Dock separators; Apple should give us something like them as a built-in option. How do you use your Dock?
“MacDailyNews Take: We’d prefer a root canal to the Windows taskbar.”
Really?
I don’t like Windoze, but a Root Canal?
Docking can be fun, depending on who you are docking with. Remember to be careful of your Zune, though.
Magic Word- head
Really and for true
Benson – Your #3: Go to Sys Prefs, Appearance. You can choose to have as many as 50 recent documents shown in the Recent Items menu.
I think Apple should do something that involves the dock and spaces. For example, the dock icons could be grouped by which space they are in.
Dock on the left, almost as small as it will go with magnification as high as it will go. I must have the screen space but when I want to see the icons in the dock, I want them nice and big.
Task Bar is just horrid..
what id like is the ability to drag a file onto the finder icon in the dock and that to open the finder.
i have my dock quite small, with a small amount of magnifyi for feedback. sitting at the bottom.
Id like the mail icon to display bigger numerals for the amount of emails in inbox.
I also use the right side to have shortcuts to networks.
“Id like the mail icon to display bigger numerals for the amount of emails in inbox”
Carlo – try ‘MailCountX’ http://www.squeaksoft.com/ it places a nice big number in the menubar showing how many emails you’ve got in your inbox.
On the bottom with just a little bit of magnification. I keep my most used programs in the dock at all times. I access my favorite AV programs thru buttons in finder. I dont’ use them that often, but when I do, I want to be able to see and choose the ones I want quickly, without having to go thru the finder. I suppose I could create a folder of aliases, but for now this works. What I would like is a separate dock, that when I open audacity or MtR it will show a dock that has the others ones I use as well. I have a feeling that might be part of leopard tho – cause different spaces require different docks.
Dock is on the right side of the screen with shortcuts to all applications that I commonly use in it. However, at work I do have shortcuts in the taskbar for all my programs that I use. I never use the start button in windows. Too many levels to go through to get to anything. Although, I do find the dock to be more helpful with the information it provides over the windows task bar. However, if I could get expose in windows my job would be so much easier. Unfortunately, the 3D application switcher thing that is supposed to be in Vista doesn’t look to be useful; cool looking, yes but not useful.
I have to admit I find the Windows Taskbar superior to OSX dock. The dock is clunky, unintuitive, and obtrusive. Until OSX develops something comparable to Windows Start Menu, I will consider OSX lagging. I still can find a way to locate and launch apps with snap. The APP folder on the dock takes 2-3 seconds to respond to a click before it expands. It doesn’t cut it, and it never will. I think everything should launch from the blue apple, much like RECENT ITEMS. My 2 cents.
I seem to be a little different here- I sorta like the dock and use it alot, more like a login app launcher (which I do not use) in that I have a small core of apps that I want on at most times, and there they are together to click on. I do want, desperately, to have a simple way to quit the damn thing, because I _don’t_ use Dashboard, at all (is there a way to totally disable it?) and I hate having to open up Activity Monitor just to stop all the damn widgets from opening up. Yeah, I suppose I could just take out all the damn widgets…, but that wouldn’t stop Dashboard from actually opening. Otherwise, I keep it on the bottom, where it fills the space, and use a slight magnification, just to let me know I’ve actually moused over the right app. I use Cleardock to remove the _very_ unsightly background. In fact, if I couldn’t transparency the Dock, I don’t think I’d actually use it.
I have my dock on the left side, pretty small but with magnification turned on. The Dock is always visible, and only shows currently running apps. I use a DragThing dock with multiple tabs to organize my apps, folders, and files.
The icon-based OS X Dock is a great addition to Macs and a vast improvement over the Windows Taskbar, but Apple’s Dock is overburdened. So, I use the Dock for applications only and the invaluable Dock Separators to organize Dock applications into categories. However, I also use Unsanity’s FruitMenu/Application Enhancer “haxie” to elegantly display and organize all OS X-related Utilities in the Apple menu! No Utilities are in the Dock, opening it up for more apps or larger icons! My Apple Menu Utility aliases are organized as follows:
About This Mac
10.0.1.5 (Network ID)
Location>
– (Line Separator from FruitMenu)
Software Update
System Preferences >
customize FruiteMenu
– (Line Separator from FruitMenu)
A/V HDTV Utilities > (folder)
Chat Utilities >(folder)
DAs > (folder)
Graphics Tools > (folder)
– (Line Separator from FruitMenu)
OS X Utilities (folder)
Network Utilies (folder)
Disk Utilities (folder)
Utilities (folder)
– (Line Separator from FruitMenu)
Automater
AppleScript
Backup
Carbon Copy Cloner
iSync
– (Line Separator from FruitMenu)
Recent Applications > (limited to 5)
Recent Documents > (limited to 5)
– (Line Separator from FruitMenu)
System Services > (popup for Force Quit, Sleep, Restart, Shutdown)
Log Out
The FruitMenu-powered Apple menu restores OS 9-like functionality to OS X. It can be used to customize the Apple Menu, Contextual Menus and Application Menus, but limiting it to just this one function alone is worth the minimal cost and it turns the Apple menu into what it should be — a launch pad for all OS-related Apple tools. Setting up Fruit menu with aliases is a manul process and can be a bit tedious, but once you do this, FruitMenu utilizes a Preferences pane to customize menus and this works very well. Better still, FruitMenu has survived all OS X updates so far, (including 10.4.8). However, I did have to add Unsanity’s free Menu Extra Enabler (v1.0.3) so that FruitMenu wouldn’t interefere with the tiny menu extra icons I’ve turned on for the top menu bar.
I wish Apple would purchase this technology from Unsanity so that power users could choose to further customize their systems like this…
I have my dock on the left, reduced (but not minimized) in size, and pinned to the upper-left corner of the screen. This keeps the application icons in a fixed location; icons that are added dynamically grow the dock downwards. I also have a folder of application aliases for the subset of apps that I’m more likely to use (besides the handful of app icons that permanently reside on the dock). I’m not yet desperate enough to install a haxie which puts the apps in the Apple menu.
At work I have my Windows taskbar on the left also — so that the Start button is at the upper-left corner of the screen — like the Apple menu.
Claudio, I have one response to 8 out of 9 of your “Ten” most notable reasons why the OS X Dock sucks: What??? Eight out of nine of your ten complaints is user configurable – Get off of Windtoes and start learn’n something about your Mac dude.
I use the Doc and a Haxie called WindowShade to manage my windows. I use a tiny little bit of magnification in the dock, animation turned on, and auto-hiding engadged.
My only real wish for the dock is that it could be moved anywhere on the screen.
Dock on right edge of screen instead of bottom. A very small amount of magnification to high-light where the mouse cursors is pointed.
Added Applications folder to Dock, to allow easy click-hold (or right-click) access to all apps, not just the ones “on” the Dock.
Added folder with aliases to all my hard drive volumes (including networked volumes such as my iDisk space). This allows easy click-hold (or right-click) access to all files and folders. I copied and pasted the icon for a hard drive onto the folder holding the aliases, so that it would look appropriate on the Dock (not look like a plain folder).
That’s about it. I can access any app or file with one click.
I have mine at the bottom with a minor degree of magnification. Too much magnify and it gets too crazy whipping wildly! The words are the most useful when you mouse over.
I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.
Be a man. A root canal without anaesthesia. Or a spinal tap.
The Dock should be optional. i preferred the old MultiFinder.
Since editing the Apple menu is no longer an option, I use Unsanity’s FruitMenu to create a categorized Alias folder. I know one can place an Alias folder in the Dock, but the Dock is so slow I always end up yanking the folder off the Dock.
Taskbar and Multifinder FTW!
F the dock.
The best and easiest way to switch (or switch-hide) between apps was taskmenubar.
An OS X version is needed.
I keep my dock medium-sized with max. magnification on the bottom. I only keep frequently used apps on the dock like Mail, Camino, RapidWeaver, Xcode, Keynote, Pages, and a few utilities.
How about a LOCK icon on the end of the dock so items can’t be accidentally removed. Is there any easy way to lock the dock?
I keep my dock on the right edge and always visible with no magnification. Programs tend to open on the left side if the dock is visible there it hides some of the program. I feel the right side is the most unused piece of real-estate. On the right side it does not hide the hard drive icons. I place applications in the dock that I tend to drag and drop and item on to use. I use Safari and keep FireFox in the dock then just drag and drop the link on the icon to open it in FF. FireWorks and iPhoto so I can drag and drop a pic on the icon to launch. I use the Function keys for my most common programs, Safari, Mail, Word…. and I could not live with out LaunchBar or QuickSilver. I keep a few every day or work in progress folders at the bottom of the dock.