do people actually like the new OS X desktop?

[jvaska]

i'm excited to get OS X...in a years time or so...

but i can't stand this new taskbar thingy at the bottom of the screen? i've played with it quite alot and i don't want it. i believe, it is possible to keep the old OS 9 style desktop as well...

but...you tell me...do you like that taskbar thing?

it seems completely PC to me...seriously...and i can't stand pc's.

jv

 

[mischief]

I like the Dock.

Although I feel it needs refinement. See other Threads on this one. Get Tinkertool and really customize and use it for a while before dumping it.

 

[stoid]

I hear people talking about tinkertool all the time in relation to the dock, what exactly is it, and where do I get it??

 

[Taft]

Tinkertool

Originally posted by stoid
I hear people talking about tinkertool all the time in relation to the dock, what exactly is it, and where do I get it??

It basically lets you customize OS X in more ways than the default configuration allows. Its really handy.

It does not, however, change the basic way in which the dock works. If you're going to use OS X you should probably get used to the dock. If you really wanted to OS 9-ify your system, there are utilities available that will give you your apple menu and application menu back. Look on versiontracker.com.

Go here for tinkertool:

http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=11967&db=mac

Matthew

 

[Kela]

Shut up...all of you please. Look at this...working people with jobs have time to discuss the friggin TASK BAR of OSX??!! I cant believe this! :roll

 

[mischief]

Uh, I have BOTH the App menu and the Apple menu.

My system has not been modified to get them. It changed with X.1. Just stay updated and E-Mail Apple through the OS X feedback page at Apple's website with what you want changed. They DO listen. I've seen several of my suggestions encorporated, though I'm sure it was many of us all wanting the same change.

 

[mischief]

Originally posted by Kela
Shut up...all of you please. Look at this...working people with jobs have time to discuss the friggin TASK BAR of OSX??!! I cant believe this! :roll

Yeah, it's called "Having broadband at work."

Calm down Kela, we just have SERIOUSLY dull jobs that require a few seconds of relief every few minutes.

 

[trinitishwar]

I like the dock. I find that with a little work, ie adding some commonly used directories to the dock, that it is much more useful than the app switcher and the apple menu were in OS 9.

 

[evildead]

I love the Doc!

Before OS X came out and before I had a Mac that could handle it.. I was using A-Doc on OS 9. Its a little app that works like the OS X doc. I love the new face of Mac OS. And The doc is realy cool. If you dont like it... you can always just turn it off.... or at least I think you can. You can at least hide it so you dont have to see it.

 

[islygon]

Dock

I like the doc too.

I hide the doc so it does not clutter my screen, but when you drag your mouse down to the bottom, there it is.... Great tool for storing folders and apps that you use all the time. It is great.

I found OSX worked fine on my iMacDV 400, and it works even better on my new iMac 800 G4!

Great new OS, for Apple's great hardware.

 

[MacAztec]

Dock and 9

This is what I think. I think the dock is a wonderful thing to have. I dont like OS X Interface of colors. I think the colors are homofied, and the Apps are gay. I kind of wish OS 9 had a dock...

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

i started a thread just yesterday about the dock that no one really responded to besides myself, but here is the link https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2292/

the poll i found very surprising. ive been using osx since the dp4 days and i remember the overwhelming waves of complaint about the osx dock. people hated it. there are tons of articles describing various ways to "fix" apple's dock and numerous petitions to apple showing that people hated the dock and wanted to see some changes. Despite all the uproar for the beta testers and early adopters apple ignored all requests and suggestions and has left the dock unchanged.

ive learned to live with the dock, but i am in no means happy with it. like i said it has some very serious flaws. and frankly i think anyone who is content with it is simply living in ignorance much the same way peecee users live in ignorance. i have some very clear ideas of how the dock could function and what services it could provide and i am not alone. beta testers and early adopters bombarded apple with these suggestions for years to no avail. i suppose since i have been along fo the whole ride i have a unique perspective about what the educated mac community feels a dock's functiona nd features should be and am therefore unhappy with apple's impetant dock.

yes, go get tinkertool. but its not great. most of its worthwhile functions are not dock related. and all it really does for the dock is unlock a couple of features apple included in the os. nothing new, nothing improved.

if you really want the details though go to that other thread. i titled it dock gripes/suggestions included a poll and posted a picture of my dock and encouraged others to post pictures of their own. maybe you can get some ideas about what people feel, how people are using their docks, and what people actually want that apple and third party developers/hackers refuse to provide.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2292/

 

[CHess]

Re: Dock and 9

Anyone who's worried about the effects of OS X's appearance on their manhood can change the appearance setting to graphite instead of aqua and then change the desktop too. Gotta turn off magnification and make the dock small too... and best to turn hiding off, lest someone challenge you to come out of your closet

Oh, and better set your scroll arrows so that one is at the top and one at the bottom. You wouldn't want anyone to get any weird ideas about those two hanging out together. People might talk...


As for the dock being cool or not - I like it a lot. Looks cool, is very handy, and I don't have to do any mouse clicking to see what applications are running or which ones I have handy. On my TiBook, the screen is nice and wide, so I keep my Dock on the right side with hiding turned off. I also keep my applications folder in it, so I can just click on it and get a list of all my Apps. On another machine I made a folder containing aliases of both my OS 9 and X apps and have that in the dock so I don't have to go searching for ANY programs.

Anybody have any simple Dock tricks to make it more useful than it already is?

By the way, most of my windows buddies really like the dock and admire OS X. If anything is going to bring them to the Mac platform, it will be OS X.

 

[Catfish_Man]

I think the dock...

...is the best new navigation feature in quite a while (since spring loaded folders in fact, I want those back). I put all my commonly used apps on it, so now when I sit down at the computer I go click, click, click, and all three of my standard programs are open. In OS9 that would have taken 14 clicks (2 to open my HD, 2 each for the folders the programs are in, 2 each to open the program). Being able to tell what programs are open at a glance is nice too. If the dock didn't have hiding, didn't have size changing, and had to have the bouncing icons, I would hate it. As it is, I really like it (my hard drive icon is gathering dust, metaphorically speaking). One other thing, download Trash X. Having the trash in the dock is stupid.

 

[macfreek57]

to get the most use out of the dock you have to, as others have said, get rid of magnification and make the dock small. the dock needs to be more like the windows taskbar in that it needs to be fit to the width of your screen and not let anything get behind it instead of it constantly resizing and ME having to HIDE it to resize some windows. it is like apple not to do this in the first place but it really needs to be done and if it is will probably be an option. i use tinkertool to put the dock on the left side of the screen (a feature that should have been built in already easily accessable).

to make room for the new dock in screen size, apple should upgrade all of its monitor sizes a diagonal inch. yea!!!

 

[Newtonboy]

I like it...

Personally in 9 I used the launcher for frequently used apps. Now the Dock has replaced the function of the launcher. I just keep in small and off to the right. Plus the way the icons bouce really high as an alert is a nice touch I think.

Just my 2¢

 

[kansaigaijin]

the dock and aqua

in reply to the original post,
I quite like the dock now that I get used to it.
If you use OSX for a while and bother to figure out how it works and optimize it, I think you will be happy to ditch your old 9 desktop. When I have to boot into 9 or use classic I am happy to go back to X.
Also please don't refer to it as that task bar thing, there really is no comparison.

I put it (the dock)on the right side and hide it, and turn magnification off. Unless you want a Quicktime movie running in there!

 

[oldMac]

The days before the dock...

In the days before the dock (OS 8.6 for me, as I skipped 9 completely), I used to line up my frequently used application icons along the bottom of the screen. Folders and files that I was working with would line up in two rows on the right side of the screen underneath my hard drive icons.

And, of course, I would include an alias to my hard drive in the apple menu so that I could do quickly browse through the file system.

So... with the dock, not that much has changed for me.

I still have all my frequently used applications lining the bottom of my screen and my hard drive alias has now moved from the apple menu to the dock. And, it's much easier to change back and forth between applications than it used to be.

I love the dock.

What I miss is window shade (but not enough to pay for the shareware). Thank goodness that Stickies still have window shade capability.

 

[Gelfin]

You know, I've seen no indication that my operating system has a gender, or sexual attractions, much less sexual attraction to other operating systems of the same gender.

 

[dobbin]

This may be a dumb question, but what are these spring loaded folders that people keep refering to (see above).

Cheers & sorry for my ignorance.

Dobbin.

 

[Gloria]

Here we go again

We fear change, Change is bad.

9 is better than X
Horses are better than cars
Darkness is better than electricity (that demonic invention!)

& There I was, foolishly thinking Apple users were progressive-thinking, openminded people, keen to get their hands on new revolutions and eager to explore the wonders of the newest digital applications.

X is a brilliant OS. Ok, it's different, but aren't we supposed tot think different?

 

[eXistenZ_ng]

I have always used a control line module called handyman on my pre X mac Os's. It was (and still is) the best way to keep shortcuts for os 9 and lower

 

[kansaigaijin]

spring loaded folders (hey Dobbin)

Hello Dobbin!

springloaded folders! I think arrived with OS9,
(I am sure I will be corrected if wrong)
they were cool because you could put an item, be it app, extension, control panel, whatever, into its proper location without having to open all the folders all the way down to the level you want to get at, for ex. you would drag a downloaded driver over the startup drive while holding the mouse button down, the volume pops open, you drag to the next, and so on to the extension folder, and let go. When you let go all the windows close again so you don't need to clean up the mess you made opening all those windows. get it?
There probably are other cool uses for them, like I just realized you could. . .never mind. . .

 

[dobbin]

Thanks kansaigaijin !

That sounds cool. Before X on my cube, I was using 7.5.3 on a performa 6200.

I completely skipped OS 8 and 9 which means that for me, OS X is amazing in almost every way, but I think I might boot into OS 9 to have a play with some spring loaded folders

Returning to the topic of this thread - I like the dock but it does drive me mad when apps open up a window behind it and I have to try and carefully manoeuvre the window into a better position while the dock is hidden without bringing it back into view again.

Imagine if Apple decided to let windows get behind the menu bar at the top of the desktop. Well, they just wouldn't would they, so why let it happen with the dock??

Cheers, and thanks again kansaigaijin.

 

[kansaigaijin]

windows behind the dock

Hide it!

No that doesnt really solve the problem.
Steve J says to respect the dock, by which he means developers should control thier windows etc. I dont know how they should do that?

You can control the finder windows though,
Click the finder button in the dock, adjust the window to where you want it, and close it, then finder windows will open that way. Works best with two finder windows across your desktop on above the other so you can see all of both, that way you can move or copy files etc.
From a 6200 to a cube, a giant leap there alright, 6200, my mom has one. I know it well. Motherboard slides out on a tray. . .