Disable dock completely?

[anarchopath]

How does one disable the dock in Mountain Lion, in a way which will persist through shut downs and restarts? Preferably a terminal hack so I don't have to install anything. I've read ways for older versions, but I'm new to OS X and not sure what's the same.

For what it's worth, I use strictly Mission Control and Launchpad in tandem with a few unique gestures in BTT. This is the best UX I've ever experienced, and things like the Dock and Expose and Dashboard are redundant clutter, so I'm OK with losing that functionality as a side effect of disabling the Dock. Of course, it's kind of important to be able to restore the Dock (and the associated functionality like Expose etc.) if I ever need it, and to retain access to the Trash via something like a .app script.

Also, information on what exactly I'll lose by disabling the dock would be helpful. Thanks and looking forward to your ideas.

 

[justperry]

How does one disable the dock in Mountain Lion, in a way which will persist through shut downs and restarts? Preferably a terminal hack so I don't have to install anything. I've read ways for older versions, but I'm new to OS X and not sure what's the same.

For what it's worth, I use strictly Mission Control and Launchpad in tandem with a few unique gestures in BTT. This is the best UX I've ever experienced, and things like the Dock and Expose and Dashboard are redundant clutter, so I'm OK with losing that functionality as a side effect of disabling the Dock. Of course, it's kind of important to be able to restore the Dock (and the associated functionality like Expose etc.) if I ever need it, and to retain access to the Trash via something like a .app script.

Also, information on what exactly I'll lose by disabling the dock would be helpful. Thanks and looking forward to your ideas.

I found a way to do this, but my desktop picture is also gone after the first run.

What I did, first I tried to unload the LauchAgent, The Dock is an App as well as an agent, the agent (Dock) starts up through a plist file in /System/Library/LaunchAgents and it's name is com.apple.Dock.plist.

I could not stop the Agent with this command in Terminal:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.Dock.plist

So, I moved the file from it's Folder to one level up to : /System/Library/

I then restarted and gone is the Dock, BUT, as I told before the Desktop picture is gone and it's grey now, one colour.
Opened System Preferences to change the Picture but it does not help.
So, if you can live without a Desktop Picture go ahead.
I will look into it but don't think there's an easy fix.

Update: Did not find a solution to the desktop picture disappearing, I know from earlier OS X version that if no Desktop Picture is set or it can't find one it will default to, or the default build in Picture or to a grey background which contains 10s if not 100s small square one coloured images, if the last is the case you can't just replace it with a Desktop Picture of your choosing because it is much better.

Example, the grey background image is 100 pix x 100 Pix, you can't replace this with a 1920x1200 pix Image.

 

[anarchopath]

I found a way to do this, but my desktop picture is also gone after the first run...Example, the grey background image is 100 pix x 100 Pix, you can't replace this with a 1920x1200 pix Image.

Can or can't? Know how to? Also, know of any alternative ways of disabling the dock?

 

[anarchopath]

Workaround

Ok well this isn't a real solution, but it's an effective workaround. Further, it doesn't require any buggy bloatware, and is completely reversible—all with simple terminal commands.

1. Enable auto-hiding for the dock
2. In the terminal, enter a command that delays the dock from showing for 1000 seconds

defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float 1000 && killall Dock

It's a strange command that doesn't translate directly to seconds, and shows the Dock if you hover anywhere near whatever edge your dock is at. But with 1000 the Dock is, in practice, effectively hidden.

There are several ways to access the dock now, but the most convenient seems to be Launchpad or Mission Control. Thankfully, the combination of Launchpad and Mission Control (in tandem with the magic that is BTT) is probably the reason you have no use for the dock.

To restore default Dock functionality, enter the following in Terminal

defaults delete com.apple.Dock autohide-delay && killall Dock

 

[justperry]

Can or can't? Know how to? Also, know of any alternative ways of disabling the dock?

Haven't found a way, if the dock isn't active the Desktop Picture isn't active too, seems for now it is impossible to do so, tried to find something inside the dock which references the Desktop Picture but didn't find anything.
This is completely different than earller OS X version, well, up until 10.5.8 you could quit the dock and the desktop picture would stay.