Windows 7 taskbar vs Mac OSX Dock

[kevin j]

Here's a review of the Windows 7 taskbar: http://i.gizmodo.com/5131933/giz-explains-why-the-windows-7-taskbar-beats-mac-os-xs-dock


Here's why:

- Expose works the same way regardless of the amount of windows you have, while Aero Peek breaks down once you reach the limit of the screen width.

- While Aero Peek gives you full size previews of your windows, a full size preview is not totally necessary if you just need to identify a specific window.

- Expose allows you to view all windows, or just the windows from one app. The new taskbar does not allow you to see all windows at the same time, while what it does allow you to do is still a slower process compared to Expose, requiring you to move the mouse down to the bottom of the screen, hover over the app icon, then hover over each windows preview individually, then choose. Contrast with Expose where you press a button or move to a hot corner (you do not need to specifically aim for a icon), you see the windows all together (rather than individually), then you click to choose.

It's certainly a great improvement, however combining the distinct functionality of an app launcher and window management into one feature has its limits. OS X's distinct implementation of these functions is overall more successful.

1.It is pretty unlikely that many persons would use 15 windows of the same application, even then only the thumbnail picture is lost (because it is in list view) but the functionally is still there. For example expose breaks down when there are many windows that are very similar in their look.

2.The taskbar also gives a thumbnail view as well so i do not understand your point.

3.I dont know why you would want display all of your windows but you can in Windows by stacking windows side by side (right click taskbar). I would also like to mention that Windows has the aero snap feature. The taskbar can show windows of one app of course. Hovering is not necessary if you change the default view by adding the text labels and it would resize it self intelligently. With expose you have use a hot corner or button, find your place in sea of windows and then find what you are look for. With the taskbar (text labels activated) you just move your mouse and select.

 

[stainlessliquid]

Here's a review of the Windows 7 taskbar: http://i.gizmodo.com/5131933/giz-explains-why-the-windows-7-taskbar-beats-mac-os-xs-dock

Turning the taskbar into an full blown app launcher does ring of similarities (I do think they took some 'inspiration' from OS X) however I see it as more of a combination of the previous quick launch feature, and of Vistas taskbar preview feature.

The Dock on its own might not be as useful as the new taskbar, however when you combine the features of both the Dock and Expose (which is a far more appropriate comparison since the new taskbar attempts to combine the feature of both), OS X's functionality tops it, in my view.

Here's why:

- Expose works the same way regardless of the amount of windows you have, while Aero Peek breaks down once you reach the limit of the screen width.

- While Aero Peek gives you full size previews of your windows, a full size preview is not totally necessary if you just need to identify a specific window.

- Expose allows you to view all windows, or just the windows from one app. The new taskbar does not allow you to see all windows at the same time, while what it does allow you to do is still a slower process compared to Expose, requiring you to move the mouse down to the bottom of the screen, hover over the app icon, then hover over each windows preview individually, then choose. Contrast with Expose where you press a button or move to a hot corner (you do not need to specifically aim for a icon), you see the windows all together (rather than individually), then you click to choose.

It's certainly a great improvement, however combining the distinct functionality of an app launcher and window management into one feature has its limits. OS X's distinct implementation of these functions is overall more successful.

Windows has Flip 3d, which is a crappy version of expose but still sufficient enough to get the job done.

 

[canucksfan88]

I've bee testing Windows 7 for awhile and it seems to me like the Mac OS X dock is better.
Copysoft fails once again.

well apple has copied its fair share.
apples GUI was basically copied from xerox's alto

 

[specialbuddy]

Windows has Flip 3d, which is a crappy version of expose but still sufficient enough to get the job done.

Flip 3D is ****. I'm still using XP and have tried Win 7. I really like it so far but Aero Peek and the Flip thing are still not as nice as expose. Expose is perfect. As far as the dock goes, I really don't think they are stealing from OSX. It looks similar to 95, 98, 2000, and XP except it doesn't say start anymore. It has thumbnails and quick launch icons but that's been around for a while. Win 7 is an improvement but the OSX dock is still better.

 

[kevin j]

Windows has Flip 3d, which is a crappy version of expose but still sufficient enough to get the job done.

alt-tab is much more useful to do this than flip 3d

 

[QuantumLo0p]

First there was the HP Visual User Environment...

Apple copied their dock from Linux who copied the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) of the big UNIX vendors who thought HP's dock in their Visual User Environment (VUE) what a pretty damn nifty idea. Phew!

I like the dock. A lot.

 

[Consultant]

well apple has copied its fair share.
apples GUI was basically copied from xerox's alto

APPLE HAD PERMISSION.

A certain other company did not have permission, but got away due to a technicality.

 

[notjustjay]

What's always funny about this is that the Windows fanboys will have been arguing for years that the dock concept sucks and the Taskbar is far better. Now that Windows is getting a dock-like taskbar, they're going to turn around and say how much better theirs is than in OS X.

 

[drichards]

Windows 7 looks much better than Vista but it doesn't impress me enough to warrant installing it with bootcamp.

 

[chewietobbacca]

What's always funny about this is that the Windows fanboys will have been arguing for years that the dock concept sucks and the Taskbar is far better. Now that Windows is getting a dock-like taskbar, they're going to turn around and say how much better theirs is than in OS X.

It. Isn't. The. Dock.

The only similarity is that they use icons and there's no text. Beyond that, functionality is very different.

 

[dkeninitz]

I've been using Macs at home since 2003, we have six or seven now. I use Windows on my work laptop, and just installed Win7 on my Mac Pro. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see any significant difference between the Win7 taskbar and the taskbar as far back as WinXP. It's nothing like the Mac dock IMO. I'll take the Mac doc anyday, and that's from someone who's otherwise fairly impressed with Win7

 

[EmperorDarius]

It. Isn't. The. Dock.

The only similarity is that they use icons and there's no text. Beyond that, functionality is very different.

IT. IS. THE. DOCK.

This simple representation should give a general idea:

It's the same thing, only that the windows are grouped into 1 icon.

 

[petvas]

This article makes for a nice reading:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/dock-and-windows-7-taskbar.ars
I don't agree with some things they mention but I respect Arstechnica and consider them to be one of the best technology sites.

 

[HLdan]

This article makes for a nice reading:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/dock-and-windows-7-taskbar.ars
I don't agree with some things they mention but I respect Arstechnica and consider them to be one of the best technology sites.

AWESOME FIND!! This will answer a lot of questions for people moving from Windows to Mac OS X.

 

[Topher15]

Apple are notorious for plagiarism - just look at their ads! I don't think any Apple fanboy should criticise Microsoft for alleged copying while not acknowledging that Apple is just as bad.

1.It is pretty unlikely that many persons would use 15 windows of the same application, even then only the thumbnail picture is lost (because it is in list view) but the functionally is still there. For example expose breaks down when there are many windows that are very similar in their look.

That's true, although it may often be the case with Photoshop, and that is an app where you really do need to see a visual. I say the functionality breaks down because although it technically still works, switching from a preview image to a text list is a big (negative) change in the feature and in my view a flaw. Regarding Expose breaking down, maybe a case can be made for the content in windows sometimes being hard to distinguish, however the actual feature itself is consistent. That being said, what windows will look too similar?

2.The taskbar also gives a thumbnail view as well so i do not understand your point.

3.I dont know why you would want display all of your windows but you can in Windows by stacking windows side by side (right click taskbar). I would also like to mention that Windows has the aero snap feature. The taskbar can show windows of one app of course. Hovering is not necessary if you change the default view by adding the text labels and it would resize it self intelligently. With expose you have use a hot corner or button, find your place in sea of windows and then find what you are look for. With the taskbar (text labels activated) you just move your mouse and select.

Well my point is that overall while Aero Peek is an improvement, I still think Expose it quicker, offers more and overall simply better implementation of window management.

It. Isn't. The. Dock.

The only similarity is that they use icons and there's no text. Beyond that, functionality is very different.

Well they also house running and closed apps next to each other, like the Dock. Essentially it's basically the Dock with an Expose-like feature added. While I think they took some inspiration from OS X, it is really just a combination of existing features: Quick Launch, the taskbar preview pain in Vista, and the taskbar group feature in XP.

 

[kevin j]

.


That's true, although it may often be the case with Photoshop, and that is an app where you really do need to see a visual. I say the functionality breaks down because although it technically still works, switching from a preview image to a text list is a big (negative) change in the feature and in my view a flaw. Regarding Expose breaking down, maybe a case can be made for the content in windows sometimes being hard to distinguish, however the actual feature itself is consistent. That being said, what windows will look too similar?

I was mainly try to point to the advantage that aero peek gives a full size view. I also agree that it is a bit inconsistent in behavoir.Windows that look similar tend to be from the same program but have text as a definitive feature. Webpages(try telling the difference between macrumors' webpages by using thumbnails),text documents and other programs that do not change graphically between windows.

 

[ChrisN]

I like the Mac OS X dock a lot, very simple and intuitive but I have to try Window's 7 taskbar and see how I like it.

ChrisN

 

[buddhaface]

The Windows 7 Taskbar is just a copy of Mac OS X's dock. Don't tell me it ain't!
All the new features are really a copy of the way the dock works..

People need to cut this crap about Microsoft copying OS X.

The original OS X Dock was a blatant (and not very good) copy of the Windows 95/98 taskbar with Quicklaunch. It was only until OS X v10.3 (Panther) that the Dock was complemented with Expose and made a little bit more functional. I remember cursing often at Jaguar's useless Dock (this was before Expose was created).

The whole Windows philosophy has been to avoid window clutter (think maximized windows), and to this extent, the Superbar continues along this philosophy remarkably well and is thus the opposite of the Dock. Windows 7 with the Superbar is able to handle dozens and dozens of open windows without the sense of actually having all those windows open and being overwhelmed by them. Now try that with Expose.

 

[Techguy172]

People need to cut this crap about Microsoft copying OS X.

The original OS X Dock was a blatant (and not very good) copy of the Windows 95/98 taskbar with Quicklaunch. It was only until OS X v10.3 (Panther) that the Dock was complemented with Expose and made a little bit more functional. I remember cursing often at Jaguar's useless Dock (this was before Expose was created).

The whole Windows philosophy has been to avoid window clutter (think maximized windows), and to this extent, the Superbar continues along this philosophy remarkably well and is thus the opposite of the Dock. Windows 7 with the Superbar is able to handle dozens and dozens of open windows without the sense of actually having all those windows open and being overwhelmed by them. Now try that with Expose.

Yeah, Your right, if you have a bunch of windows open with expose then it looks very overwhelming, I really like the way windows does it. Expose needs to quickly allow you to close windows.

With windows 7 when you hover over the icon it has a nice thumbnail but it also allows you to quickly close your windows and view them full size.

 

[Topher15]

I have to say, having installed and used Windows 7 last night it's far better than I imagined, but overall I still prefer Expose. Still, Windows is catching up.

Things I like:

- Like the fact that Aero Peek works with individual tabs in the browser, thats a nice touch (although I'm not sure how useful it would be for me as I usually have TONS of tabs open.)

- Being able to close windows from their Peek preview is another good idea, particularly if you want to close multiple windows. In OS X this would require running Expose, selecting the window, cmd+w to close, then repeat however many times needed.

- Full screen preview is nice, and subtle, compared to the big animation of Expose. Still, I find Expose a far quicker tool. I wouldn't say Expose is overwhelming, at least for me it isn't.

- It makes a lot of sense that windows (both minimised and open) are grouped with the apps icon in the taskbar. Compare to OS X where windows have no relation to the Dock icon (besides the contextual menu), and minimised windows are just dumped altogether at the end of the Dock. The majority of the Dock doesn't do anything other than open and close apps. Once an app is opened all it does it select an entire app, which has its uses, but is limited for multiple windows.

As a hypothetical, how could the Windows 7 approach work with OS X and the Dock? (i.e. associating windows with their Dock icon, rather than no association and being minimised to the end of the dock.) I'm thinking Stacks... clicking on the app icon in the Dock brings up a stack of all the windows for that app. Minimised windows could also be stored behind the Dock icon, rather than at the end of the Dock. Obviously, while this is using an existing feature, using it this way would be a blatant copy of Win7 (and something Apple should never do given the way they rip on Microsoft for alleged copying.)

 

[FX120]

I wouldn't worry, Apple will come up with some sort of overly-clever way of doing the same thing, then all the fanboys will claim that 7 copied the feature from Apple...

 

[deputy_doofy]

People need to cut this crap about Microsoft copying OS X.

The original OS X Dock was a blatant (and not very good) copy of the Windows 95/98 taskbar with Quicklaunch. It was only until OS X v10.3 (Panther) that the Dock was complemented with Expose and made a little bit more functional. I remember cursing often at Jaguar's useless Dock (this was before Expose was created).

You should watch the NeXTSTEP 3.0(?) demo on youtube that was out long before there was a Windows 95. The dock existed then. Apple's dock is merely an upgrade to that. Anyone who thinks the dock is a copy of the Windows 95/98 taskbar is merely a Windows user clinging to some hope that Apple copied MS there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j02b8Fuz73A

 

[notjustjay]

Thanks for the NeXT video link! I'd not seen that before. Wow, I'm impressed by how modern that workstation seems for 1992 (ish?). Almost ahead of its time. I skimmed the video, but you already see some of OS X's roots, including the dock, fast graphics, rich multimedia email, fast and robust networking, etc.

By comparison, consider what we "regular people" were using: my family had just bought our first PC, a 386 running at 25 MHz with a 52 megabyte hard drive. I ran with DOS 3.3 for a while before upgrading to DOS 6.2 and installing Windows version 2 (!) I was dialing up to BBS's (there were no "internet" providers yet!) on a 2400 bps modem. It would be years before I assembled my first home network using 10Base2 (coaxial) cables. At school, we were using Mac LC's running either System 6.0.8 or System 7.