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Subject: Re: Early History of Mac OS X Dock
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2025 10:03:14 +1300
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On 2025-01-11 12:30:59 +0000, Liz Tuddenham said:

> D Finnigan <dog_cow@macgui.com> wrote:
> 
>> article by James Thomson January 4, 2025
>> https://tla.systems/blog/2025/01/04/i-live-my-life-a-quarter-century-at-a-
>> time/
>> 
>> ---
>> 
>> So, we are coming up on a little anniversary for me this weekend. On the 5th
>> of January 2000, Steve Jobs unveiled the new Aqua user interface of Mac OS X
>> to the world at Macworld Expo.
>> 
>> Towards the end of the presentation, he showed off the Dock. You all know
>> the Dock, it's been at the bottom of your Mac screen for what feels like
>> forever (if you keep it in the correct location, anyway).
> 
> I'm sorry to add a note of dissent, but the Dock was one of the main
> things which made me decide not to install OSX.  The Launcher and
> Windowshade were far more useful and intuitive - things stayed where you
> put them so your fingers always knew where to find them.  That is why I
> am still using a Beige G3 with OS 8.6 as my main office machine.
> 
> Before OSX, the Mac community used to ridicule Windows for having such a
> user-unfriendly interface where things disappeared and had to be
> chased-after to get them back.  Where you had to guess which icon
> represented what you wanted and then wait until the mouseover told you
> it was the wrong one.  Then OSX came along, with all those
> counter-intuitive things built-in and, worse still, refused to let the
> user remove them.
> 
> I have been forced to use an OSX machine for Web browsing, but it was
> driving me insane until I stuck the Dock where it wouldn't open by
> accident and then left an open file (which I called "Launcher") across
> the boittom of the Desktop with the icons *and names* of the items I
> most use parked in it in a logical order.
> 
> I hate the Dock with a vengeance, it has spoilt the Mac platform for me.

By default the MacOS X Dock stays visible all the time. You have to 
purposely choose to change the setting to hide it until the mouse 
pointer is close enough.

It is a Mac of course, so there are many other options for launching 
and using apps.

Depending on which version of MacOS X, there is also Launchpad (so you 
only have to remember one icon in the Dock), which displays all the 
apps with their names underneath the icons. Or you could simply leave 
the Applications folder window open in Icon View and/or put aliases of 
your apps on the Desktop.

Another option is pressing Command-spacebar and then start typing the 
app's name. If Spotlight's first choice isn't the correct one, you can 
keep typing more letters or use the arrow keys to pick from the options.