Dock Or Taskbar?!
- Thread starter ~~NeYo~~
- Start date
nkuvu
Gone
I believe that these are just icons -- you can find them (Mac versions, anyway) at xicons.com. Here's a link to the search results: http://xicons.macnn.com/search.php?form_type=search&keywords=lawn&author=
I don't know how to install them on OS X, but I guess you wouldn't need those instructions anyway.
I don't know how to install them on OS X, but I guess you wouldn't need those instructions anyway.
hazmat
Rusher of Din
Chill out and realize how ridiculous you sound. I've been using DOS since 4.01 and Windows since 3.0 and all my favorite programs on it have had nothing to do with Mac OS other than the fact that maybe there were also versions (read: ports) for it. Let's see. I still wish a browser on OS X would perform as well as IE does for Windows. One of my favorite all-time apps is SecureCRT. Nothing I have seen on the Mac can compare for SSH. I would be the happiest person in the world if I had a replacement for Terminal.app that worked like SecureCRT. I have some mpegs that Quicktime completely screws up. Any other app plays them fine, but I had to dig hard to find one for OS X, and the only one (VLC) is very choppy. Media Player for Windows, and any other, besides Quicktime, plays them without flinching. Overall I am really happy with OS X and love the Unix environment with a great GUI, but as much as I try and keep quiet when people here bash Windows for absolutely ridiculous reasons, sometime I can't. All OS's do some things better than others. Face it. Accept it. You'll sound a lot more intelligent once you do. There is no one perfect OS, but some suck less than others.
one thing you don't knwo where i come from. i did macxp and help run aqua-soft.org that was what we did . we converted like every osx icon and port it to xp. same with themes and progs. its jsut a shame like you see on www.neowin.net how people convert stuff without permission these days.
simX
Unofficial Mac Genius
Originally posted by ~~NeYo~~
...which is For you, and "WHY"!!!
...What advantages does one have, over the other?!
NeYo
If you can even think of comparing the Dock to the taskbar, you are seriously delusional.....
1) The Dock is 1000000x more beautiful.
2) The Dock can magnify, while retaining many items, so you can always figure out what it's holding, unlike the Taskbar where you have to expand it to use half your screen to read the headings on the things in the taskbar.
3) You can't issue commands from the taskbar like you can from the Dock.
4) The Dock can hold everything applications, aliases, documents, folders, web URLs, minimized windows whereas the taskbar can only hold minimized windows and a few shortcuts.
5) The Dock gives you visual feedback about applications. If they are dimmed, the app is hidden. If there's a black triangle underneath an app's icon, it is open. If it's bouncing up and down continuously and regularly, it's currently launching. If it's bouncing and then coming to a rest with littler bounces, the application wants your attention. Some apps like Mail.app have badges that allow you to quickly see how many unread e-mails/IMs you have in that application.
6) All open applications appear in the Dock, and you can issue commands to all of them. This contrasts to the taskbar where you only have minimized apps/windows in the Dock.
Need I go on? I think it's obvious that the Dock is so much better, and there is no comparison at all between the taskbar and the Dock.
By the way, one look at my avatar, and that's all you need to know.
hazmat
Rusher of Din
simX, I'll give you most of that, but I need to comment on some. The Dock is definitely more beautiful. And for me more functional, at the cost of more screen real estate. I love the access to each app's open windows in the Dock. It wasn't until XP that MS gave you that, but as I commented in another thread, unless I'm missing something, as I haven't played much with XP, the taskbar grouping is conditional, and I didn't see how to make it always do that. And the Dock is A LOT more elegant than the taskbar. Apps in the taskbar get your attention by flashing, where the Dock icons bounce. Personal opinion which is less annoying. And taskbar icons do change if designed to. Eudora ever since Qualcomm released a 32-bit version would change when there was new mail. And some stuff puts itself into the system tray. Something like AIM is VERY nicely controlled by its icon there. I can get to almost everything I need from it. Same for WinAmp. Not sure what you mean by issuing commands to the Dock apps, but you can actually drag and drop stuff onto taskbar items. And though I always turned off the quick launch icons, I would bet you can drop stuff onto them as well. And the Start menu is quite customizeable. But, overall, I do find the Dock nicer to use. I do wish I had more control over the apps from the context menus, though.
The Dock is definitely more beautiful. And for me more functional, at the cost of more screen real estate. I love the access to each app's open windows in the Dock. It wasn't until XP that MS gave you that, but as I commented in another thread, unless I'm missing something, as I haven't played much with XP, the taskbar grouping is conditional, and I didn't see how to make it always do that. And the Dock is A LOT more elegant than the taskbar. Apps in the taskbar get your attention by flashing, where the Dock icons bounce. Personal opinion which is less annoying. And taskbar icons do change if designed to. Eudora ever since Qualcomm released a 32-bit version would change when there was new mail. And some stuff puts itself into the system tray. Something like AIM is VERY nicely controlled by its icon there. I can get to almost everything I need from it. Same for WinAmp. Not sure what you mean by issuing commands to the Dock apps, but you can actually drag and drop stuff onto taskbar items. And though I always turned off the quick launch icons, I would bet you can drop stuff onto them as well. And the Start menu is quite customizeable. But, overall, I do find the Dock nicer to use. I do wish I had more control over the apps from the context menus, though.
simX
Unofficial Mac Genius
Admittedly, I can't say I've used XP at all, but I have used Windows 2000. That's where all my knowledge springs from.
When I say you issue commands to certain applications, control-click on the iTunes icon (when it is open). Without switching apps, and even if it is hidden, you can see what song is playing, and you can play/pause, or go to the next or previous song. You can even control the shuffling settings. Since there is an API to give you Dock menus, any application can do this. Proteus, the multi-instant-messaging-service-application, does this as well. Same with SlashDock (that's what's it's DESIGNED for -- news right within your Dock). That's what I mean by issuing commands to applications. Sure, in Windows you can drag and drop things onto applications, but you can do that with the Dock as well. But, unless XP has some serious advancements with the taskbar that I have so far not heard about, the Dock is far more superior in this point alone.
When I say you issue commands to certain applications, control-click on the iTunes icon (when it is open). Without switching apps, and even if it is hidden, you can see what song is playing, and you can play/pause, or go to the next or previous song. You can even control the shuffling settings. Since there is an API to give you Dock menus, any application can do this. Proteus, the multi-instant-messaging-service-application, does this as well. Same with SlashDock (that's what's it's DESIGNED for -- news right within your Dock). That's what I mean by issuing commands to applications. Sure, in Windows you can drag and drop things onto applications, but you can do that with the Dock as well. But, unless XP has some serious advancements with the taskbar that I have so far not heard about, the Dock is far more superior in this point alone.
hazmat
Rusher of Din
Windows Taskbar items can do this as well, all the way back to NT, and probably 95 as well. Two that come to mind are Eudora and SecureCRT. IIRC, all Eudora has in it is to check mail. Maybe it has more in later versions. SecureCRT has a few options, like toggling the menu bar, since you can't get it back otherwise (besides right-clicking on the title bar) once it's gone. So it's possible, but not all apps have it put in. Like in OS X. Ones like iTunes seem to be exceptions in this respect, just like the ones in Windows. I really hope to see more use of this functionality in future OS X apps.
simX
Unofficial Mac Genius
Well it seems like Eudora and SecureCRT are the only apps that use them, because I've never seen them on any other apps in Windows. I've also never used either of these two apps, so that would explain why I haven't seen them.
By the way, don't forget about all the Docklings out there. Those are invaluable in the Dock (even though the slow it down as all heck).
hazmat
Rusher of Din
Come on, there have to be more apps out there that make use of this functionality. SecureCRT and Eudora are the only ones I personally can think of that use it.
What do you mean about docklings slowing it down? I guess the only one I use besides Clock, if you consider that a dockling, is Memory Monitor. Nothing seems slower than before.
hazmat
Rusher of Din
I don't have a lot of stuff installed on my Win2k partition right now, but I found a couple more things with more options in the context menus. The Command Prompt window has it, as well as the System Information window. IIRC, Outlook has it as well. I may be wrong on that, though.
One big disadvantage of the Dock is that because it's centered (I know, I know - TinkerTool) your automatic mouse movements will go to the wrong place at times when the Dock grows. You can't 'remember' the exact position of the Finder icon, for example, because it wanders.
The Quickstart Links in Windows' Taskbar are at fixed positions which make that easier. Please, before you start to answer, read my post *again* and think about *exactly* what I said.
The Quickstart Links in Windows' Taskbar are at fixed positions which make that easier. Please, before you start to answer, read my post *again* and think about *exactly* what I said.
serpicolugnut
OS X Supreme Being
Yeah, the quickstart links do stay in place, but, if you open more than 8 or 9 Windows, you quickly have a bunch of items in the taskbar and you can't read what they are, let alone get alook at their icon unless you expand the taskbar up (if you have it on the bottom).
People continue to slam the OS X Dock, but compared with everything else out there (Windows Taskbar, UNIX Shelf, etc.), it's the best implementation so far of any dock/shelf type tool.
I'd still like to see the option to turn off the hovering text (or at least be able to set a delay before it pops up), and I'd like it to stay static and stretch across the entire portion of the screen it occupies, and have newly added icons/apps/docs/etc expand out from left to right. That way you can develop motor memory in using it, and not have to hunt for items as the dock grows larger/smaller.
Hypernate
McGeek
I have to say, when I first converted over to Mac, I missed my taskbar. I was very used to using it, dragging files onto the buttons (incidentally, you can't drag onto quick launch items).
However, I now HATE the taskbar, and I love the dock. For me, it's what I'm used to. When i first saw OS X, I HATED it, probably mainly because of the dock. Then i saw it in life, rather than screenshots, and loved it.
The dock only has a couple of downfalls, but nothing is as close to perfect as it. Or as customizable through hacks.
However, I now HATE the taskbar, and I love the dock. For me, it's what I'm used to. When i first saw OS X, I HATED it, probably mainly because of the dock. Then i saw it in life, rather than screenshots, and loved it.
The dock only has a couple of downfalls, but nothing is as close to perfect as it. Or as customizable through hacks.
nkuvu
Gone
I've never had problems hitting the icon I want in the Dock, even when it moves. I guess I don't see what the big deal is about things moving around.
One thing I hate about the taskbar (among many things, actually). If you have a deep item, and you're in the process of drilling down to get it, one application that has a message will switch focus and you'll be dropped from the Start menu. I hate it when apps switch the focus. I will do the switching, thank you. Don't interrupt me for your stupid messages. I also really dislike how in pre-Win2K systems (WinNT for example) applications that need attention will flash in the taskbar until you click on them. At least in Win2K it will flash three times then stop (and stay highlighted).
I would like to be able to turn off the text, but it doesn't realy bother me that much. I used to use WindowMaker on my BSD box, so the Dock concept is a familiar and welcome one.
One thing I hate about the taskbar (among many things, actually). If you have a deep item, and you're in the process of drilling down to get it, one application that has a message will switch focus and you'll be dropped from the Start menu. I hate it when apps switch the focus. I will do the switching, thank you. Don't interrupt me for your stupid messages. I also really dislike how in pre-Win2K systems (WinNT for example) applications that need attention will flash in the taskbar until you click on them. At least in Win2K it will flash three times then stop (and stay highlighted).
I would like to be able to turn off the text, but it doesn't realy bother me that much. I used to use WindowMaker on my BSD box, so the Dock concept is a familiar and welcome one.