Re: Early History of Mac OS X Dock

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.