Taskbar vs. Dock

[usr.bin]

Originally posted by unsanity

One thing about osx you can kill the dock ;) try killing the task bar ;)

Well, there is always Auto-hide.

--dave

[Dj Crow]

Where i can download dock???

[Timan Veteran]

not joking about killing the dock. let me upload a pic.

[usr.bin]

Originally posted by unsanity

not joking about killing the dock. let me upload a pic.

Well I wasn't really joking about auto-hiding the taskbar either. Of course I'm not going to upload a pic of THAT.

--dave

[Dj Crow]

Where i can download dock???

[Timan Veteran]

true but just to show windows users what they can't do with the taskbar

[Steve]

Originally posted by unsanity

true but just to show windows users what they can't do with the taskbar

Tim Tim, NO NO! ... LOOK, there's ALWAYS An Answer! ....

Look

...

LOL!

NeYo

[Timan Veteran]

you close that you try opening a window or try having icons on your desktop.

[usr.bin]

I have one funny ass feeling that if you kill EXPLORER.EXE you will not only lose your taskbar, but will also lose your desktop icons. Call me insane....

--dave

[Wickedkitten Veteran]

Originally posted by ~~NeYo~~

Tim Tim, NO NO! ... LOOK, there's ALWAYS An Answer! ....

Look

...

LOL!

NeYo

yeah but with that 2 things will happen

1. the explorer will just restart and the taskbar will open again.

or 2. explorer will actually stop and you wont be able to do **** without a reboot lol

[Dazzla Veteran]

How about from now on, before you make pathetic comments, state what platforms you have used thoroughly. I don't mean "I turned on a mac for 30 seconds and it was GAY, macs are sh1t"

People like kitten, unsanity, dave, deadzombie, myself and anyone else I missed; I consider to have a valid arguement, whether or not they coincide with my opinion or not.

People who show up on this thread and say stuff like "Mac's are for girls" or "taksbar wins, bill gates r0xx0rs!!" just embarress themselves and hold no opinion with others apart from like-minded people.

How about for once, we see valid points and (at least an attempt of) a serious debate?

I take deadzombie's and kitten's little debate in the corner on their own for example, both valid arguements.

As for me, XP and OS X User, I'll give you the answer soon, I'm on the fence... :D

[Steve]

for F**k Sake Guys, How about a Little "humour" ... u know, Laugh a Little, Don't take everything so Damned Seriously! LOL!

i think i DO KNOW the implication that Follow Killing Explorer...

LOL!

<< Rolleyes >>

...Now Just F**king Lighten up!

NeYo

;)

[Timan Veteran]

And now we know why Mac users don't have a task bar ;)

[Keldyn]

Just cool it people. If you can't have a civilized discussion then it is best you stay out of it.

[Dazzla Veteran]

The dock and the taskbar are pretty versatile beasts, both can be customised quite a lot altough i would have to say taskbar maybe a bit more.

As for the arguements about window minimising, I've had the luxury of using 10.2 and minimised windows contain the icon of their parent so you can tell what app they are on, I've also used a freeware app which put's labels on dock items so that argument is redundant.

The way I have my dock set up, I have it pinned to the left and semi-transparent, I have it seperated and organised into categories and i have a submenu which contains further shortcuts. All of you will agree this is possible on XP.

Another feature of my OS X dock is the ability to control media, again, a feature available on XP.

One argument I don't agree with is one I read earlier about stuff like virtual desktops, although they are launched via the taskbar, they are not a feature of the taskbar.

One thing MS did right was the ability of hiding icons in the systray. This is sorta redundant on the mac because running apps are in the dock, some have the option of jumping to the menubar but this is a user choice.

You've also gotta remember, OS X apps have the option of further menu's from their dockling, I take iTunes for an example, you can control the music from the dock. This is a feature of any app that wants it.

As for the person who said about the carbon apps not being dock aware, that is true... All the way up to 10.2. Every single app is dock aware, it is impossible to resize windows below the top of the dock.

Usablity? I don't agree that there is a particular difference between the two, both are primarily app launchers and switchers, both perform their task with the minimum of fuss.

This leaves not much between the two and when it comes down to that, I'm going to choose the dock. Simply because of the fact that the technology behind the quartz rendering allows it to be so good looking. And don't give me crap about kiddy looks, if you don't like the look, you can change it. Would you consider me saying that the Luna default taskbar looks crap, a valid argument?

No.

As for the person who started this thread and said that the dock was worse because it was too big, just shows the sort of people I was talking about earlier, the dock can be made as small as if not smaller, then the taskbar.

Picture of what I was talking about earlier:

[Steve]

Well Sed Dazzla, and i HAVE TO say, that is So Damn SWEET! ...What Did u get in the End? iMac Combo?

...Man i can't wait 2 get mine! :D

NeYo

[Dazzla Veteran]

yeah, combo and some extra ram.

[Guest deadzombie]

Thank you Dazzla!

Even though I supported the Taskbar as the winner of function and the dock for interface, I must exclaim the following;

The Dock wins!

Dazzlas arguments were strong and specific, citing proveable evidence from both an objective and subjective stance.

Excellent post Dazzla!

[BroChaos Veteran]

Originally posted by deadzombie

Thank you Dazzla!

Even though I supported the Taskbar as the winner of function and the dock for interface, I must exclaim the following;

The Dock wins!

Dazzlas arguments were strong and specific, citing proveable evidence from both an objective and subjective stance.

Excellent post Dazzla!

i second what deadzombie said. that was actually a very informative post to read (ie. unbiased). Daz you know you're the man, so i'm not gonna bother telling ya. :p

[MajorSham]

I've seen plenty of arguments from both sides, but they're all the same. The dock looks better, the taskbar does more. To that I say this:

The dock has better special effects. Does it look better? Well that's hard to answer. The Dock itself, is nothing more than a half transparent grey area, filled with icons. It really doesn't LOOK like anything without the icons in it. On top of this, the Explorer Taskbar in XP can look like anything. I prefer Chaninja's badass "Chaninja v3.1 JTS" theme.

I've also seen a few comments on Windows and it's memory usage, and OSX and it's lack of memory usage. Also I've seen comments that the Dock is better and uses less RAM because it is a seperate application. Not true. OSX is based on FreeBSD and has that bad ass graphics engine to create those neat little effects. Like it or not, that's going to use some serious processor time and RAM. FreeBSD is a Unix-like operating system, and is meant more for servers than Desktops. It's like buying a Peterbilt instead of an F150. Sure, more power and versatility, but do you really need it?

When I first installed Windows 2000, I was exstatic. I decided that it actually was the best version of Windows "yet" at the time, and wondered why they didn't sell it to the general public, even as just a utility OS. But no, it was marketed to buisnesses only. Well, XP builds on this, adds a built in skinning engine, and builds on the stability of Windows 2000, and is marketed to the general public. I'm kinda disappointed that they removed SMP from XP Home, but that's a topic for another discussion. Mac biggots, sorry to say, but Windows XP is a damn good operating system. I haven't seen an NT stop, EVER out of this OS. I've seen them out of Win2K, but that was usually due to Via or Creative and their POS drivers. XP provides built in support for Via chipsets, and because of this I've no longer had problems with my SB Live! card.

Overall, Macs are easier to use, and look better in certain respects, yes. But for me, I prefer PCs. It's a personality thing. And don't go off saying that Macs are universally easier to use, because I've seen new users speak from both sides of the coin. I've seen people who try out both Macs and PCs and say that one or the other is hard to use. Unfortunately for Steve, more people out there prefer PCs. Regardless of the operating system on them, PCs are more popular. You can't deny this - more people use Windows PCs than Macs.

[Steve]

Dude, Just one Brief Point About the Dock 'n' Looks! ... i think, People Don't Just talk of the Dock, From One Static Perspective, but for how it Move's its Ass Around, and How Windows Genie And Out, thats as Much the Eye catching thing, as the Dock on idle, if not more so! ...

Just my 2 Euro's! :D

NeYo

[Ravager]

Lol, Divide. In your sig you have the Jew speech from Merchant of Venice. I had to memorize it and recite it to my class :p

What a coincidence.

[Timan Veteran]

hmm maybe since osx comes pretty people attack it for there where windows you have to customize the **** out of it. *even though its fun :p* tastbar is nice i will admit i've used it since it was made. teh dock i started using since feb. The dock is perfect for osx i think. the taskbar is perfect for windows. the only thing i wish was possible on the taskbar that would make me like it more.. if you go pin the start button somewhere else.

[sp00nman]

Originally posted by Wickedkitten

ah but you are missing one point here, windows does not dominate the mainstream world. maybe the us market most certainly where people use what they know, but for the rest of the world about 70% of it is run off *nix. As a matter of fact around 60% of the computers used in Japan are made by Apple.

I'm not disagreeing with your opinion, I'm disagreeing with your statement that the taskbar is nice and small and fun to have. I have used windows xp ever since last year in april and as with the same taskbar scheme ever since 95 its not small, its not nice, and its not fun, its just there.

I live in America, not Japan. Their computer use doesn't concern me. If they prefer mac, then they do. Don't care.

You ARE disagreeing with my opinion. I said the taskbar was nice and small, fun to use. <-- THATS MY OPINION, not an actual fact. You don't think so, so that's your opinion. LEAVE IT AT THAT.

[sp00nman]

Originally posted by hkey_root

sp00nman, i'm not going to go nuts on you, but you made some points I want to refute.

That is kinda a circular defination there bud. The mac people have thier own version of the taskbar which would be called the dock. So the windows people have thier own version of the dock...which, SURPRISE, is called the taskbar. So, my point still remains, there are many windows users trying to emulate the dock, but virtually no (if any) mac users trying to emulate the taskbar.

What do you call that big long thing that went on top of the screen in the earlier mac os? THAT WAS A TASKBAR, buddy.

The dock is new to the windows people, the taskbar would be new to the mac users, another circular defination. You have been using a PC for a good long while, because you think the taskbar is old old old, and the dock is new new new, the dock is old to mac users, but they aren't trying to emulate the taskbar because the dock is old. The taskbar is not old to people who use a mac because :o they use a mac, not a PC.

And right, there isn't a right/wrong answer to all of this, everyone has thier own opinion, and most likely people who have macs will choose a dock over a taskbar, and PC users will choose a taskbar over a dock.

--dave

Your last paragraph I agree with... but the one above it isn't clear to me. What is your point? I never said the dock was "new new new" and the taskbar was "old old old." Not sure where you got that from, because I never said that. I said that the dock is somewhat new to the Windows users, because they haven't used/seen much of it before.