Multiple Docks

ChrisM666

Registered Idiot
I notice Mac users have been crying out for multiple Docks for YEARS but Apple engineers/marketing don't have the brainpower to devise them.

Has anyone else found ways to display more than one Dock on the screen at the same time? Obviously I know of Dock Fun, Docks and other single Dock-at-a-time solutions.

Windows users have had this for years...
 
Hello ChrisM666,

AFAIK, you can only have one instance of the Mac OS X Dock running and therefore you would need to look towards those 3rd party solutions such as DockSwitch or those you mention ...
 
I notice Mac users have been crying out for multiple Docks for YEARS but Apple engineers/marketing don't have the brainpower to devise them.
Tee hee... this made me chuckle. ;) As if Apple engineers were a bunch of monkeys, hammering away at a keyboard, able to create (arguably) the coolest IDE (Xcode) in existence, the most popular music store around, the easiest home-movie creation software, one of the stablest operating systems, the neatest hardware with the most resale value, yet the idea of multiple docks eludes them...

I hardly think it's a technical issue preventing them from implementing multiple docks.

It's easier to get friendly support if you don't insult people in the process. While "fanboys" have a bad connotation attached to them, they're out there, and may not be as helpful if you start off your request in the form of an insult to either them or the people they respect (i.e., Apple engineers/programmers).

Much like walking into a job interview and saying to the boss, "Your current crop of employees are all idiots, and I can do the job much better than them." Think you'd get the job? ;) How far would that interview go?
Windows users have had this for years...
Windows users don't have a dock... they have the taskbar, which is quite different from the dock. Hardly a comparison. I wouldn't give up my single Mac OS X dock for twelvity-seven Windows taskbars.

I realize this is all opinion; and rightly so, and I understand your argument for having multiple docks on your screen. There are plenty of 3rd-party items out there than can help you, and I recommend you check out the awesome DragThing and Quicksilver -- together, I think you'll find they enhance the Mac OS X experience at least ten-fold, if not more, and will satisfy your need for multiple dock-style items on your screen.
 
Windows users have had this for years? Multiple what: Taskbars? Never seen that option. Unless you mean 3rd party utilities, and there certainly _are_ those for the Mac, too. DragThing, for example.
 
The only place I've seen multiple taskbars is on open source desktop environments like GNOME, KDE, and XFCE. I've never seen multiple taskbars on Windows, and have never seen the need for such on Mac OS X, but to each their own I guess. :p
 
Thanks to all you swift responders! After I saw a previous poster fail to get a response after 2 years to a similar but well-mannered query I thought I had to phrase mine differently get some attention - and maybe even a bit of helpful advice. It worked (thanks VTracy), although the utility offered (DockSwitch) died when 10.4 came.

Not wishing to let two lines of text come between us otherwise happy Maccers, I will explain that Windows users have had the benefit of the attention of the acclaimed Stardock people for years (well, since S'dock realised that OS/2 was not the way the future of computing was moving) with their multiple docks. Now you know.

Much as I love my little Mac mini I am not so admiring of the Heroes of Cupertino that I feel it's naughty to even say 'Apple engineers/marketing don't have the brainpower' when I think of how we are (well, at very least I am) left with windows that can only be resized from one point, the clumsy message box option switching (using tab and spacebar (mostly) when cursor keys and Enter would do the job more intuitively), the slavish clinging to a one-button mouse, which led them to the patchy implementation of the really useful (read, more productive) right-click context menus. I don't want Windows-in-a-Mac, just a more customer-responsive development team.

There, does that mean I'm about to be excommunicated and burned at the stake? Even being sent to Coventry would be more than I could bear!
 
Well beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Some of the 'flaws' you list are not flaws to others.

I am sure Microsoft engineers get plenty of (fair and unfair) criticism too. However, I am not sure I'd call them brainless.
 
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'Apple engineers/marketing don't have the brainpower'
Heh... well, if it's that easy to do, can you do it? If not, does that mean you have even less brainpower than the brainless idiots programming for Apple? ;)

There, does that mean I'm about to be excommunicated and burned at the stake? Even being sent to Coventry would be more than I could bear!
Nah, my point was that it's just bad form to start off a query with an insult, whether it's directed at the people answering the query or some other person directly or indirectly responsible for said query.

As for some of the things you listed, Rhisiart said it best -- beauty is in the eye of the beholder. While some people may think that a certain way of doing this is asinine, others may find it the most intuitive.'

StarDock is a 3rd-party application (a "desktop enhancement" to be exact), and Macintosh users have had 3rd-party applications that do similar things ("enhance" the desktop) as far back as OS 6 -- predating Windows 95. In my mind, that means that in terms of "multiple docks" or "multiple task bars," the point is moot -- both systems, out-of-the-box, support one dock/taskbar, yet there are free bolt-ons for either that allow you to do more. If Apple engineers are boneheads for only including one dock, then the same methodology in thinking must be applied to Windows programmers as well.

Right-clicking has been around since OS 9 (almost 10 years). While Apple didn't ship two-button mice until recently (eh, 3 years, give or take), the right-click functionality has always been there and has worked flawlessly with 3rd-party mice. The "one button" mouse argument was solved and buried a long time ago with the advent of the Mighty Mouse and the gesture-sensitive trackpads on the notebooks. I still find myself accidentally performing a two-finger click on PC notebooks and trying to scroll by swiping -- I find it quite intuitive.

Resizing from one corner only is subjective as well -- I don't know how many times on my Linux or Windows machines that I've inadvertently grabbed the side of a window when I was really trying to grab an icon next to the edge of a window. It takes some getting used to, but learning a slightly new way of doing something isn't a deal-breaker for most, and it's not difficult to get used to.

Tab/spacebar vs. arrow keys/enter is also subjective. I find it much easier and my fingers move less from the alphas on the keyboard with tab-space than they do with arrow-enter. Again, to each his own, but if Apple dropped support for tab/spacebar and replaced it with arrow/enter, it wouldn't take but 2.5 minutes to get used to the new way of doing it.

It helps to look at Apple using the 80-20 rule: they program for the majority. While there have been gripes about right-clicking and so forth, they're generally relegated to those who have used only one system in the past (Windows) and are having a tough time adjusting to new things (ie, those who don't pick up on new stuff well). They're the minority. The majority of Mac users aren't screaming at the top of their lungs for multiple docks... nor two-button mice (even though they exist!)... or window-resizing from all edges... nor arrow/enter vs. tab/space. While you may find these features absolutely insane to leave out of the operating system, these arguments only come from a small fraction of the user base.

If you want everything and the kitchen sink in an OS, Linux is the way to go -- but then again, Linux has been around longer than Mac OS X and is still struggling to be adopted. Sure, every feature that is ever requested is somehow shoehorned into the operating system so that every user is satisfied and can spend days customizing their operating system to their exact needs, but that's not the mantra of OS X. OS X is meant for those who just want things to work out-of-the-box, and is easy to understand and begin using withing moments of booting up the computer. It's not a "tinkerer's" operating system. It's not a "please every single user out there" operating system. It's a balance of everything, and while some people will always have a problem with the way Apple forces you into using the operating system, the ways that they force you to do things aren't that difficult to get used to. It doesn't make you a fan-boy, nor does it may you a sheep. You don't have to agree with it, but that doesn't make it unbearable or difficult to use or get used to.

At any rate, we could debate every, tiny, little gripe everyone has about OS X all day and never come to a happy medium. To each his own, as said before. But I really, strongly suggest trying DragThing and Quicksilver on your Mac -- while this is only my opinion, those two programs together (or, hell, even apart, one at a time) changed the way I work on my Mac for the better. Quicker, faster, easier, less typing, less mousing, customizable, everything-and-then-some kind of enhancements.

Quicksilver: http://www.blacktree.com/
DragThing: http://www.dragthing.com/
 
My app launching needs are met: in addition to Quicksilver - which I don't have to tell anyone is excellent - I have been using Dock-it mainly for those apps that I feel a need for visual cues for and for the useful shelf applet (multiple instances if I want). Not perfect, but does the trick.
 
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