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I've been a Mac user since 1984 and had grown to like OS 9.x a lot. Especially the old "approximation" to "The Dock", i.e., the old, tear-off, floating Finder Menu. After nearly two years of grappling with X, I still have mixed feelings about its usability; I have a few choice expletives for the Dock and, more lately, for the newfangled Window Trays. But I digress; that's not the topic of the day.
In my day job I use Windows-2000; don't much care for the XP GUI but it hasn't been forced on me yet.
"How do I use the Dock"? I've been keeping the Dock hidden, usually but not always at the bottom of the screen, with Scale Effect and Animation. I don't like bouncing icons, but then neither do I like bobble-dolls on my dashboard or furry dice hanging from my rear-view mirror. Go figure.
I had created a List View folder with aliases of most frequently-used apps left floating on the desktop - to simulate the old, floating Finder menu but, of course, it's static - and doesn't show what's currently running. For that I'd use Command-Tab, or pop up the Dock to see the little black triangles; wasted mouse/keyboard-trackpad motion.
After skimming these articles, I downloaded DragThing and fired it up. Presto! A floating menu of running Apps. But I deleted its Dock - not seeing any immediate use for it. It used up too much screen real-estate for my taste and I could not move or resize it. A dialog warned that this "could not be undone". Problem? I'm not sure yet.
I liked the tip about dropping a folder onto the Dock. I put my folder of Application Aliases there and popped it up using Ctrl-click. NOT BAD! A POPUP launch menu! I think I can live with this.
Got rid of about a dozen application Icons that had been cluttering up the Dock. Much cleaner now.
Next: How do I turn these wondow trays into contextual popup menus? And will someone please come up with a default window style that can be resized by dragging any side or corner? Just like the Evil Empire. It's so much more convenient that this annoying lower-right-corner-only resize box.
Adios.
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