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).

The version he showed was quite different to what actually ended up
shipping, with square boxes around the icons, and an actual "Dock" folder in
your user's home folder that contained aliases to the items stored.

I should know - I had spent the previous 18 months or so as the main
engineer working away on it. At that very moment, I was watching from a
cubicle in Apple Cork, in Ireland. For the second time in my short Apple
career, I said a quiet prayer to the gods of demos, hoping that things
didn't break. For context, I was in my twenties at this point and scared
witless.

I didn't design the dock - that was Bas Ording, a talented young UI designer
that Steve had personally recruited. But it was my job to take his
prototypes built in Macromind Director and turn them into working code, as
part of the Finder team.

I had already written another dock - DragThing - before I worked for Apple,
and that had helped me get a job there. I moved over from Scotland to
Ireland in late 1996 with my future wife, with both of us joining the small
software team there. It was primarily a manufacturing plant, but there was a
little bit of software and hardware testing and engineering that went on
around the edges.

I worked on a number of things in the early days. I was on the Copland
installer for two weeks before the project was cancelled. Then, a couple of
Disney Print Studio CDs that shipped with the Performas. I loved doing UI
stuff, but somehow ended up working on a command line Mac OS X Server
authentication component for At Ease that was to be used with a new line of
diskless netboot computers that nobody had actually seen. It turned out I'd
actually been on the iMac project all this time, and in the end they got
hard drives.

In the middle of all that, when I was out in Cupertino, I was asked if I
wanted to work on a secret project with the code name "Uberbar". I was shown
some prototypes and basically told that six people had seen it, and if it
leaked they would know it was me that had talked. I figured if anybody was
finally going to kill off DragThing, it might as well be me.

The new Finder (codename "Millennium") was at this point being written on
Mac OS 9, because Mac OS X wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders quite yet.
The filesystem wasn't working well, which is not super helpful when you are
trying to write a user interface on top of it. The Dock was part of the
Finder then, and could lean on all the high level C++ interfaces for dealing
with disks and files that the rest of the team was working on. So, I started
on Mac OS 9, working away in Metrowerks Codewarrior. The Finder was a Carbon
app, so we could actually make quite a bit of early progress on 9, before
the OS was ready for us. I vividly remember the first time we got the code
running on Mac OS X.

Because the Dock was a huge secret, along with the rest of the Aqua user
interface, it was only enabled on a handful of machines. I didn't see the
shiny lickable buttons of Aqua itself for quite a while after I'd been
working on the Dock . There were rumours that any screenshot of Aqua would
have the hardware MAC address of the machine encoded into the image, so
leaks could be tracked down.

Before I had ever seen the new UI, there was one moment where I had somehow
– I genuinely don't remember why on earth this happened – had been tasked
with designing a placeholder boot screen for the OS itself. I made a blue
shiny Apple with pinstripes, in the style of the iMac.

It lasted precisely one build before being yanked out extremely quickly. I
assume because somebody was unhappy with the entirely coincidental Aqua-like
appearance.

But I trundled away, making the best dock that I could while staying true to
the original design, and making frequent trips to the US, initially living
out of the Cupertino Inn across the road from Infinite Loop.

You may have heard me tell this story before, and I apologise if so. But
it's been long enough that people just know me for PCalc, and don't even
remember DragThing, let alone events that happened before some of you were
even born.

At one point during a trip over, Steve was talking to Bas and asked how
things were coming along with the Dock. He replied something along the lines
of "going well, the engineer is over from Ireland right now, etc". Steve
left, and then visited my manager's manager's manager and said the fateful
words (as reported to me by people who were in the room where it happened).

"It has come to my attention that the engineer working on the Dock is in
FUCKING IRELAND".

I was told that I had to move to Cupertino. Immediately. Or else.

I did not wish to move to the States. I liked being in Europe. Ultimately,
after much consideration, many late night conversations with my wife, and
even buying a guide to moving, I said no.

They said ok then. We'll just tell Steve you did move.

And so for the next year, I flew back and forth between Cork to Cupertino,
and stayed out there as much as regulations would allow. I had an office on
the Finder team corridor. I can only imagine that Steve would walk by
looking for me, and they would say he'd just missed me, while I was being
bundled onto a plane at the other end. I had to come over whenever there
were Dock demos, but I was not allowed to be left in the same room as Steve,
lest I reveal the truth. The demo room with the blanked out windows had two
doors, and I went out one before he came in the other.

In the end, Macworld 2000 happened, and finally all the secrets were
revealed to the world. I hoped that at this point, it didn't matter where I
was, and I could finally relax. Less than a month later, exactly on my
birthday I believe, I got another call.

I had to move to Cupertino. Or else. And this time, the "else" was that I
would be taken off the Dock and the Finder, and I couldn't be guaranteed any
interesting work ever again.

So I politely declined, and resigned. About three weeks later, the rest of
the remaining software group in Cork was fired. Clearly, the plan had been
to get rid of everybody, but they couldn't tell me that at the time. I
should have waited and I'd have got a payoff at least...

My version of the Dock shipped once to developers, with the Developer
Preview 3 of Mac OS X. John Siracusa absolutely hated it. We remain friends.

After that, the engineer who took over from me rewrote the Dock entirely,
and none of my code actually shipped to the public in the end. Eighteen
months of hard work out the window, ah well.

But I learned a great deal, made a lot of friends, and the experience
spurred me on to resurrect DragThing for Mac OS X, which proved very popular
for quite some time. PCalc also came back to life around then, and that's
still going today!

As a final note, when I left Apple for the last time, and emptied out my
drawers, at the very bottom of the last drawer I found my distinctly
unsigned NDA.

On 2025-01-08 16:44:05 +0000, D Finnigan said:
>
> 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).
<snip>

The MacOS X Dock idea is a carry over from the NeXTSTEP OS it is based
on. Apple could of course have simply not bothered with it, but decided
to keep it. The code for it may or may not have been completely
re-written for MacOS X though.

In article <dog_cow-1736354643@macgui.com>, 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.
> <snip>

Thanks, that was a fun read. And reminded me that I need to install
DragThing, I used it for years and found it very useful but neglected to
reinstall it after I recently wiped this drive.

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.

--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

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.

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.

You can get Dock apps for Classic versions of MacOS. "A-Dock" is
perhaps the best of them.
<http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/a-dock-301>

> 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.

On 2025-01-11 23:03:20 +0000, Your Name said:

> 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.
>
> You can get Dock apps for Classic versions of MacOS. "A-Dock" is
> perhaps the best of them.
> <http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/a-dock-301>

Yeah IIRC there were third-party versions of the Dock before Apple
formally incorporated it into their system (much in the same way they
did with WindowShade and other extensions). I never used them though
and grudgingly accepted the Dock when I moved to OSX.

I never leave anything in the Dock other than apps that are running, to
me it's ridiculous to see a Dock with 20 or 30 icons in it.

Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

> 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.
>
> You can get Dock apps for Classic versions of MacOS. "A-Dock" is
> perhaps the best of them.
> <http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/a-dock-301>

That's the last thing I should want to do, why ruin a good operating
system? I want to completely remove the Dock from OSX and use a
combination of Launcher and Windowshade.

'Minimising' things into the Dock is like having a dilligent but stupid
secretary who removes every sheet of paper from your desk except the one
you are reading and files it away in an ever-changing filing system that
you have to search by pictures to get it back. With Windowshade you
just rolled up the window so you could see what was underneath it - then
you knew exactly what it was and where to find it when you wanted it
again.

> >
> > I hate the Dock with a vengeance, it has spoilt the Mac platform for me.

--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

On 2025-01-12 07:44:08 +0000, Liz Tuddenham said:
> Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
>> 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.
>>
>> You can get Dock apps for Classic versions of MacOS. "A-Dock" is
>> perhaps the best of them.
>> <http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/a-dock-301>
>
> That's the last thing I should want to do, why ruin a good operating
> system? I want to completely remove the Dock from OSX and use a
> combination of Launcher and Windowshade.

Potentially having a Dock in Classic MacOS helps to get used to using
it in newer MacOS versions.

> 'Minimising' things into the Dock is like having a dilligent but stupid
> secretary who removes every sheet of paper from your desk except the one
> you are reading and files it away in an ever-changing filing system that
> you have to search by pictures to get it back. With Windowshade you
> just rolled up the window so you could see what was underneath it - then
> you knew exactly what it was and where to find it when you wanted it
> again.

You didn't mention minimizing in the original post, although I don't
think A-Dock does that anyway.

There are Windowshade apps for MacOS X, but I've never used them:

Deskovery
<https://www.neomobili.com/products/deskovery/>

WindowMizer
<https://www.windowmizer.com/windowmizer>

For older Macs / MacOS X versions there is:

WindowShade X
<http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/windowshade-x>

You can't remove the Dock from MacOS X because it is expected to be
there by the OS and many apps. Best you can do is hide it. Many of the
"Dock replacement" apps simply hide the Dock.

On 2025-01-12 21:17:09 +0000, Your Name said:

> On 2025-01-12 07:44:08 +0000, Liz Tuddenham said:
>> Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> You can get Dock apps for Classic versions of MacOS. "A-Dock" is
>>> perhaps the best of them.
>>> <http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/a-dock-301>
>>
>> That's the last thing I should want to do, why ruin a good operating
>> system? I want to completely remove the Dock from OSX and use a
>> combination of Launcher and Windowshade.
>
> Potentially having a Dock in Classic MacOS helps to get used to using
> it in newer MacOS versions.
>
>
>
>> 'Minimising' things into the Dock is like having a dilligent but stupid
>> secretary who removes every sheet of paper from your desk except the one
>> you are reading and files it away in an ever-changing filing system that
>> you have to search by pictures to get it back. With Windowshade you
>> just rolled up the window so you could see what was underneath it - then
>> you knew exactly what it was and where to find it when you wanted it
>> again.
>
> You didn't mention minimizing in the original post, although I don't
> think A-Dock does that anyway.
>
> There are Windowshade apps for MacOS X, but I've never used them:
>
> Deskovery
> <https://www.neomobili.com/products/deskovery/>
>
> WindowMizer
> <https://www.windowmizer.com/windowmizer>
>
>
> For older Macs / MacOS X versions there is:
>
> WindowShade X
> <http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/windowshade-x>
>
>
> You can't remove the Dock from MacOS X because it is expected to be
> there by the OS and many apps. Best you can do is hide it. Many of the
> "Dock replacement" apps simply hide the Dock.

I've been a fan of a more elegant solution ever since Apple quit
letting you customize the Apple Menu with OSX -- the XMenu extension.
It lets you easily access your favorite apps and files (with their own
mini or large icons, or no icons if you prefer), just like the Dock
does. Put an alias of your HD at the top (with a space before it) and
you can drill down to every folder on the computer.

If I want a quick look at the Desktop, just Command-F3 (or on earlier
versions of OSX just F11).

In article <1r5zwor.15ub1rpf2vodeN%liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid>,
liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) wrote:

<snip>
>
> I hate the Dock with a vengeance, it has spoilt the Mac platform for me.

I first used a Mac in 2007, a MacBook running OSX Tiger, so I have only
ever known the Dock really and, in honesty, I've never had a problem with
it. Seems like a fine way to keep useful apps close at hand for quick
launching.

I usually make the Dock as small as possible, or close enough to it, and
have a couple of dozen or so app icons on it. Works well for me!

scole <vintageapplemac@gmail.com> wrote:

> In article <1r5zwor.15ub1rpf2vodeN%liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid>,
> liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) wrote:
>
> <snip>
> >
> > I hate the Dock with a vengeance, it has spoilt the Mac platform for me.
>
> I first used a Mac in 2007, a MacBook running OSX Tiger, so I have only
> ever known the Dock really and, in honesty, I've never had a problem with
> it. Seems like a fine way to keep useful apps close at hand for quick
> launching.
>
> I usually make the Dock as small as possible, or close enough to it, and
> have a couple of dozen or so app icons on it. Works well for me!

That's what the Launcher used to do - except that the icons could be
arranged logically according to your needs and they had names so you
could see instantly what they were.

The Windowshade was activated by double-clicking on the titlke bar of a
window, the window just rolled up to reveal what was underneath but the
title bar stayed exactly where it was. Double-clicking the title bar a
second time rolled the window back down. Thus, if you wanted to see
what was under a window you did a double-click and another double-click
in exactly the same place; there was no need to open the dock and go
searching through the icons to find out where your window had gone.

If that system were re-introduced and the Dock abolished, it would be
hailed as a great step forward in useability.

--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

On 2025-01-16 13:08:54 +0000, Liz Tuddenham said:
> scole <vintageapplemac@gmail.com> wrote:
>> In article <1r5zwor.15ub1rpf2vodeN%liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid>,
>> liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>>>
>>> I hate the Dock with a vengeance, it has spoilt the Mac platform for me.
>>
>> I first used a Mac in 2007, a MacBook running OSX Tiger, so I have only
>> ever known the Dock really and, in honesty, I've never had a problem with
>> it. Seems like a fine way to keep useful apps close at hand for quick
>> launching.
>>
>> I usually make the Dock as small as possible, or close enough to it, and
>> have a couple of dozen or so app icons on it. Works well for me!
>
> That's what the Launcher used to do - except that the icons could be
> arranged logically according to your needs and they had names so you
> could see instantly what they were.
>
> The Windowshade was activated by double-clicking on the titlke bar of a
> window, the window just rolled up to reveal what was underneath but the
> title bar stayed exactly where it was. Double-clicking the title bar a
> second time rolled the window back down. Thus, if you wanted to see
> what was under a window you did a double-click and another double-click
> in exactly the same place; there was no need to open the dock and go
> searching through the icons to find out where your window had gone.
>
> If that system were re-introduced and the Dock abolished, it would be
> hailed as a great step forward in useability.

There are of course numerous features that keep being added to MacOS
and have been since about System 7, many of the useless gimmicks. Some
stay around and some disappear as quickly as they arrived. (Not just
software either - the ridiculous Touch Bar on laptops quickly got
removed again.)

Personally I didn't like the Launcher, Launchpad, Spaces, Time Machine,
Versions, and have never used any of them. I also very rarely used
Windowshade or minimising windows (mostly accidentally). I also always
turned off the silly things like squeeze-me button on the mouse
whenever setting up a Mac for *anyone* since it was nothing but a
source of confusion for the users.

Everyone is different. Nobody says you have to use a feature. There are
often different ways of achieving something and working on the computer.

Realistically the MacOS Dock isn't going anywhere any time soon.
Windowshade can be added by third-party apps (although some reviews say
they don't work very well, but I've never used them).