Is the Dock’s Quality Degrading? (Customize it!)
Of all the criticism that Leopard has received thus far, the new 3D dock is by far at the front of the line. There have been a ton of releases by developers and designers with mods and skins to change the color, and in some cases add really odd designs like grass, wood, guitar strings and glass.
For some people this is great. For me though, well¦I simply hacked the dock in terminal so that it is displayed 2D, a thin grey outline, and a grey translucent background which works just fine for me.
If you’re so inclined there have been articles on how to change the dock’s color, eliminate the 3D plane, or change the color of the indicators. There is also a freeware app called 2DOrNot2D which can bring you from 3D to 2D.
The reason I didn't hack the dock to show a different color, is because it's not the color that bothers me. The perspective is way worse than the color. The vanishing point is so much lower than the vanishing point of the screen. This in turn makes it look way too steep. If Apple was to offer a fix for this issue, they could not only offer the ability to make it 2D when viewed on the bottom without opening terminal, but they could do one more. They could offer the user the ability to adjust the slope, this would make me perfectly happy.
I like how Apple is showing off their new design style, I really do. It looks great, but doesn't make any sense from a usability standpoint. In the end, it's just more obtrusive than the old dock, which completely defeats the purpose for me. I don't use the dock as an app launcher, I use Quicksilver for that. The dock is only used for switching to different applications that are currently open.
With all the advancements we have seen in Leopard, some of the interface choices we have seen Apple making lately, are quite confusing. The translucent menu bar, new folder icons, and leading the pack…the 3D dock. All been scorned to some degree by Mac fans. Hopefully we will see something come from Cupertino on this issue. They listened to developers, and added a 2D dock option when viewing the dock on the side, because it just didn't make sense visually. Honestly, it still doesn’t. What do you think?
I feel the same way…have changed the dock to 2D also (with tinker tool-recently updated).
couldn’t care less about the color actually…the point that I detested the most was the 3D effect…it just looked…weird….
I hope Apple will integrate an option to make the menubar solid again…that’s the only thing that bothers me now. It isn’t bad if you use solid color WPs but when you have motives the menubar can become very hard to read.
Am I the only one who likes the new 3D dock and translucent menu bar? I’ll admit, I found them hideous back during the beta days, when screenshots would get leaked on ThinkSecret.com. But now, I love them. My original plan was to hack them immediately, but I gave them a few days first. Well, lo and behold I actually like them. I think I still might change the color of the dock, but I’m keeping the 3D effect. And as far as the menu bar, my only complaint is that during Expose you don’t see the menu’s appear under the menu bar. If it’s translucent, I should see my windows through the menu bar. The one thing I will agree on is the new folder choice. What was Apple thinking? They all look so bland. But, there is always CandyBar (as soon as it’s updated). I changed my folders every month anyway, so that doesn’t really matter.
The new 3d dock has actually prompted me to shift my dock to the right-hand side of the screen. After a couple days of using my system “dock right” I’m very happy. Since monitors seem to be “going wide” these days, a dock right workspace makes a great deal of sense since you recover the much needed vertical space (I’ve never been a fan of auto hiding the dock). My biggest problem with Leopard is the badly broken X11.
I feel that the people complaining about the new dock the most ae people who are long-time mac users who have a certain way of working.
Even you for example say: “it's just more obtrusive than the old dock. The dock is only used for switching to different applications that are currently open.”
Thats primarily because you are used to a way of working and the new dock doesn’t fit into that.
For new users however, I think the new dock is better. The old dock seemed almost unprofesional to some(I know whenever I used my friends macbook, someone would alwayslaugh at the dock). I personally don’t see any functionality loss or gain from the new dock.Its just for looks and to appeal to new users.
I’m starting to get used to it a tiny bit, at first I hated it. The thing that gets me most about it is the shadow behind the icons… they make no sense and look like dirts smears :\. The perspective of the shelf being way off somehow bothers me less.. not that it doesn’t annoy the heck out of me.
I’d put mine on the side at first, I’ve moved it back to the bottom 2 days ago… grr.. the shadows, *sigh*… nope, not used to it yet.
Has anyone found a way to remove the shadows behind the icons yet?
I will admit that I am a Quicksilver fan, and I don’t use the dock as an application launcher. I only use it to switch between open applications.
As far as professionalism goes, having the dock in 2D looks more fitting in that regard. I have used the recently released BETA of OnyX to keep my dock in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, with the 2D slate look to it.
@LunaC: You can use OnyX to remove the icons’ dock shadow.
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