Mac OS X Leopard Gets Last Minute Tweaks

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 24th Oct 2007 08:02 UTC

At the last minute, Apple has changed the appearance of the Dock in Mac OS X Leopard when it is placed on the sides of the screen. If so, the dock will lose its much-criticised 3D appearance in favour of a more traditional 2D look. When placed at the bottom, the dock does retain its 3D appearance; however, a smart hacker has already found out that via a single command in the terminal, you can give the bottom dock the same 2D appearance. In other words, everybody who criticised the new dock (including yours truly): rejoice!

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Little late to the game on this one

by tyrione (1.04) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 08:20 UTC

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2005-11-21
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And yes, the dwrite/defaults write system ala NeXT has a bunch of little addons to turn on and off.

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Suite

by thavith_osn (3.4) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 09:19 UTC

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2005-07-11
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That is so sweet. I put the dock on the left hand side today after I read this from another site to try and get used to it. I'm glad I won't have to now :-)

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Splendid!

by DevL (4.32) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 09:24 UTC

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2005-07-06
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Excellent news that we'll be able to retain the 2D Dock!

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Good !

by Manik (2.08) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 10:17 UTC

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2005-07-06
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I have never been fond of the dock in OS X. I've always found the 3D dock horrible, but the 2D one is tolerable.The dock is one of those things I would have prefered more NeXtish. One of my wishes (another is an option to deactivate the menubar and replace it with the old vertical menus) is some option to disable it : with something like Dragthing it becomes totally useless, and even annoying.

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Who says

by Tyr. (2.64) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 10:42 UTC

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2005-07-06
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Who says Apple doesn't listen to user feedback. This will sure prevent a lot of bitching in the reviews.

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Cool

by Phuqker (2.12) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 11:38 UTC

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2005-07-17
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I happen to be a fan of the dock and I love the new dock -- I'm an unabashed lover of eye candy -- but I'm glad Apple decided to listen to its users.

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yeah

by SK8T (2.2) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 12:05 UTC

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2006-06-01
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I don't know what I like more

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Here nor there...

by cmost (4.28) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 12:20 UTC

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2006-07-16
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Some people wouldn't be happy if you hung them with a new rope. That being said, I can't believe Apple doesn't have an applet whereby folks can customize the appearance of the darn thing to whatever they like.

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Dock

by Adam S (Staff) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 12:22 UTC

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2005-04-01
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I love the new Dock. I just uninstalled my Cleardock APE just to prep for Leopard. I think Apple is changing their UI, which is good, it shows progress. The idea of depth in the UI is awesome, and it shows in Coverflow, Expose, the Dashboard, and the new Dock.

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Great!

by Ishan (1.42) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 12:23 UTC

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2007-10-24
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I always put the dock to the left side and love it! so no 3D for me

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But, it's.....

by Phloptical (3.52) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 12:41 UTC

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2006-10-10
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the Dock?! Is it really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things?

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RE: But, it's.....

by Thom_Holwerda (Staff) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 12:47 UTC in reply to "But, it's....."

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Is it really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things?

Yes it is. It is one of the prime elements of the UI - there where you load and manage running applications. Any changes there affect the way you use your computer.

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RE[2]: But, it's.....

by Phloptical (3.52) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 13:43 UTC in reply to "RE: But, it's....."

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Agreed. But is the new dock functionally deficient from the old one, or is this really about fearing change? Though, I do agree with the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

If the new Dock is that unappealng to users, the Apple should allow for a GUI based setting in Preferences so the dock can easily be switched back to the old skin. More simple than resorting to CLI, that is.

Some people hated the new Start menu in XP, while others (myself included) preferred it over digging through icons on the desktop.

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RE[3]: But, it's.....

by sanctus (2.48) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 14:29 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: But, it's....."

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2005-08-31
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Some people hated the new Start menu in XP, while others (myself included) preferred it over digging through icons on the desktop.

The old menu wasn't broken, look like creativity and the will to add some amelioration served you well on this one

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Uh yeah.

by Buck (4.44) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 13:39 UTC

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2005-06-29
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Now it's uglier than Tiger's.

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Meh

by openwookie (1.84) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 14:24 UTC

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2006-04-25
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I don't use the dock much due to Quicksilver. And with 'spaces' I'll probably use it even less (less need to minimize apps).

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Not the same as Tiger's Dock

by Myrd (2.52) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 15:46 UTC

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2006-01-05
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The problem is this new "Classic Dock" that can be turned on using the command line, is not the same as the Dock from Tiger.

It is transparent grey, rather than transparent white (as, things underneath it are darker, and not lighter), and its outline is very in-your-face compared to Tiger's.

Finally, the indicators for the currently running App are imho much worse than Tiger's. Tiger's were simple black triangles that got out of your way when you don't need them (as in, they don't stick out).

The new globes of light (just like in the 3D dock), are very distracting, on the other hand.

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RE: Not the same as Tiger's Dock

by Anim8me2 (1.52) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 17:10 UTC in reply to "Not the same as Tiger's Dock"

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2006-02-10
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Actually I find them to be just the opposite. the lights are very easy to tune out.

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more whine please

by kittynipples (2.16) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 18:36 UTC

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2006-08-02
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As a Mac user, this whole brouhaha over the new appearance of the dock reminds me that I'm surprised we still aren't hearing people bitch about the colors being more saturated on new "traffic light" control buttons, which is something only slightly more petty.

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Transparent and Hidden ?

by Cass (1.8) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 19:18 UTC

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2006-03-17
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Question for me is can i still make the dock 100% transparent and only show the icons like some app i have doing this under Tiger and also can i choose to hide the doc and only appear when my mouse is at bottom of the screen .. It will make me sad if the answer is no .

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I don't have a problem with the new dock

by yakirz (1.84) on Wed 24th Oct 2007 21:16 UTC

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2006-05-11
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but I've only seen it on screenshots. I've never cared for putting it on the side of the screen (though on the right side you get the NeXT-step feel a little more).

I think I'll be happy with the glass 3-D look.

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cool

by Macintosh Sauce (1.5) on Thu 25th Oct 2007 07:01 UTC

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2007-05-03
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The person who figured that 2D tweak for the bottom Dock is quite smart.

Edited 2007-10-25 07:02

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