10. The Dock is big and clumsy
The Dock normally sucks up around 70 pixels minimum, more than four times as much vertical space as either the Windows task bar or the Macintosh menu bar. (Yes, you can set it much smaller, but then you have no chance of identifying a document without "scrubbing" the screen with your mouse.) Couple that with Apple's move to 16:9 wide screens (read: short screens) on their laptops, and you have a real problem. For good measure, add in the Dock's habit of floating on top of working windows, and you have little choice but to hide it.

I, nor any of the people I know have ever had a problem with this. Aquanewbs maybe aren't used to it, the person who wrote this sounds like he hasn't used it much.

9. Dock objects have no labels
The objects in the dock, as you can see above, do not have labels. That works fine in the demo, since every object shown is completely unlike every other object. However, put in six or seven folders next to each other and the user becomes clueless. Yes, the user can "scrub" up and down the Dock, forcing one label at a time to appear as they paw around for the right folder. However, that takes time and, when dragging a document, ensures a high rate of serious error.

Haha no. For one thing you could change the folder icons (which is very simple) but if you're too lazy then its extremely simple to just scroll over it. This guy acts like the cursor moves across the screen at two miles a year or something. Plus, even if you're a complete idiot (you'd have to have no sense of aesthetics to drag a bunch of boring blue folder icons into the doc right next to each other) it takes about one quick scan to memorize the order. Having labels in the Windows task bar makes it look horrible.

8. Identical pictures look identical
Using pictures instead of icons is a bad idea. The fabulous demo shows documents, such as the Apple home page, with title areas featuring 500 point type that scale down nicely into recognizable thumbnails. Real documents are not so obliging. The Macintosh does need greater document-differentiation, but we don't need a picture of the first page. We need information on data types, file sizes (as represented by the thickness of the icon), age, etc. Only when a representation is significantly enlarged should it transform into a thumbnail image.

Actually it's very easy to just to see the general colors and layout of a Windows. Unlike in OS X.1, X.2 puts a tiny icon in the lower right corner of the thumbnail. It's impossible to forget what windows you have put into the doc anyway.

7. Users cannot build motor memory
Because everything in the Dock jumps around when you add new items, items do not have a stable location on the screen. Motor memory was always a strong consideration in the original Macintosh. Hence, the Apple, File, and Edit menus always came first, in that order. Now, "demoability" takes precedence.

No, you can put them anywhere in the doc. At the end, at the beginning, it doesn't matter. Make it as boring and monotonous as you like (if that's what you're used to *cough*Windows*cough*)

6. The Trash Can belongs in the corner
This decision was so wrong that myriad hacks have already appeared on the net to address it. Apple's solution has been to enable you to pin the Dock to the right side of the screen, so that the trash can, alone, remains stable. This is great unless you happen to have another monitor to the right, so that the Dock ends up a foot away from your prime real estate.

Oh quit whining you baby. The trash can is always in the right corner of the doc. You're telling me it moving an inch this way or that completely throws you off?

5. Hiding the Dock makes things worse
Apple's latest solution to the firestorm of protest over the Dock is to allow the user to hide it. That way, it doesn't float over all your applications. Slide below the screen with your mouse and the Dock appears. This further Windows copy job, unfortunately, suffers from the same defect as the Windows Task Bar: You can't predict where a given object is until you reach the bottom of the screen and cause the Dock to reappear. Worse than with Windows, your job is not now over. Now, you begin the task of scrubbing back and forth vertically, trying to force the labels to appear, hoping you won't go far enough out of range in the process to cause the bar to disappear on you.

What the hell did this guy test it on, a Macintosh Plus? Takes less than a second to find your program, even if the doc is hidden. Hiding the doc isn't my thing, but I know several people who find it very useful.

4. The Dock ignores Fitts's Law
The corners and edges of the screen are predicted by Fitts's Law to be the most easily reached targets. The Dock hovers just above the bottom of the screen where it can safely avoid being in any way efficient.

Who gives a shit about Fitt's law. The doc works for people and it looks awsome, and it can be put on the sides of that's what you want.

3. Dock objects have holes
Carefully reproducing a bug in the original Macintosh, the new architects have built the Dock in such a way that users cannot click on transparent areas. Users go right to the middle of the object they want, click, and then wait for something to happen. It will be a long wait because nothing is going to happen if they happen to have clicked in an area with background showing through.

Ensuring confusion, these same engineers have coded the objects such that hovering over a transparent area does, in fact, show the label. This way, the user receives feedback that everything is cool, when, in fact, everything is anything but.

Update: This "feature" may have been corrected. Dock users are reporting that they can now click in the background areas. This may be because Apple changed the code or because application programmers have learned to build a separate mask that includes the background areas. If the former, the problem is really solved. If the latter, the problem is usually solved.

Well that one was a waste of time to read.

2. The Dock replaced better objects
Both Tab Menus and the Applications Menu are being forced into the dock. Tab menus are formed by dragging a Finder folder to the bottom of the screen, where it turns into a multi-level hierarchical menu. Tab menus have problems, not the least of which is that, every few weeks, the Mac crashes in such a way that they all disappear and must individually be restored, sometimes several times.

A Dock-like device, designed by interaction designers, could prove to be of great value in upgrading the current tab menu scheme. Unfortunately, since dropping Finder folders in the Dock results in a whole line of unlabeled folders, it isn't even close.

The Applications menu, in System 9, sits in the upper right hand corner of the screen, giving people reasonable access to running applications. It has its problems; for example, it neatly avoids high-speed access by not accepting a click from the absolute corner of the screen. Nonetheless, it works well enough and takes up little space.

The Dock throws the application menu's items in with everything else in the Dock, forming just one big jumble. (The applications are arranged on one end, but that doesn't seem much of a win; it is still one big jumble.)

On the contrary, the black arrows that appear under open applications are very visable. This is the only thing I don't like about the doc, however; It's impossible to tell what programs are in the doc permanently and which ones are just open. Still, a little use of the ol' memory fixes this problem easily.

1. The Dock adds bad behavior
The Dock adds a whole new behavior: Object annihilation. Drag an object off the dock and it disappears in a virtual puff of smoke. This is the single scariest idea introduced to the Macintosh since the original bomb icon. How would you feel if you spent eight hours working on your first Macintosh document, only to have it disappear entirely when you try to move it from the dock to the desktop? Pretty disorienting, no? This is a completely unnecessary concept for the user to have to learn, particularly in such a painful way. Makes for a "hot demo" though, doesn't it?

Everything in the doc are aliases. Only a complete moron would think his stuff got deleted when he drags a program or a folder out of the doc.