Haiku: BeOS Reborn

[Liam Proven]

On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 1:20 AM, Michael Haney <thezorch at gmail.com> wrote:


> AWN is in the repos, its an OS X Dock clone for Linux
> which pretty much does everything the real thing does except for those
> neat expanding folders.

Oh, no, really, it isn't and doesn't. I tried it and found it an
appalling tacky toy, incapable of almost any of the real Dock's
functionality. It's what you'd get if someone who had never used a Mac
and had only read a couple of reviews and based your impression of
what the Dock was on a screenshot.

AWN is a rather clumsy app launcher and switcher.

To say that is what the Dock is like saying that Paul Allen's
/Octopus/ is a yacht. (If you don't know the Octopus, go look it up.
It makes a Bond supervillain's secret base seem weak.) Or that the
/Encyclopædia Britannica/ is a list of facts. It's true but it doesn't
really cover the options.

The Apple dock:
 - seamlessly merges running apps with as-yet-unlaunched ones, so the
user doesn't really need to know which is which;
 - holds shortcuts to user folders and documents as well as programs;
 - is the main system tool for managing minimised windows;
 - can also host menus, applets and file browsers;
 - its icons are *live* thumbnails of icons, so you can actually watch
a movie playing in its Dock icon, for instance;
 - is pretty customisable - it can go at middle, beginning or end of
the left, right or bottom of the screen, it can be smoothly adjusted
in size, it even lets you choose the animation for apps being
minimised and restored;
 - & is visually gorgeous, can run at any size from tiny to huge, with
smooth magnification, either of the whole bar or just of individual
icons as you mouseover them;

AWN is a bar at the bottom centre of the screen that holds shortcuts &
icons for running apps & has a few (I thought rather tacky) animations
for selecting icons. I was /very/ disappointed in it. It has little of
the functionality, the developers have gone straight for the chrome -
but they're not terribly good even at that.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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