Ding Dong, The Dock Is Dead

One of the biggest complaints I hear about OS X from non-OS X users is that they are so used to the Classic Mac interface that they don't want to learn a new way of doing things. And, up until a few weeks ago, I would smugly counter that complaint with, "OS X is the future, so just deal with it." Well, I no longer say that. Instead, I now say "OS X is the future, but you don't have to completely lose the interface you're used to."

If you're one of the three or four people that regularly read my musings, you might be screaming that I'm a hypocrite. After all, it wasn't too long ago that I was shouting from the mountaintops how much I loved the changes in OS X. Don't get me wrong; I still do. But after using OS X almost exclusively for a few months, I began to realize that I wasn't working quite as smoothly in X as I did in 9. Believe me, I don't miss the crashes one bit, which is why I gave the Classic Mac OS the boot in the first place. But I wasn't getting around quite as easily in X. So I began a journey to a Classic-inspired OS X interface, which all started with my growing dislike for the Dock.

Dock Woes

I still really like the Dock, at least in theory. A centralized toolbar where you can launch applications, monitor what's in use, manage your system resources, switch programs, and so on. Versatile, convenient, usable. In the real world, however, I couldn't really ever figure out what to do with the stinkin' thing. Should I hide it or always have it showing? Should I turn magnification on or off? How big should I make the icons? What's the best way for me to replicate the Apple Menu in the Dock? What side of the screen do I want it on? Should I corner pin it or not? So many questions, and I must have tried at least a thousand variations on a suitable Dock setup before I came up with something I could work with (fig. 1). Even though I had found an arrangement I liked, the Dock managed to tick me off because it was always in the way. Heaven forbid you try to maximize a window, because it would never go underneath the Dock the way I wanted, leaving a gigantic area of unused screen real estate extending out from either side of the Dock (fig. 2). And for all its purported flexibility, there were some things I wanted it to do that it just refused to do, like banish a program's icon from ever showing up in it (doable, but requires a terminal hack that, unfortunately, also obscured the target program's menu bar as well). Plus, I didn't like having to launch apps from the Dock when I had a constant reminder of the former greatness of the Apple Menu staring uselessly at me. The current incarnation of the Apple Menu is so worthless, it's almost as if it's only there as a mocking reminder that Steve Jobs really, REALLY wants you to use the Dock. And finally, I hated that I couldn't NOT use the Dock. Even hidden, it would pop up and get in my way if I pushed my cursor too far. It was all these frustrations with the Dock that left me longing for my Classic setup.

Figure 1: My somewhat usable Dock setup, with a process menu on the left and what passed for an Apple menu next to the trash can.

Figure 2: A lot of OS X apps don't like to get in the way of the Dock when their windows are maximized, which can mean tons o' barren screen real estate. What a waste.

The Apple Menu

And so the search began. The first thing I wanted back was the Apple Menu in its proper place. For the longest time, only one program fit the bill: Sig Software's Classic Menu (www.classicmenu.com, $10). There are three problems with it, though. First, it's kind of slow. I like to have a bunch of nested menus to keep all my various aliases tidy and neat, and it took a while to cache all the icons each time I wanted to browse through it. Second, it actually sits on top of X's native Apple Menu, so you have to specify a modifier key to get to the native menu. Third, development on it seems to have stopped. Regardless of its drawbacks, I was using it, so I paid my $10 since it was really the only game in town at the time. Then along came Unsanity's Fruit Menu (www.unsanity.com, $7). It actually replaces the Apple Menu (rather than just sit on top of it like Classic Menu), and allows you to keep all the Steve-imposed items from the native Apple Menu in addition to having a folder equivalent to OS 9's Apple Menu Items folder to house whatever you want. I created a Special submenu for all the native stuff I actually used so I wouldn't lose any functionality, and then I finally had my OS X Apple Menu pretty much the way I had it in OS 9 (fig. 3).

Figure 3: Ahh. The Apple Menu-licious wholesome goodness of Unsanity's Fruit Menu.

Application Switcher

The next thing was to find an application switcher for the top right of the menu bar. I didn't like not having a visual cue as to what program I was using at the top right of my screen, and I really missed the Hide (Current Program) and Hide Others commands. After some poking around, I found two candidates, both free to boot: X-Assist (members.ozemail.com.au/~pli/x-assist/) and ASM (asm.vercruesse.de). X-Assist has a few more features than ASM, including the ability to mimic the Apple Menu and a Control Strip-like architecture for system services, but I opted to use ASM (fig. 4) because I didn't need all the extra functionality X-Assist gave me. Either is nice; I suggest checking out both if you're looking for Application Menu functionality in X.

Figure 4: ASM gave me back my life. OK, so it just gave me back my application switcher.

Trash Can

At this point, I was on a roll. What's next? Let's see if I can find a way to put the Trash Can back on the desktop, just like in 9! After a brief search, I had two candidates here as well: DragThing ($25), and TrashX ($7). Both let you put the Trash Can back on the desktop where it belongs (fig. 5), and both allow dragging of files, folders, and volumes to it the way you can in the Dock, albeit without the nice contextual icon change the Dock gives you. Although TrashX was just fine, I ultimately paid for DragThing, because in addition to the Trash Can feature, DragThing gave me a true...

Figure 5: So, Mr. Trash Can, my old nemesis. We meet again.

Dock Replacement

My quest to finally rid myself of the Dock consisted of two parts. One, I had to find something that gave me the Dock's process menu (without using the real Dock, which, as I mentioned before, doesn't let most apps maximize to full screen size). Second, I wanted to not use the Dock. At all. Ever. Not even have it hidden. After some more searching, I realized that I could use DragThing to replicate the tear-off application menu I had in Classic (fig 6). Even better, DragThing lets you prevent certain apps from showing up in the process menu. Someday I'll actually get around to the incredible flexibility DragThing offers by adding a bunch of application-specific docks, but for now I'm happy. It's not perfect; any contextual items accessible from the real Dock aren't available. For example, you can't right-click on the iTunes icon and access the play controls, nor does the Mail icon update to reflect the number of new messages you've received. But I did just fine without that stuff before, and ridding myself of the Dock entirely was more important than keeping the few niceties it actually added. Which leads me to the second part of my quest: killing the Dock. Dead. Gone. Forgotten. I'll tell you how, but be warned: to kill the Dock, you have to buddy up to the terminal and enable SuperUser (aka root) access. For those of you who are terminally challenged, don't worry. We're not doing anything that could kill your system, but another warning: root access in general, if used incorrectly, can REALLY screw up your machine, so proceed with caution. If you're really adverse to using the terminal, I suggest making the Dock as small as possible, turn auto-hiding on, and place it on a side of the screen where you'd be unlikely to have it pop up by accident. Now that I've thrown out a few disclaimers, here's the process:

Figure 6: DragThing has a pretty cool Process Menu, which is small and unobtrusive like OS 9's old tear-off process menu.

First, if you haven't already, you have to give your SuperUser a password in order to wield its mighty power:

% sudo passwd

Then enter and confirm your password, and you are now SuperUser enabled.

Now, since the Dock isn't anything more than an application, all we need to do is change the name of the Dock to something else. That way it's completely reversible, and you're not actually deleting the Dock. You can't do the renaming through the Finder; that's why we're bothering to do this through the terminal at all. So, fire up the terminal and enter:

% su
(enter your password)
# cd /System/Library/CoreServices
# mv Dock.app DockOld.app

Basically, what I did was log in as root (su), navigate to where the Dock is (cd /System/Library/CoreServices), and then changed the name of the Dock to DockOld (mv Dock.app DockOld.app). Now log off, log back on, and viola! Buh-bye Dock. To bring it back to life, just go back to the terminal and enter the following:

% su
(enter your password)
# cd /System/Library/CoreServices
# mv DockOld.app Dock.app

Log off and log back on again, and all should be back as it was.

Command-tabbing

With the Dock now gone, there are a couple of things that don't work anymore. The first is application switching through the Command-tab shortcut key. Keyboard Maestro (www.keyboardmaestro.com, $20 for full version, free Lite version) fit the bill here (fig 7). I just use it for the program switching, but it also has a couple of cool features of note: hot keys and multiple clipboards. So, now that we've got our Command-tabbing back, there's just one more thing to fix.

Figure 7: Keyboard Maestro's Program Switcher.

WindowShading

The other thing that doesn't work without the Dock is the minimize button. In fact, in most apps, Aqua's minimize button is grayed out (fig 8). Unsanity to the rescue again, with their excellent WindowShade X utility (www.unsanity.com, $7). WindowShade X brings back OS 9's WindowShade feature with a twist. On an application by application basis, you can set any one of four minimize options to a different setting (fig 9), so chances are you won't miss the minimize feature.

Figure 8: I killed the Dock, and it took the Minimize button with it.

Figure 9: WindowShade X's myriad window management options.

Doowhatchalike

OK, just for fun, look at figure 10. The left side is my old OS 9 desktop, and the right side is my tweaked OS X desktop. I was able to keep just what I wanted from both 9 and X, despite Steve's wishes, and now I'm really a happy camper. Lord knows I respect the fact that everyone works differently, so please don't gripe at me if I didn't happen to mention your particular favorite part of Classic that didn't make the trip over to X (Labels and the Control Strip come immediately to mind). And I'm still waiting for something that will give us back the spring-loaded folders function Classic offered (rumored for 10.2, but I'm not holding my breath). The point is, with a little research and a few bucks you can probably find suitable replacements for the Classic features you just can't live without. And please, PAY THE DEVELOPERS for whatever you do end up using. Most shareware authors graciously let you evaluate their wares, sometimes indefinitely, but if you plan to use their products please try to get them the nominal fee they usually charge for their often excellent work.

Figure 10: Out with the old, in with the (kind of) new.

I know the BIG EVENT most of us are collectively waiting for is the release of Photoshop on X, but now you have one less excuse not to be on X while you wait (and Photoshop 6 works just fine in Classic mode under X, by the way). It's entirely possible to replicate the Classic look and feel, and at the same time move up to all the great modern features OS X offers. Happy hunting!

Filed under: Tutorial on January 15th, 2002

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