Dock (computing)

A dock, a GUI feature available in some operating systems is shown here in GNUstep as the area with tiles on the right hand side of the screen.

A dock is a graphical user interface element that typically provides the user with a way of launching, switching between, and monitoring running programs or applications. Early implementations of the dock concept include the icon bar at the bottom of the screen in Acorn Computers's Arthur operating system in 1987 (predecessor of the RISC OS) and the Dock at the right side of the screen in NeXT's NEXTSTEP operating system in 1986 (which led to Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X). The Common Desktop Environment that Sun Microsystems and others introduced in 1993 uses a dock. AmigaOS 4.0 and newer versions include a standard dock utility called AmiDock. It was a third party freeware utility which became de-facto standard into AmigaOS previous than 3.9 and then included in the OS since AmigaOS 3.9 launch in 1999. AROS Intel based AmigaOS clone keeps available to its users the freeware utility called Amistart, and leave them free to install it. MorphOS has its own docking utility included standard into the system, but is not compatile with Amiga Amidock.

Other dock implementations are included in Apple's Newton OS in 1993 and iPhone OS in 2007, and a variety of third party applications are available that can add dock features to operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Linux, though Mac OS X's has been the most commercially successful. The patent on Apple's desktop implementation was applied for in 1999, the year before the new Mac OS X interface was first publicly demonstrated, and granted in October 2008.^[1]

Early beta versions of Be Inc's BeOS had an icon containing dock located on the left hand side of the screen, before they developed their own hybrid taskbar approach. The Xfce desktop environment and the Étoilé desktop environment are open source projects that provide docks inspired by CDE and OS X respectively.

Docks in Today's World

Docks in today's world expand and improve upon the ways users interact with their computers, whether they are for portable systems of not, docks can allow for more multitasking and efficiency. They also add to the "cool" factor of your computer. Many Operating Systems come with a dock or allow Docks to be installed.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X comes with its own famous copyrighted dock. Containing various features such as zooming and access to maximized and minized programs. The following is Apple's Description of their Dock.

The Dock is the bar of icons that sits at the bottom or side of your screen. It provides easy access to some of the Apple applications on your Mac (such as Mail, Safari, iTunes, Address Book, and QuickTime Player), displays which applications are currently running, and holds windows in their minimized state. It's also the place to find the Trash (its icon looks like a waste basket). For your convenience, you can add your own applications, files, and folders to the Dock too.

Although sometimes criticized, there is no doubt that Apple inc. made a really famous dock. Also, no one seems to know what it's called.

Windows

The introduction of the Windows 7 Taskbar introduced a lot of dock-like features that further improved upon its original design and use. Though not considered a dock by many, it functions like many other docks. Allowing you to pin programs, organize icons and manage windows, it's not at all different from your average dock.

There are also other third party (paid or free) docks for Windows XP, Vista and 7 such Rockectdock and ObjectDock.

Linux

Many Linux Distros come with their own dock or have one available for installation. Examples are GLX Dock and AWN Dock.