techlobo wrote:
You can do all of the things you ask, and more, with NextStart taskbar.
I understand from others on this forum that the Dock capabilities of Nexus are very good also, and those of Nexus Ultimate are even better. I don't use Docks myself but do use the WorkShelf capability of Nexus Ultimate and find that very useful.
It's ironic really in a way that you're not using the dock. The thing is, the metaphor of the dock was first introduced by the NeXTStep/Openstep OS back in the late 1980s, which served (among a few other functions) as a launcher for your most frequently used apps, with a separate tasklist for running apps not held on it at the bottom of the screen governed by the dock. Then around 1994 or 95 (IIRC) an experimental new user interface was introduced with the beta for Openstep 4 (or 4.1?), which replaced the dock with a shelf (another first), with running apps displayed on a cube - none of which was eventually released with the final release version. And the Nextstep/Openstep GUI was of course the original inspiration for Winstep. But instead of just sticking with one or the other, we ended up with both a dock and shelf (but no cube!
) and now even multiple ones if you like.
As an aside - or two - much of the basic Linux OS was inspired by Next/Openstep as well, way back in the day, giving rise to the GNU project which still forms the essential 'backbone' of Linux (hence also the moniker 'GNU/Linux' - as Linux as such is really just the kernel of the OS). And more than merely inspiration, the Windows GUI from Win 95 and NT4 onwards actually reverse-engineered the Next/Openstep GUI and modified it (MS eventually did pay NeXT in the end) - the dock and its tasklist giving rise to the Windows taskbar and start menu, essentially.
Sadly, then-Next users - myself included - were eventually completely betrayed and left up the proverbial creek when Steve Jobs bought out Apple (which was on the verge of going bust) and dumbed down Openstep as the new MacOS X in 96, with all support for users of other hardware ended.
So all in all I guess you could say that NeXTStep/Openstep was the most influential desktop OS of all time with a truly revolutionary (at the time) GUI.