Alternate Location of Dock - on Left or Right edge of screen

[MarkJelic]

Problem

Most screens are viewed in Landscape. That means that Vertical screen real estate is rarer, and thus more precious, than horizontal screen real estate. MacOS, which from what I can tell Elementary is largely styled on (thankfully), allows for the Dock to be placed on the Left or Right edges of the screen, as well as the default Bottom. So does Windows 10, but not Windows 11 which is the main reason I will never upgrade and am looking to replace it with Linux like this.

Proposal

Please allow for the placement of the Dock to be also possible on the Left or Right edges of the screen. This option could be added to the Settings > Desktop > Dock & Panel as a drop down list.

Prior Art (Optional)

No response

[danirabbit]

elementary OS is not styled after macOS and it isn’t a goal to look or behave like macOS.

Regarding taking up space, the dock hides by default when covered by another window so it doesn’t practically take up any space at all when not in use unless you’ve specifically configure it to never hide and take up space

I think the biggest problem we currently have with repositioning the dock is that if you place it on the left it would be covered by the applications menu so you would be unable to easy drag and drop apps from the applications menu into the dock.

We’re also looking at bringing the workspace switcher UI into the dock from the multitasking view since we’ve received a lot of feedback that it’s cumbersome to switch workspaces with a mouse driven workflow as opposed to keyboard or multitouch so repositioning the dock would then come into conflict with how the multitasking view is laid out

so historically we’ve avoided dock repositioning because it causes issues with other parts of the shell.

[MarkJelic]

elementary OS is not styled after macOS and it isn’t a goal to look or behave like macOS.

Well I don't know what to say, except well... Feel free to put up a poll or something. Every time I show it to anyone, they always mention that it looks like MacOS, especially because of the Dock.

Regarding taking up space, the dock hides by default

Yes, the MacOS version of the Dock can do that too. And next to nobody has it configured like that. The Dock shows you which apps are running and for the mouse-centric is easy to use to bring Apps to the fore. Mac users are simple, visual creatures. ;)

I think the biggest problem we currently have with repositioning the dock is that if you place it on the left it would be covered by the applications menu

So, I could move it to the right instead, add the app, and move it back to the left if I was dead keen on it being to the left? (I have my Mac configured to the Right, anyway)

We’re also looking at bringing the workspace switcher UI into the dock

Not everyone uses the workspace switcher.

All I'm saying is: Don't be Windows 11 Windows 10 and MacOS allow you to have the Taskbar/Dock anywhere you wanted. Let the user choose what they like to see. Don't be a commie OS like Windows 11 has become.

[danirabbit]

Again, elementary OS is not macOS, so the way MacOS's dock works has nothing to do with us. The dock in elementary OS does automatically hide by default.

move it to the right instead, add the app, and move it back to the left

We definitely shouldn't expect a workaround like this to be the default workflow. That's a really crappy experience

Not everyone uses the workspace switcher

This is exactly the reason why we're looking at moving it to the dock. Pantheon's multitasking model is based around workspaces, so making sure that the UI elements needed to navigate workspace are prominent is an important design goal

Don't be a commie

1. Not an appropriate way to engage with this community
2. Quite a lot of our contributors are socialists and communists so if you don't like that feel free to use a capitalist operating system
3. What you mean is don't be authoritarian, but our design philosophy is not about adding endless options just because people want them. We don't make design decisions into options. Usually options have to have some kind of accessibility reasoning to be worth maintaining

[MarkJelic]

That's a really crappy experience

Depends on your perspective. Not having the Dock on the Left or Right could be seen as a crappy experience. Like, how often would you need to drag apps from the menu to the Dock, compared to how often do you use your workspace and want to make best use of your screen real estate?

What you mean is don't be authoritarian,

My bad, and yes you are correct. How about "Don't be Microsoft"? Because you certainly are acting very much like them. "Do it our way, or the highway"

Usually options have to have some kind of accessibility reasoning to be worth maintaining

I've given the reasoning: We like to see the dock all the time, but Vertical Screen Real Estate is precious. Especially when you have an ultra-wide 3440 x 1920 monitor. Windows 11 will never touch my machine because of it. I'd love to see Elementary be an viable alternative to when I ditch Windows 10.

Hopefully someone will add it to the Tweaks extension. Being able to add in the Minimise button to windows was a game changer. And not being able to have the Dock on the side is a deal breaker, as it is for Windows 11.

[JPLeBreton]

Upgrading from a much older version of pantheon, I was pretty surprised to see the new dock not supporting being on the left or right screen edge. That's my preferred setup in every system with a remotely dock-like UI element (including Windows 10), so that it can be on screen at all times, showing me which programs I have open. "Auto-unhide when the mouse is near" always feels so wrong to me, like an unhappy compromise between something being important enough to keep on screen but wanting to save the screen real estate anyway for the goal of looking "cleaner".

I didn't even know about the "drag shortcuts from applications menu into dock" feature, so it never registered with me that that was more of a pain with dock-on-left - when setting up a new system I've always populated my dock by launching an application and then selecting "Keep in Dock", then I never have to think about it again.

I definitely get the desire to have a single design that Works instead of abdicating responsibility and making it a user preference, but I feel strongly this is a case where it should be configurable, because peoples' workflows are pretty different, some people use multiple OSes where this is an option and want a measure of consistency, and this has a huge impact on the overall ergonomics of the desktop. I totally understand why the current default is how it is though, and appreciate the care with which you've explained your rationale here. Hoping that once OS8 is out yall can add this option and make the dock maximally usable for the most people. Thanks!