No Mac zealots, Apple didn't invent the dock

Monday, July 21, 2008 by Draginol | Discussion: Personal Computing

With Dell taking the Windows experience to the next level with the introduction of the Dell Dock, I've seen a lot of online buzz about it.  Most agree that the Dell Dock is really good but intermixed are a lot of Mac fans who use terms like "Mac rip off" or how it's a copy of the Mac dock.

imageMac zealots have a long and glorious history of retroactively claiming pre-existing concepts as being invented by Apple.  For example, the modern "widget" (end user created applets that use Javascript) was not invented by Apple.  They also didn't first appear in Konfabulator either. They appeared in Stardock DesktopX years earlier. Apple zealots usually counter by arguing that things like desktop accessories from 1981 "invented" the concept (as if the average user was going to whip out small assembly language programs).

imageI think most rational people agree that the modern widget is a mini application that can be created by end users that are tied together with a high level scripting language (i.e. Yahoo Widgets, Dashboard, Sidebar Gadgets, DesktopX).  And DesktopX borrowed the concept from IBM's worksplace shell which in turn was inspired by prior art as well.

But the controversy over widgets is nothing compared to the claim that Apple somehow invented the concept of docks.  Even allowing for the history of NeXT with its side dock, the dock concept is ancient.

 Stardock, for example, has been doing "docks" since 1994.  Object Desktop for OS/2 included things like Tab LaunchPad and Control Center. You don't see Stardock fans complaining that every sidebar is a "rip off" of Control Center. And Control Center certainly didn't invent the concept of a side-based bar or dock either.

You would be hard pressed to find many companies that have been continuously producing a dock and a sidebar as long as Stardock has -- 14 consecutive years of development. I think it's fair to say that we weren't "inspired" by an Apple OS that wouldn't exist for 7 more years from the time we started doing this sort of thing.

image
Tab LaunchPad on OS/2 circa 1994

Stardock makes no claims of having invented the dock.  We called our first dock Tab LaunchPad because IBM itself had created a dock for OS/2 2.0:

image
IBM OS/2 LaunchPad circa 1992

But let's say you're a true die-hard Steve Jobs zealot and want to argue that NeXT "invented" the dock. You'd still be wrong as docks were part of Acorn computers from the early 80s.  The point, of course, isn't who invented the dock, the argument of course is whether companies like Stardock (who wrote the Dell Dock) were somehow ripping off or stealing or what have you from the MacOS dock and I think you can see why this is such an obnoxious and offensive argument - we've been making docks since before Apple had figured out how to do preemptive multitasking.

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words.  Here is a picture of what the Macintosh looked like in 1996 (System 7.5) along with a picture of Stardock Object Desktop in 1996:

image vs. image
Mac 1996 vs. Stardock Object Desktop 1996: Which desktop do you think more closely resembles today's modern desktop? Note that Object Desktop was written during the Windows 3.1 era.

Stardock doesn't run around claiming that it invented the modern desktop experience. We don't imply or assert that everyone else is "ripping us off". Some ideas are just obvious.

The Dell Dock represents the continuing evolution of the desktop experience. Like all improvements to the user experience, inspiration can be found everywhere. But when advocates of a company or an operating system try to lay exclusive claim to all such improvements, they diminish the hard work, innovation, and inventiveness by thousands of other people from around the world who often have worked in obscurity with little glory. It is bad enough that these innovators don't get credit they deserve, it's even worse when they are so often smeared as copying those who came after.

Other Pictures:

image
Dell Dock

image
Stardock ObjectDock

image
Stardock ObjectDock Plus (4 different docks)

image
Stardock Impulse Dock

First Previous Page 3 of 5 Next Last
Annatar11
Reply #41 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:34 AM
Steve Jobs = tool. Bill Gates = tool.


See, that's exactly why I classified them as ewoks - almost everyone can agree they suck
ZubaZ
Reply #42 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:38 AM
My daughters love the ewoks.
ZubaZ shudders
SanChonino
Reply #43 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:39 AM
almost everyone can agree they suck


Not true! Must defend!



Annatar11
Reply #44 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:44 AM
My daughters love the ewoks. Zubaz shudders


Yeah but they don't count because they're young and unknowledgeable in the ewoks' evil ways.
ZubaZ
Reply #45 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:49 AM
So. Off. Topic.
So Funny.

ZubaZ goes to get a cold Colt45
Annatar11
Reply #46 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:56 AM
If the old Sins Beta team got back together, no thread would stay on topic for more than 3-4 replies. We were damn good at that

Love the vid, by the way
Fuzzy Logic
Reply #47 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 3:27 PM
Ewoks char grill really well... 
Clocknova
Reply #48 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 5:13 PM
Wow. You Windows/Linux guys seem to really have something to prove. Jobs worse than Gates? That's a good one.

Guess I'll just go back to enjoying my operating system, interrupted only occasionally by having to boot into Windows (shudder) to play GalCiv2.

Why don't you guys just enjoy your own operating systems and shut the frak up. No one cares whose is bigger anymore.
Clocknova
Reply #49 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 5:15 PM
As one of the few Mac users that works at Stardock (oh no! those exist! no waiz!), I feel like I should do my shpeel...


How about getting to work on a Mac version of GalCiv2 so I don't have to boot into the horror that is Windows anymore for a dose of gaming bliss? So many other companies are doing it.

Please.
Nimbin
Reply #50 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 5:25 PM
Wow. You Windows/Linux guys seem to really have something to prove. Jobs worse than Gates? That's a good one.

Guess I'll just go back to enjoying my operating system, interrupted only occasionally by having to boot into Windows (shudder) to play GalCiv2.

Why don't you guys just enjoy your own operating systems and shut the frak up. No one cares whose is bigger anymore.






touchy aint we?. another example of how macnatics can't take the heat
Annatar11
Reply #51 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 5:32 PM
No one cares whose is bigger anymore.


Obviously you do, with a post that can barely keep it civil
Voqar
Reply #52 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 8:45 PM
It's not like Apple has ever worried much about accuracy or honest regarding itself or its advertising. And Apple's iFanboys eat it all up.
heft
Reply #53 Thursday, July 24, 2008 12:16 AM
However, Apple DID create Steve Jobs...


I think Steve Wozniak deserves some of the credit. Where would Apple be without him.
Markus Aurelius
Reply #54 Thursday, July 24, 2008 3:40 AM
Where in the article does it say that Apple invented the dock?
All they are saying is that Dell made Vista look at bit like OS X.
Which is obvious when you look at the screenshots - nothing to argue about.

I would recommend to just ignore those Mac zealots. Or do you also get
upset everytime a PC zealot claims Microsoft have invented the internet?
No wait, that must have been Stardock as well...
Bebi Bulma
Reply #55 Thursday, July 24, 2008 4:24 AM
Nah man, Al Gore invented the net.
ubernaught
Reply #56 Thursday, July 24, 2008 4:55 AM
huh?

I thought Mac died years ago? Isn't apple just like linux now or something?
Markus Aurelius
Reply #57 Thursday, July 24, 2008 5:07 AM
Nah man, Al Gore invented the net.


Does that mean Apple invented it because Al is on their board?
So there must be some truth to Apple claiming to invent everything.
Wizard1956
Reply #58 Thursday, July 24, 2008 10:09 AM
Henry Ford didn't invent the automobile,but he did make it affordable for the masses.
Regardless of who invented the dock,my never-say-die free ObjectDock costs considerably less than a Mac.
I rest my case.
Doronila1
Reply #59 Thursday, July 24, 2008 2:04 PM
Objectdock + Vista Ultimate + HD4870 + Phenom 9950BE + Dinove Edge + x-fi extremegamer + WB + Razer Lachesis + Creative Gigaworks s750 + Iiyama 24inch widescreen + deskscapes > anything apple could come up with.

Besides apple fans are like sheep...
Zwanglos
Reply #60 Thursday, July 24, 2008 2:27 PM
Just tried ObjectDock after reading this article ... was impressed enough with the freeware that I had to buy the Plus version. Good program!

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