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Apple's Mac OS X Lion is due to be released this month and boasts a new feature called Launch Pad. Launch Pad is nothing new to iOS users, as it is the best of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch — now coming to the desktop.

Where Launch Pad is a big win for desktop users is a sheer numbers game. In addition, its organizational abilities run circles around the now antiquated Dock.  

When OS X 10.0 (Cheeta) first launched in 2001 there was immediate cry from many that the Dock was inferior to OS 9's Apple menu. But Apple didn't flinch, and choose to improve the Dock, making it the key access point for apps and routinely accessed files. However, iOS mobile devices broke this paradigm and within the walls of 1 Infinite Loop they were scheming how to bring a similar interface to the Mac OS X desktop.

The Numbers Game: Looking at the image above, the Dock is near its maximum with 18 items. This is the standard Dock configuration when starting up a new Mac. Once the user ads in their own apps, the Dock can look like an ant-sized nightmare of barely deciferable icons. However, with Lion's Launchpad, the entire screen is used to display apps. Again referencing the image above, Apple shows 32 Apps in Launch Pad with room for 8 more. And then there is scrolling to another screen. Each screen can hold up to 40 apps. All told a much better way to find apps.

Organization: Apps can also be stored in folders — like iOS devices. This is a huge deal, as Lion users will be able to take advantage of grouping and organizing apps the way they have been doing on their iPhones and iPads.

In summary, it looks like the Dock may still be useful on occasion, but for this user, I expect my Dock to be hidden most of the time and only to show up when my mouse finds its way towards the bottom of the screen.

8 Comments

1. Tim ~ July 7, 2011 02:36
   I have 28 icons in my dock and they are huge icons, I have no problems seeing them. Plus, I have many document folders (and plain documents) in my dock, which is something I use probably more often than the apps part, so for me launchpad won't be replacing the dock anytime soon. Oh, and not to mention the trash... they don't have that in the launchpad do they?
2. David ~ July 7, 2011 06:03
   The Dock has to be one of the worst app launchers ever conceived so certainly Launchpad is an improvement. To me, however, Launchpad looks like the kind of mess that poorly organized users created back in the classic MacOS 7/8/9 days: desktops filled with all manner of icons.
3. PIF ~ July 7, 2011 12:35
   No plans to upgrade to Lion until at least 10.7.6 or buying new mac. Which ever comes first...
4. Wilson ~ July 7, 2011 12:37
   Yeah, on a large display you can have +40 big icons. The launchpad was a necessity for the tiny iPhone display but not much usable for the desktop, specially for power users. If you're a recent mac user, probably you don't know but Apple had a special system that shipped with Performas and was targeted mainly for the education that have a interface much like the launchpad, do some research and you will see it.
5. amigo1 ~ July 7, 2011 15:46
   I have 36 icons in my dock and can easily view them. I have the doc set at 1/5 for size and 1/3 for magnification; it's obvious that I can easily add more if I choose to do so. The 36 include 4 folders that I regularly access, one of them being Applications. I'll wait to see if I prefer to make the change to launchpad, keeping in mind that it always takes time to get used to any new system. One app that I used extensively prior to Snow Leopard was FruitMenu from Unsanity. It allows access to any folder and files in the Apple and contextual menus. I could drill down immediately through folder levels. I just checked and it appears that FruitMenu has been updated. If it still works as well, at $15 it'll be well worth my money.
6. Dave ~ July 20, 2011 15:51
   I agree with the article. I rarely use the dock since moving to Lion over a month ago. Some of the comments seem like they're coming from "power users" -- aka the people who spend 20 hours a day on their computers and cry when something gets changed (usually for the better, but they refuse to believe so.) Get over it.
7. Jake ~ July 24, 2011 18:34
   The dock really is at it maximum around 20 something icons for smaller computers. I'm running a 13 inch macbook pro, and with 32 icons, they're small enough to be annoying, but large enough to see. The problem is not really visibility, it's just that there's no organization to them. All of the apps in my dock are linear, and there are really more that I'd like to have in, but can't fit.
8. Jacob ~ July 29, 2011 10:19
   I wasnt impressed during the keynote, but man I've replaced the dock ever since the lion release. I've setup a buttom on my mouse for launchpad, now I dont have to ALWAYS travel down to the dock but click *bang* my apps is next to the cursor right away. Much faster. I dont use dock anymore.

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