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.

[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!

[diogopessoa]

Hello, friends.
With the diversity of screen models, having the option to position the Dock adds flexibility and enhances the user experience by allowing it to better adapt to individual work styles.

I know you’re working hard as you approach the release of elementary OS 8, and I hope you’ll be able to introduce this feature soon.

[patx]

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.

Just an idea. If the biggest problem encountered moving the dock is the applications menu covering it, why not just make the menu shift to the right however much it needs to miss the dock? Seems pretty straightforward solution to me...

[patx]

So I was looking more into this and I see settings for this in dconf editor. However they do not work. I think that is the REAL issue here. If advanced users would like to edit the location of the dock they should be allowed to through dconf I believe. I also believe this is a setting that would be cool to have even when the dock becomes more integrated into the multitasking view. It would be very cool to not have the dock just stuck on the bottom. Im not saying we have to put this into main settings so newer users can easily break something, but the donf should work!