Umm, the dock provides one click access to launch a program. It also shows which program is currently running.

That's all the dock was intended to do and it does it well.

Are you confused about the intention of the dock?

Not at all, I just disagree with your assessment. In my opinion, the Dock is a travesty of GUI design.

I wouldn't go as far as Pudds, but... I do not use the Dock. I'm an avid OS X user - it's my preferred desktop OS. But I use Spotlight or Quicksilver (click the Quicksilver tab) for application launching. Like Pudds, I wouldn't voluntarily install the Dock anywhere else.

@ Joe

What is this "one click access to launch a program" you speak of? Oh wait, they have that in windows: it's called AN ICON!

I wish us poor Windows users had something that "shows which program is currently running." Oh, wait, it's called THE TASKBAR!

You're making the dock sound like it was the first to achieve these astounding feats. Well it wasn't, and quite frankly the dock just isn't that great, and I have no intention whatsoever of ever adding a "dock" feature to my wow interface, thank you.