Old Jewel Software Releases Dock Gone

Old Jewel Software has released the latest version of Dock Gone, its utility for "turning off" the Mac OS X Dock. With version 1.0.2, Dock Gone is now fully tested against Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. This latest version is available on Old Jewel Software's web site now.

Dock Gone puts full control of when the Dock appears in the user's hands. With a keyboard shortcut or from the menu bar, a user can effectively turn the Dock off so that it will not appear again until requested from Dock Gone. This gives the user a Mac environment where the Dock will not appear at all until he presses Dock Gone's keyboard shortcut or explicitly turns the Dock back on from the status menu.

As the Dock works normally, it can be set to hide itself, but it will linger on the edge of the screen. When the mouse touches that screen edge, the Dock reappears, often covering the very thing the user was trying to get to. This behavior is especially noticeable in professional applications with many inspectors and toolbars that tend to live on the edges of the screen. In these apps, users have to choose between dealing with an overzealous Dock or giving up an entire screen edge.


Many Mac users and user interface experts have written about this limitation of the Dock. It's a common point of contention on Mac blogs. There are any number of suggestions how to make the Dock less obtrusive, from moving the Dock to a less often used screen edge to hacking the system to keep the Dock from running at all. Dock Gone attempts to give users full access to the Dock when they want it while keeping it out of the way safely when it's not wanted.

Several products have been released that attempt to hide the Dock completely so that it will not reappear when the mouse reaches the edge of the screen. Some involve system hacks or commands written into the Terminal. Others work well in older versions of Mac OS X, but have issues with Leopard and now Snow Leopard. Dock Gone is designed explicitly for Leopard and Snow Leopard. It works without any system hacks, and it allows the Dock to continue to work in the background, just without popping up when it's not wanted.

When Dock Gone was first released, it received a hearty welcome from some users who have a particularly vocal dislike of the Dock, such as Alex Lindsay of MacBreak Weekly. Alex featured Dock Gone on the June 16 2009 episode of MacBreak Weekly and had wonderful things to say about it. On the show, though, the question of whether Dock Gone would work with Snow Leopard came up. With version 1.0.2, Dock Gone is a first class citizen within Snow Leopard, so anyone using it can expect a seamless upgrade without any issues from Dock Gone.

Pricing and Availability:
Dock Gone is shareware. It is offered as a 15 day trial with occasional reminders to register. After that, it will not turn the Dock off unless the user registers. Licenses are $14.95 (USD). Dock Gone is available for download from Old Jewel Software's web site. Users who have downloaded a previous version can also get the latest version via automatic update.