I really just wanted to go watch a movie and then come back and check the polls, but I realized for the few that actually take the time to check out the contestant’s blogs to see if their idea is worth voting for, that I should reward them with a response to the lack of judge’s love for Ground Control and a hearty, thank you and God bless you for actually reading about the apps you’re voting for.
This time, I’m just going to line up all the guest judges in one line and try to, er, shoot down their comments with one stone (to mix metaphors). Because basically, they’re all saying the same thing:
Kevin Rose (digg) - Tech Media:
Slick mockups, but my dock/widgets accomplish pretty much the same thing. I really don’t want another app taking up system resources.
Leo Laporte (This Week in Tech) - Tech Media:
Am I missing something? Aren’t there are already a half-dozen Dashboard widgets that do this?
Rik Myslewski (MacAddict) - Tech Media:
I’ve seen tons of these attempts at integrating everything — everything, that is, that’s already pretty well integrated if you already know how to control Mac OS X. Why, for example, would you ever need the iChat module when it does little (if anything) that iChat already does? What does it do other than integrate Dock functions and the functions of running multiple apps? Very little. Pass.
I have to be honest, as much as I respect them, these guys are not GC’s target market and therefore, I don’t know if they’re the best qualified to make a final judgement on GC. I may be wrong, but I highly doubt they have much more than Mail/Entourage, Safari/Firefox, Word and an assortment of smaller pet apps running at any given time. I admit, Ground Control will not appeal much to this type of user. That isn’t to say that these guys don’t do a ton of stuff and have incredibly busy workloads and schedules (Tom Green — sheesh!), it’s just that they have a working style and environment that doesn’t demand the features that Ground Control would bring to the table.
I’ve said it ad naseum, but Ground Control is for those of us, who, due to the nature of our work, work in multiple, resource intensive applications simultaneously and continuously, day in and day out. That’s where it is a pain, interrupting your workflow to go into Dashboard mode. Where launching just one more app, can disrupt the space/time continuum as it relates to your open application’s RAM usage. You want an address now. A phone number now. A calculation now. Relatively simple things. Yes, there are many widgets that do these functions. Yes, I can launch another app very easily from the Dock, but it slows me down. That is the point of Ground Control. Maybe it needs a name that better reflects that aspect.
It’s not going to completely replace either the Dashboard or the Dock. But it is going to revolutionize the way I work and help me to get things done faster. Not just because these items are at my fingertips quicker, but because they won’t interrupt the productive/creative workflow that can get derailed by a distracting trip to the Dashboard. The amount of time that it takes to get back in the groove is what is saved by Ground Control. This is very dear to any creative/production-oriented individual that bills by the hour.
Food For Thought
Not that this argues for Ground Control, but it does go to show that the Dock is not without its critics. daxelrod was kind enough to provide a link to Bruce Tognazzini’s (original and only Apple Human Interface Evangelist) critique of Apple’s Dock, 10 Reasons the Dock Sucks. He has since changed it to only nine, but it’s a good read.
