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Explained: Why you can't move Windows 11 taskbar like Windows 10, according to Microsoft
(www.windowslatest.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
At least on a Mac we can choose bottom or left! Wild that Microsoft won't give Windows users the option.
Of course you could say Mac is dorky with its always on menu bar at the top, but I quite like it. Even on my laptop with a notch it's not terrible. And I like the status bar (right side of the menu bar).
And of course on Linux you can just have it any which way you want it.
I still generally prefer windowing on Windows 11 to macOS Tahoe. Since Sequoia (the last version) we've had basic windowing (and before that, free apps like Rectangle to shoehorn it in), but what Microsoft started with Aero Snap in Windows 7 has never been "the Mac way." I think the old Mac users prefer a controlled chaos on their desktop. I like a more elegant setup. I like how I have Windows set up at work. It doesn't quite work as well on Mac, to try to do the same thing, but I wouldn't trade my Mac for something like my work PC, even if it could play more games.
Menu bar at the top at least makes some sense - it's easier to mouse to it, since you can't go too far. Having menus per-window like Linux, or like Windows used to before big ugly ribbons became the thing, is easier to overshoot. (Which is why I always open my menu bars by pressing 'alt' with my left thumb, and then using the keyboard shortcuts that are helpfully underlined. Window likes to hide those from you now since they're 'ugly', and also makes you mouse over the pretty icons to get the tooltip that tells you what they are, which is just a PITA. Pretty != usable.)
Mac OS has had the menu at the top since before it was a multitasking OS. They had them there on the first Mac I ever used, a Mac Classic 2 back in 1991 or so, and it was probably like that before then too. It's not like they've been 'innovating' that particular feature and annoying their users.
To be clear, the Macintosh in 1984 had the menu bar. Amiga had it, too. Now, the dock — that came later. I remember System 7 or Mac OS 8 had a zip-tie pull-out thingy on the left (and Microsoft 2000 copied it). I think the actual Dock as we know it now came in OS X. And there were clones (e.g. AquaDock) until Apple started handing out C&Ds and lawsuits. I tried a couple (on Windows), none of them were great.