The Best Free Software of 2009 by PCMag.com (App Launchers)

[sgtevmckay]

If this subject has already been posted I appologize in advance, that I missed it.

Circle Dock has been chosen as the The Best Free Software of 2009 by PCMag.com 

From PCMag.com
1. Circle Dock
circledock.wikidot.com
Windows
Who says a dock has to actually... dock? To the side of the screen, that is. Circle Dock brings up a spiraling launcher interface with all the icons you want to click. Rotate it with the wheel on your mouse and change the skin to suit your desktop.

And to Circle Dock's credit it is ranked higher than Stardock's Objectdock.   

As Objectdock has been the leader for so long this is of incredible standing/significance.
Not to mention they are in the number 2 spot 

I run Circle Dock, Object dock, and Rocket Dock, but I am ready to discontinue use of the latter two.

I find it unfortunate that the Circle dock project has seemed to stall, at the moment, but my sincere hope is that it does not falter, and that these folks here, in development, can capitalize on the free advertising and support that has just been handed by PC Magazine.

To say I like this program is an understatement.

I am a graphic designer, It Administrator, digital presentation giver/developer, and CEO of a personal business.

I combine the unlimited navigation provided by Circle Dock in conjunction with 360 Desktop on my laptop. This highly compensates for a lack of 4 monitors, while I am out in the field, But circle dock is so good I have no conflict in use with three monitors + one large demonstration viewer at  my office.
Circle dock gets a lot of attention during my presentations, and I use it as an eye-getter. I will pre-program Circle dock with the necessary Folders, Icons, and dress prior to presentation, and I Have received numerous comments about its effectiveness to get attention and appear organized in presentation situations.
I Have not hesitated to recommended this product to my colleagues, friend, and anyone who has inquired.

It is my sincere hope to see this project grow.

Thanks to the program writers of this project for making me a better presenter, and more productive over all.

Not to mention that this dock is cool as all get out!

Regards

E. V. McKay
Magis Esse

[housetier]

Thank you so much for taking your time to write about your experiences and uses! I am sure it will be appreciated by the author. At the very least *I* appreciate it as a member of the donationcoder community.

Do you miss certain features in Circle Dock, or do you have issues that need resolving?

[sgtevmckay]

The only 2 issues I have, I consider minor;
1.) the ability to place shortcuts where I want in the order ( I will figure this out shortly, or when I have time to screw around)
2.) During start up, sometimes I will get my circle in the center and the shortcuts in the upper left hand corner. Easily fixed by center clicking twice.

I am currently working on several new design circles that I use for custom presentations.
For certain companies, it is nice to put their logo in the center of the circle, it gives the feel of proper presentation and a concern for the represented company, not to mention it wprks perfectly with my own business logo
It is so much faster and pleasing to have a semi-clear circle of necessaries pop up on screen, than to have to minimize everything and search the cluster on my desktop, or to have to activate the menu screen to find something.
For presentations, all I have to do is load the file, folders and Icons I need.

I guess and idea would be to have custom profiles. So that I can set up several presentations in advance and then open that profile with the appropriate icons, folders, and software on the fly.


I have always disliked the idea of having the Object dock or Rocket dock over run a presentation if I fly to the appropriate side of the display, but with Circle dock, it is there when I need it and where I want it.
Circle dock has allowed me to turn off the other docks as I do not want them popping up during a presentation.

[wreckedcarzz]

I would not worry about CD's development halting, as not only is VideoInPicture (CD author) dedicated to what he does, but even if something were to happen, the source code is openly available for anyone knowing C#.

I agree with all the positive thoughts - I don't currently run Circle Dock, and I have purchased ObjectDock Plus, but looking back I probably used CD more than ODP. It's just much easier to setup, and like you said, doesn't get in the way when moving to the side of the screen (important for gamers like me).

EDIT: Oh, and welcome to the forum!

[sgtevmckay]

Thanks for the welcome.

I had Object Dock Plus and could not get it to operate correctly.
Kept hanging on FireFox, Thunderbird, and other program launches.
Of all things I wanted in object dock was the tabbing capability.
I love the tabbing drawer option of Object dock and the ability only to display when I click on it.
And the fact that I can have it take up as wide as a space, or as little, just to keep it handy.
This also worked in my presentations, but never got the "WoW" of CD.

After struggling with these folks on the phone for several hours, I finally had my money reimbursed and offered a free copy and one year support/updates when the new version is released this year.

For what Object Dock is, it is among the best, but it is not Circle Dock.
So far, any issues I have had with CD, I have been able to find a workaround or, know that it will be fixed in future distro's

Once again, thanks for the welcome.

[tomos]

I've been meaning to try this out for a long time
Congrats VideoInPicture !!!

I've been very impressed for a long while at the number of languages it's been translated into ..
& welcome sgt evmckay!

[tinjaw]

Kudos! This a quite a feat; to beat out Object Dock. Excellent work VideoInPicture! 

[mouser]

Huge congratulations to Eric and Circle Dock

[dazzaa]

Well done on beating objectdock, a fine achievement
as for the tabbed drawer on objectdock, yeah it's a good feature maybe we could have a tab pie in the middle or a tabring on the outside.

Congrats again,
Daz

[sgtevmckay]

My solution to the OD+ Tabbed Drawer was to go to sTabLauncher.
I find to be be an acceptable competitor to OD+ Tabs.
It is still in development, and has a couple of hinky issues with 360Desktop, but perfectly acceptable.
Combining Rocket Dock with stabLauncher, you fairly much have all the options of OD+, but not quite.
Although you have some options available to you that you would not get in OD+

Not only does sTabLauncher have a few skins and other stuff. They give you the PSD to outlay the skins yourself.
I have customized skins and icons that I have created with Gimp.
But if you have access to Ps3 or higher, better for you, and combined with Alien Eye Candy.
But for the rest of us poor folks, gimp is perfectly acceptable.
I actually utilize Gimp with Ps3.

But we are not here to discuss the tweaking of my desktop.
We are here to rain accolades upon the developer of Circle Dock and encourage his development to make CD all it can be and more; Yes!?!!

[dazzaa]

sTab looks fine but im a resource freak. i have everything unnecessary stopped or removed. including themes. no explorer etc. having tabs would be a great, but i already run xmousebuttoncontrol and autohotkey to help CD. adding another app would kill me
Having said that, i would forego tabs in favour of fixing the redrawing/hiding issues

[sgtevmckay]

Understand the resource issues. Depending on use, but it is nice to have a spanky quad core.
I have relegated all my customizations to core 4 and all other operations to the first 3 cores.
Since Ps4 is the only piece of software that I have that would take any advantage of core 4, I have restricted it.
This has allowed for quite a bit of flexibility in what I can get away with on my system.
I do not only use resources, by the gods, I create them, Therefore I also have 16G of DDR3 to go with.
This allows for extensive flexibility.

I know; a system like the home built one that I have is out of most folks reach.
But there are more affordable quad core laptops available, but I am holding off on the laptop, to do a new custom build based on Asus' new barebones i7 with an 18in screen, when it is released.
Now that is fun and resources able in one.

Also the StabLauncher's footprint is nominal, comparable to CD