I don't know why Gnome et al switched to imitating MacOS – adopting a dock (as a default), ditching an app window tray as on Windows, when the potential Windows-convert market is much larger than Mac.

The Dock can be really jarring for Windows users - they are coming from an OS literally called windows, and the windows are hidden from view.

It also eats vertical space with those huge icons, which is precious given the current popular screen dimensions.

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I agree MacOS has some glaring UX and functionality omissions and Finder is indeed garbage!