Yes. This is Linux.

Brief history of Docks: NeXTstep was first to introduce the idea of “docks” in an operating system back in 1989 when neXTstep 1.0 was first released. Later as most of Nextstep’s codebase was used on OpenStep and then on OS X, “dock” was one of the few original and the most prominent features that stayed with OS X. Looking Glass was a free open source dock written in Java, developed by a Sun Microsystem employee in his spare time on a Linux laptop. It was first demonstrated publicly in 2003. There is an argument among fanboys that Apple stole took the idea of 3D look and feel from the Project Looking Glass, to give apple docks its present look; however there is no question that Apple, which bought NeXTstep (founded by Steve Jobs), was the original developer of the concept of “docks”. As of October 8, 2008 Apple was awarded patent for Mac OS X Dock after waiting for almost nine years.

[ NeXTstep is a fascinating OS, based on Unix Kernel and BSD codebase, was to many an operating system way ahead of its time. The first web browser, basic HTML layout, Doom game, interface for Mathematica and Lotus Improv all owe its existence in some way to NextStep. Read more about NeXTstep ]

Linux Docks: Almost every linux docks, one way or another, exists to mimic the functions of Mac OS X docks. The Linux purists dislike docks because of its similarities with OS X the same way some of them dislike KDE3 and earlier KDE versions, for its similarities to Windows OS. What most of them fail to understand is that the beauty of Linux lies in user’s ability to customize it do things the way they want. gOS and ZenWalk are two of the few Linux distributions that has docks by default. Let’s look at some of the mainstream Linux docks out there:

AWN
 

Cairo-Dock
 

Engage
 

SimDock
 

kiba-dock