[Goose_the_Moose]

Lets see... from left to right, I have: Finder (duh...), Dashboard, WebKit, iTunes, Address Book, iPhoto, iCal, QuickTime Player, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Messenger, System Preferences, Stickies, Terminal, NetNewsWire, Transmission, VLC and the Trash. For everything else, I use Quicksilver.

[Swift2001]

Here's a guess: you're a professional Backgammon player?
I will not share my Dock. National secrets involved, you know. But I will go off on the icon designers: the Earth is not an icon. Okay, except for Google Earth. In all other apps, the globe says, unmistakably, "I tried to think of an icon and all I could come up with was this lousy image of a globe." But take a gander at all the docks submitted: I could spot some of the apps that use a globe, like Omniweb, but otherwise, it's the most massively overused and underinformative icon possible. "Here's my app: it does, uh, a world of things." "For a really orbital view of things, try EZ-program!" Please. Drop the globes. Unless your name is "Google Earth," then it makes sense.

[danmusician]

Quote:

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Here's a guess: you're a professional Backgammon player?

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WOW - it's like you're totaly psychic! I thought no one would ever guess it! /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Of course, you wouldn't reveal you're dock for security reasons - do you by any chance work for the Bush Administration? Have you been tapping my phone and reading my e-mails?!? /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[davebarnes]

Use Overflow (http://stuntsoftware.com/ ) and you can EVEN MORE STUFF in your dock.

[tomem]

http://gntmoore.net/...k2006-01-06.jpg
Right Brain:
Trash, System Disk, Home Folder, Desktop, and "Deskpad" (like a desktop only floats to the top)
Having disks and principal folders here allows popup access to everything that isn't on the dock. Desktop is needed on top when it would otherwise be littered. But I like to keep it clean, so Deskpad accumulates my litter until filed.
Left Brain:
Finder, Dashboard, Cyberduck, Webshots, Pic-a-POD, Preview, GraphicConverter, ImageWell, FlySketch, OmniGraffle, Keynote, iPhoto, iTunes, iCal,
These are tools for finding things, and then creating graphics of increasing complexity until it lands in presentations or on the web.
Mid Brain:
Safari, NetNewsWire, FireFox, Mail, AddressBook, Pages, TextEdit, NoteTaker, Scan, ProjectForum
These are web communication tools and writing tools of increasingly low level, down to code. Guess I need to move my scan tool over to the graphics side. ProjectForum is my wiki server that runs all the time hidden.

[Kees]

Finder
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe PhotoShop
Camino
Entourage
iPhoto
iTunes
Preview
Printshop thingie (to order prints from my local printshop)
Toast Titanium
VectorWorks
Word
Utilities folder
Trash
alphabetized and kept at the bottom, anywhere else annoys me to no end /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[pgauriar]

I've got a pretty straightforward dock:
Finder, Safari, Mail, iChat, Address Book, iCal, iTunes, Quicken, iPhoto, Logic Express, NetNewsWire Lite, TextMate, Terminal, Xcode, Trash
The basic idea is to have all of my daily internet apps on the left (Safari through iChat), organizational apps next (Address Book and iCal), developer apps on the right (TextMate through Xcode), and then a mix of stuff I use often in the middle.
-Prachi

[sdf]

I don't have anything in my dock. I use Quicksilver as my launcher.
Before I started using Quicksilver, I used to have a folder in my dock. I'd put applications I often launched in there. Mail made the main dock, but that's the only one.
I don't like clutter.

[Dan Moren]

I'm with the simplicity set. Finder, Mail, Safari, Adium, iTunes, AppleWorks (yes, some of us are stuck in the past), Address Book, Terminal, NetNewsWire, MarsEdit, ImageWell. Everything else (and even some of those) I use Butler to launch. Oh, and I have mine in the bottom right corner, thanks to Tinker Tool.

[Dan Frakes]

Like Jason and Rob, I launch most apps using a launcher (in my case, LaunchBar). But I still keep a good number of apps in the Dock -- mainly those that I use regularly enough that I'm bugged by the prospect of having them appear in and disappear from the Dock with regularity /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif In other words, if I use it regularly, it goes in the Dock; if I use it only occasionally, it doesn't. (This approach also helps with muscle memory; since all of my frequently-used apps remain in the Dock, it's easy for me to click on them -- or drag files onto them -- without much searching.)
I also keep a few apps in the Dock that I may not use regularly but that when I do, I use by dragging-and-dropping items onto them -- I keep these applications' icons within easy reach.
I organize apps in the Dock by function: Finder- and system-related apps on the very left, then image apps, then media apps, then Internet/chat/networking apps, then database apps and text editors.
I occasionally add new applications that I find myself using regularly, and deleting apps that I notice I haven't used in a while, but, overall, the left side of my Dock is fairly static.
The right side, on the other hand, changes frequently. I have two folders that are basically containers for aliases to frequently-accessed files and folders; I can quickly access those items by right-clicking on the folder in the Dock. And I have a couple folders I access dozens of times a day. But the rest of the right side -- furthest to the right -- is used for the files and folders of projects on which I'm currently working; these items generally stay in the Dock for a week or less.
With that in mind, here's my current left-side Dock list:
Finder
MoRU
LaunchBar
System Preferences
Activity Monitor
MemoryStick
Remote Desktop
Retrospect
SuperDuper
Backdrop
Resize
Graphic Converter
Preview
iTunes
EyeTV
NetNewsWire
Camino
Safari
Entourage
iChat
Dragster
FileMaker
ToDo X
TextEdit
BBEdit
Microsoft Word
And, yes, I use most of those apps on a daily basis /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[DarthMac]

Quote:

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Oh, and I have mine in the bottom right corner, thanks to Tinker Tool.

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Hey Dan's found the MacWorld forums.
Pinned top right thanks to TT. The dock running gown the RHS means it's similar to the way I used to arrange aliases on the desktop pre OS X.

[fiasco]

from top to bottom:
Finder
Dashboard
Grab
Linotype Font Explorer X
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe ImageReady
Adobe InDesign (All CS2)
Dreamweaver
Fireworks
ColdFusion
Contribute
Flash
Pages
Appleworks 6
Firefox
Thunderbird
iBank
iBiz
Fire
Safari
iChat
iTunes
iCal
Transmit
QuickTime Pro
System Preferences
DropStuff
Stuffit Expander
iPhoto
Adobe Acrobat Professional 7.0
Google Earth
HP Device Manager
TextEdit
--(divider)
Work In Progress folder
Finished Artwork folder
To Be Filed folder
Documents folder
Trash
i guess i have alot, but i use pretty much all of them. my dock is, ummm, docked on the left side of my screen as opposed to the bottom.

[warlord1805]

here is my dock
I know I know, too easy but I couldn't resist

[k88dad]

Big bottom, big bottom, talk about icons, my Mac's got 'em. I keep my dock on the bottom of my widescreen monitor and visible because I like to see those glorious icons. It is the app's job to avoid (or hide) a dock that is in the way. That is the Macintosh way. And, yes, a few icons are rarely used and occupy pixels just for their visual appeal. Also, launching icons should bounce and not shake.
I keep the app folder on the right to access little-used programs. Apple apps should be kept at the root of the app folder, but I also have several subfolders to keep the app folder from scrolling upon right-clicking. This also allows for grouping of apps. One of those subfolders is Games, but I also give it a prized dock slot to show off its retro Atari-5200-with-a-pair-of-controllers icon. Ah, the 5200, the battleship of gaming systems.
But I digress... Safari is in my dock and its debug menu is turned on. That allows for the useful "Open Page With..." menu choice. Thus, no other browsers need to be in the dock. iCal for the current date in the dock. WeatherManX is down there to show me the current temp and conditions at a glance. That 's even faster than F12 and I hate floating windows or tying up the already-crowded menu bar for weather. Heck, it's even faster than looking out the window. The "FREE ON iTunes" web link is on the right, using a non-standard iTunes icon to ID itself. Yep, I click that one once a week.
In the beauty category, I love GarageBand's guitar, Automator's robot, the minimalism of the Quicktime Q, Apeiron's hookah-smoking caterpillar, xACT's dancing critter, the Azureus blue frog and even the VLC stripey traffic cone. Some of the Utilities subfolder apps have a pleasantly minimalist appeal, but that would just be geekiness for the sake of geekiness to keep those in the dock.