[Ant1-Hero]

does haveing more icons on the dock use up more resources or ram?

i have 38 in total and yes i use them all, all the time.

just looking at a program that is supposed to minamalize using icons, is it worth it?

[moonmonkey]

no, 38 will not slow your system down, but try dragging a folder full of items into the bottom part of the dock instead, this will save space. Don't bother with third party programs to reduce the number of items, this functionality is built in.

[Cold Warrior]

If you're using Leopard -- where Spotlight is faster and results default to an application, if it finds a match -- then Spotlight makes a great app launcher. I've been able to keep a number of apps out of my dock and use spotlight. It's actually faster for me to hit command-space, then type the first few letters of those apps, than it is to navigate to the dock, position the cursor over its icon, then click.

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

It's actually faster for me to hit command-space, then type the first few letters of those apps, than it is to navigate to the dock, position the cursor over its icon, then click.

That's probably distorted perception.

[harbinger75]

That's probably distorted perception.

Maybe not for him...taking your hand off the keyboard, moving it to the mouse, then moving the mouse to the icon you want and clicking might just take longer than what he's talking about.

In any event, it would be interesting to see the time on either method.

[Chuckit]

It doesn't make a significant difference to your system resources in Leopard. I think a bigger factor should be that it's hard to find any particular icon once the Dock reaches a certain threshold, so it kind of defeats the point of a quick launcher. I generally have 10 apps in my Dock and if I want to access another, I have the Applications folder in my Dock as well.