Comment by modeless
17 hours ago
Hiding the bottom bar doesn't solve the problem because it still takes the corners away. You can't put UI there because the bottom bar will come up and cover it when you mouse into the corner. The OS is taking all four corners for itself. Greedy! Apps should have that space. Apps are what we are here to use and the OS is getting in the way.
macOS doesn't seem to care and that's what all the designers use. I'm guessing people think it's pretty?
The dock would also better if it weren't stretched to the entire screen width by default but perhaps Google is planning to use that space for something. It's also possible they're going to remove the top bar at some point, that'd make the UI standard Windows-shaped.
The Gnome trick for the dock is to only show the dock when hitting the Super button which also brings up the virtual desktops and what macOS might call Launchpad (except not full screen by default). Ubuntu likes to force the dock on you the way macOS does, but you can disable that.
MacOS is stuck in the past with the top menu and Dock. I don't think they're brave enough to change anything now.
macOS provides enough utility in the menu bar to justify having it (unified menu -- unlike the Android UI shown in the article).