Now that screens are wide, I find vertical space more precious. So I put my XP task bar on the left side of the screen.
It’s interesting how many programs now come up underneath it. Commercial packages with large user bases. I’m sure they mind the task bar when it’s at the bottom of the screen, but not here.
While it’s not a big deal (to me at least–just a tiny annoyance), it shows how we make implicit assumptions about our world. Sometimes those assumptions are fine. Sometimes not.
I’ve made plenty myself.
Also, I’ve not encountered a program that refuses to run or throws itself off the top or bottom of the screen because of this. That’s a possibility. (I need to keep this in mind if I find a program behaving badly with its screen position.)