Taskbar for Macs & email messaging

Two topics.

I have been using PC's for years with little or no problems. However, due to circumstances not worth mentioning here, I have been using a Mac G4 Powerbook and have got quite used to it. It's no better or worse than a PC, just different. However, my one bugbear is the lack of a taskbar in OS 10. I multi-task with 3 email accounts and letters, documents and iTunes in the background and I find the Dock system wholly inadequate for efficient usage. I have been surfing various comment boards and it would seem that the one consistant 'moan' re PC vs Mac is this lack of a Taskbar.

Come on Apple....listen up and include a taskbar in your next update. I am certain, from what I have read, that you would get a whole lot more converts if you did.

Topic two.
Why oh why doesn't email 'new message creator' use the same system as say Word and automatically spell check, replace i with a capital I and put capitals at beginning of sentences. Doesn't need anything else but would help to make message creation better presented. It's time-consuming to draft in word then paste over.