Ever since the Stacks feature of OS X 10.5 was announced, people have been calling it an Overflow killer. To be honest, we weren’t exactly sure how the new feature would pan out in comparison to Overflow. It sure looked similar enough in last summer’s WWDC Keynote presentation! Even more frustratingly, since we later had access to Leopard developer seeds and were under a non-disclosure agreement, we couldn’t talk about the finer points of how Stacks actually worked. Now that Leopard is out, we finally can!

One thing that you may notice is that Stacks actually takes away some functionality that use to exist. Previous to Leopard, you could place a folder in the dock and access its contents through the dock menu. In Leopard, this menu no longer exists. If you like this kind of quick menu-based access to your applications or documents, then it’s Overflow to the rescue!

Or, if you are using Overflow in the no-dock mode, you can access the same list from the status menu item.

As far as the rest of Stacks functionality, and how that compares with Overflow, it’s really up to you as a user to decide what workflow fits you best. There are definitely some minimal overlaps in functionality, but for the most part Overflow is as relevant as it ever was. Stacks is great for quick access to your Downloads folder, and it’s great not to have downloads cluttering up your desktop. However, it is still basically just a quick (although now more pretty) way to access folders you have stored in the Dock. If you want quick access to a customized list of items, and want to be able to drag and drop files onto applications or folders you’ve stored, then Overflow is still the way to go.