
This extends beyond just the Dock: it's conceptual. Spaces feels like an afterthought: the window manager & applications just weren't designed with it in mind. Unfortunately Apple's virtual desktop implementation "Spaces" is lacking for true task-oriented separation like you're used to. You're right, the standard Dock represents all of the open windows & apps together. Update: The Dock fulfills the basic needs of a task bar, but in your comment you mentioned that what you're looking for is specifically tailored for virtual desktops and shows separate lists for the tasks in each desktop. Right-click an icon to select from the list of windows for that app.

All of the app's windows will be brought forward. Maybe it just does it differently than what you expect.

I'm not too familiar with the Windows taskbar so maybe I don't know what I'm missing, but the Dock seems to serve the same purpose.
