Topic: October Desktops Mang!

[Sidhe Priest]

The humble netbook desktop. It's running a wallpaper slideshow BTW.

[Matthew]

Aaah! Clutter!

[SaladBadger]

it could be much, much worse.

I used to be one of those guys who unloaded everything and their dog onto the desktop. Then I got rid of all of my downloads and filed them elsewhere. Then I removed everything except for a folder randomly named "Temp" because it started as an experiment but quickly became a temp file dump. Then I removed that and all of my program icons, filed them into a launcher named KwikStrip, and ended up with this

I used to use the Vista sidebar a bit (if only for the little cpu/memory usage gauge gadget) back when I used vista, but I turned it off when I realized it wasn't bringing much while interfering with KwikStrip

[TechPro]

S-Priest's desktop looks very organized and functional, plus you can clearly view the background with minimal obstruction.  Very ideal.

An example of a truly cluttered desktop: http://cybernetnews.com/new-poll-how-clean-is-your-desktop/

or even worse ...
http://www.builderau.com.au/strategy/architecture/soa/How-to-de-clutter-your-desktop/0,339028264,339302671,00.htm

[Sidhe Priest]

Tech: it's two custom shells, Geoshell+EVWM. EVWM provides two menus, App and Task Manager (the app menu is open). The task manager menu allows killing/hiding/closing apps, and switching to any window (even hidden). Geoshell is still being maintained, the concept is bars. Bars with plugins, and there're plugins for anything - tasks, system tray, application shortcuts, clock, command line, Winamp and other player controllers, etc. Bars can be always on top, partially transparent, raised/hidden, etc. It's very useful, and with minimum clutter. And there's a plugin which reads the standard Windows Start Menu (plus all system shell directories: control panel, net connections, etc.).

[SaladBadger]

An example of a truly cluttered desktop: http://cybernetnews.com/new-poll-how-clean-is-your-desktop/

The quick launch there reminds me a ton of the tray on my friend's computer. He has practically all of those little weather-trackers running and a whole bunch of other things, and sets it to never hide.

On his small monitor, I had no idea how he could use the taskbar.

[Canceler]

found this one last night

[-<WillyP>-]

I don't see what the big issue with icons on the desktop is, some people will see it as clutter, others as handy, hey whatever works for you. Sometimes I like to put things on the desktop to remind me I was going to do something with them.

[Matthew]

What I mean was that half his screen was covered up when he took the screenshot of his desktop. Not that his desktop was cluttered.

[Matthew]

Well here's my desktop. Same as it's been for the past 3 years, +/- a few icons, + a new screen.

[NUMBERZero]

I'm replacing Zero temporarily just cuz I like my Typhoon.

[Foil]

Wow, very nice, Z!  That's probably the coolest SoH ship design I've seen.

[SaladBadger]

Mipmapping (perhaps with anisotropic filtering) would probably make those little black grate things look a ton better

[Ronin RedFox]

Here is my desktop, still the same picture it has been for a couple months now, but Ive added a couple new Game/Tool icons.

[SaladBadger]

Since icon shots are all the rage appearantly, here's my current KwikStrip:



The dual-d3 icons are for the game itself and d3.descent.cx, respectively. The dual serious sam icons are for the first and second encounters. and the blanks are results of a few hd moves.