Stop using the Desktop!

**jove** · December 31st, 2000, 11:53 AM

Hello,

The desktop did have its time. Back before multitasking or even hard disks, the Desktop as a starting point, made sense.

Apple made the right move to move the user\'s starting point into a floating tool-bar like thing. It does not get obscured and represents a single location.

The desktop, although obscurable, represents useful real estate. A Windowing environment is not strictly 2 dimensional. Should we adopt Windows 1.0 standards and only have tiled non-overlapping windows? The desktop is an ever-existing larger-than-life Finder window.

I still use the desktop as a dumping ground, scratch folder, reminder location and etc. It is more than just a possible starting point.

Jove

**Agnt_Mulder** · January 2nd, 2001, 06:36 AM

Right, so we should all go damn Windows on ourselves and have \"Active Desktops\" with spiffy things like HTML coding and moving images. Or, a home website. Aww, who cares; it\'s just obscured by windows anyway forgodssakes! I\'m keeping my Hard Drive icon there!

**jove** · January 2nd, 2001, 09:15 AM

>I\\\'m keeping my Hard Drive icon there!
And that is a valid option. I did for a while but found I never used the icons.

Please don\'t even suggest MacOS X adopt the Active Desktop |-)

**iRock** · January 2nd, 2001, 12:42 PM

I don\'t totally understand the point of this thread. If you don\'t like and don\'t use the desktop that is fine, more power to ya. My desktop has about 200 files on it, i can hardly see my background picture and can\'t find a file on it by simply looking. Yet i am able to open anything on the desktop in a second by using the keyboard and the dekstop can nearly always be quickly and easily brought into focus (so that you can type the name of a file to access) unlike a window. These points have all been mentioned already though, so back to my reason for replyling...you don\'t use the desktop because you don\'t find it as useful as other tools availabe, do you just want apple, as well as other os developers, to make the desktop dead space that does nothing? I don\'t shutdown my mac, maybe apple should consider removing that option...besides, killing the power is faster

**muso** · January 3rd, 2001, 03:12 AM

Yeah - I hate using the desktop for dnd operations, but until the finder gets an openstep-style shelf (I\\\'m hoping that eidolon get NeXplorer ported fairly soon) I really can\\\'t avoid it - having a second finder window open kinda defeats the object imo...

**Agnt_Mulder** · January 3rd, 2001, 03:20 AM

Well then iRock,
why in Zeus\'s butthole are you reading this thread? ;-p

Heh heh. And I know how easy it is to mess up your desktop--it took some careful re-training and my organizationally minded girlfriend to re-organize my files in system 9; but I\'m finding it far eaiser in OS X. Some tools that are missing from X that mught keep the desktop a little cleaner are customizable drawers for the sides of the screen (like the tabs in 9) and a mini-toolbar to take up all that wasted space on the right side of the lil apple in X\'s menu bar.

aside from the crummy \"active desktop\" (also known as the \'crash test desktop\' on Windows computers), some other phrases from the often snooty and esoteric Windows world: Desktop Wallpaper, rollout pop-up menus, and the Start button... What the hell is that thing anyway; what are we \'starting\'?

**iRock** · January 3rd, 2001, 07:58 AM

Originally posted by Agnt_Mulder
Well then iRock,
why in Zeus\\\'s butthole are you reading this thread? ;-p

hehe, you gotta love \"The Rock\", nice quote. ok, i guess i need to say something about the desktop now

the original purpose of the desktop was to navigate through your computer, however this its primary function today. I think apple realized this and didn\'t put the hard drive and trash can on the desktop for this reason. However, i still think the desktop serves an important purpose. the drawers and all that are great, although i\'m not one of those really anal people who sits around organizing stuff so it\'s easy to get to. ok, i\'m done now, unless agnt_mulder says another good quote that i have to give him props for

**strobe** · January 9th, 2001, 05:30 AM

If you like to obsessively organize things why not a Drop Drawers drawer?

If you want something which is easily brought into focus why not a Drop Drawers drawer?

Anything is better than the Desktop |-p

And no, I do not think the desktop ever served a purpose. It was created before MacOS had a hierarchical file system |-p