Aqua-Soft ForumsHey guys,
This is something that's bugging me for a long time - I'm googling for software for WinXP, OSX and SLED that'd help me streamlining my desktop.
First of all, I don't really like the way desktops are being used nowadays, I think the way a desktop works in every newer operating system is inefficient and a waste of space that could really help to push the user-friendliness.
So, there are two ways people use their desktops today:
1) The 'Clutter Maniac' (a.k.a. the 'Windows User') - Well, it's so convenient to throw files on the desktop when downloading something, it's so convenient to just put the folders of zip or rar archives directly on the desktop, it's convenient to put all your program files shortcuts on the desktop... and probably also the files you've been working on most recently. It's convenient to have all of this stuff in one place, isn't it? Right. But there's a problem with this: The Clutter Maniac lives in total chaos. If you know a Clutter Maniac or if you are one, just look at his/your desktop - all the files are just somewhere, there are a lot of folders floating around, a lot of images, maybe mp3s, files you've been working on, stuff that people sent you over a messenger or per mail... And there really isn't a way to organize this stuff. You can 'sort' all of this per name, per type... but it's still ugly to look at and it's still a mess. It's like cleaning up by just putting all the crap you've got lying on your desk into nice looking stacks and that's it.
2) The 'Fresh Breeze User' (a.k.a. the 'Mac User') - So, of course, there's also a radical opposite to the Clutter Maniac. Most Mac users I know work that way. They just don't use their desktop at all! They don't put files onto their desktop, cause it looks so messy, they have to have everything organized somewhere deep down the hierarchies of their hard drives... put into folders and millions of subfolders... but hey, the Desktop is clean, so who cares? So the only thing we'll see on a Fresh Breeze Desktop are probably the Hard Drives or any devices that've been plugged in but that's it. The whole rest of the space won't be used at all.
So I don't really like these workflows. I personally see myself more in the middle here - I want, no, I need to have files on my desktop. It's convenient and it's the top layer of the presentation system of your OS - so why not using it? But I'd love to have an organized desktop, so that the computer takes care of me and my mess. That's why I have a computer, right? Right.
So, think with me for a moment: Wouldn't it be great if you could put a grid onto your desktop and into every quad of your grid, you could put a module? Say, let's begin on the upper left corner of your desktop. You'd have a 'System' Module, where you'd see your hard drives, all the plugged in devices and the computer would directly tell you all the data you'd need. Like, how much hard drive space is still available on your drives, etc. On the right to the system module, you'd have something like an iCal module - a Calender. Right on top of the desktop, it'd sync with your Calender application, doesn't matter whether it's Google Calender, Outlook, iCal, whatever. You'd be able to see all of your appointments and just about everything that you'd put into a calender right in this module. In the next quad to the right, you'd have a Mail Module. So you'd see a mini-representation of your mail app, streamlined and directly on your desktop. So, if you'd want to write a mail, you'd simply go to your desktop, move your mouse to the mail module and press New Mail, instead of opening a whole new application.
Then we'd also have Libraries, like Image Libraries of images you'd use all day long. So, let's say you're working on a project right now and you're working on a character (I'm working in computer animation, so bear with me here), so you've got all the references and everything imagey that you'd need right in this module. You'd see a mini representation of your lib, you'd be able to scroll through all the image data and would call he image by just double clicking it, so that your image viewing app would open. Call another image and the image viewing app would create a tab where the new image is put.
Same thing with movies and video clips. Same thing with iTunes and your music library.
You'd also have a 'Downloads' Module, where the OS would put all of your Downloads. The newest on top, organized with color coding by type and date.
You'd have an Adressbook Module as well, of course. Now, all of this stuff could work together. Want to write John Doe a mail? Just go to your adressbook and drag'n drop the John Doe Contact onto the 'New Mail' Button in your Mail Module.
Apps should be written, so that they could 'live' in those quads - Like, think about a torrent client. You'd simply drag torrent files into this module or launch the torrent like usual and you'd see the name of the torrent, would see the bar that tells you how many percent of the file are already downloaded... etc. Everything right on your desktop, without you having to pop up 10 windows on your desktop.
I'm not sure if someone has thought of that before, but wouldn't this be way cool? Instead of opening applications for every single thing you're doing on a computer, you could just have a streamlined desktop where you could directly perform all your stuff. Of course, this wouldn't be enough if you'd really need to open an application for more serious tasks, but most of the time, you'd not need to have 20 applications open at a time. You'd just have your desktop, where the computer tries to streamline all of your day-to-day tasks right in front of you.
So, instead of a big, huge junkyard where you could put your data in an unorganized manner or a big, huge wallpaper that you're too scared to clutter, you'd have a nicely organized system that pretty much makes your life easier every single day. I think there's a design flaw in Dashboard, Konfabulator, etc. - those apps are cluttered. They clutter your screenspace. They are neat and help you coming up with simple tasks, but they're not really efficient and all those widgets have radically different designs, they all look different, they all work different - I'd much rather have one well designed system that'd present me all of my data in one place.
Actually, Google is doing something similar to what I'm describing here with their personalized hompage. It's actually a quite nice approach, but it's of couse not nearly as efficient as it could be when designed directly into the desktop of an OS. I quickly uploaded a shot of how my Google Personalized Homepage looks like - it even features Tabs since a few days, so if you're working on different projects or like to keep data together, but organized through tabs, you can take that route. Here we go:
http://members.chello.at/thomas.mahler/googleperso.jpg
So, all in all - I think that's where Desktops should go. It'd cost quite a lot of RAM, sure. But with all those nice 64bit systems coming up now and Dual and Quad CPUs, this shouldn't be a problem at all. And it'd really streamline our daily tasks. Just imagine how streamlined your daily workflow could be if you'd have all of this data directly on your desktop.
So, are there any tools for those OSs out there that are actually doing something like this? It'd even be helpful if I could categorize my desktop on my own, like having containers, where I could put stuff - instead of folders, something that directly represents the files on my desktop, color coded and neatly designed. That'd be great already.
), you've described a fairly interesting concept. i think i saw some linux demo's a couple of years ago that were similar to this type of desktop (on the used-to-be-good screen savers show). widgets and gadgets are a step in the direction of this sort of usefulness on the desktop.
Maybe it'd make more sense not to create a grid, but giving you boxes, like the Symphony OS does. But the user shouldn't even be able to make a mess out of his desktop - with boxes that could store 'modules', I wouldn't want the user being able to overlap one over another, etc. The desktop should organize all the modules and all the data for you and put the modules into the right proportions. Kind of like the new After Effects UI, in a way that you don't have to deal with tons of different windows that aren't connected to each other at all, but actually are connected to one another, so you wouldn't ever work with overlaps, which can be pretty daunting.
! thanks
