For those of you who have not followed the comment thread on the 'On Favouritism, Apologies, and Black Helicopters' story: I there promised to write an article about all the customisations I do on KDE to make it look and (more importantly) behave in my own preferred way; as a sort of Christmas present, so to speak (it is not like it is a fast news day today). Read on!
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Member since:2005-07-09
The desktop is pretty usable in OS X. OS X relies heavily on drag and drop, to the extent of being able to drag images right out of Safari to your desktop; you can even highlight text and drag it and it'll create a text document. Safari also defaults to save files to your desktop. In my opinion, this makes sense as you will most likely be wanting/needed instant access to these files once they're done downloading or once you've successfully copied them.
On the other hand, ost applications automatically default to the specified "media type" folder. If you're working in iMovie or iDVD/Applications like that, the default save location will be the Movies folder. If you're in iPhoto, the folder will be the Pictures folder. Microsoft Word, Documents. Most applications, besides instances like Safari where it makes sense, won't just dump files onto the desktop.
Member since:2005-07-13
The empty desktop was interesting. Where do people keep current files and why? In Home?
I absolutely hate a cluttered desktop. This is my default:
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8006/desktopjl4.png
In my opinion, the desktop is purely a canvas, it's not a file repository. Everything I work with is saved to an appropriate sub-directory in my home directory.
I'll admit I'm old school, but I only use drag and drop between windows when it's appropriate, otherwise I prefer to save files to a directory. I rarely use the desktop as a dumping ground. I cringe when I use my corporate XP laptop with it's plethora of desktop launchers etc.
Just my personal preference, though.
Member since:2005-07-06
I also like an empty desktop, but I use gnome instead.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donley/333721656/
Member since:2005-08-18
"The empty desktop was interesting. Where do people keep current files and why? In Home?"
Yes, that's what your home directory is for. I too do not have ANY icons or files whatsoever on the Desktop since I find that utterly pointless and cumbersome. I tend do have most windows maximized (or close to maximized) so I hardly ever see the desktop. This is also why I don't have a wallpaper. Frankly, I see no point in that either. What am I gonna do, sit around all day with an empty screen and look at how awesome my wallpaper is? Pointless.
Member since:2005-06-29
The empty desktop was interesting. Where do people keep current files and why? In Home?
The files I'm working on are kept on my desktop; you can see the "KDE article" folder in the screenshot. I do this on any OS.
In fact, I don't really care for what operating system I am using when doing day-to-day tasks (mailing, browsing), it's when you need to do specific stuff that the OS becomes relevant; i.e. writing a report for university where you have 15 different scientific articles open, 10 websites, 3 word processor documents, and a spreadsheet.
Member since:2006-07-30
'The files I'm working on are kept on my desktop; you can see the "KDE article" folder in the screenshot. I do this on any OS.'
Same here. Files I'm working on are on the desktop, their number varies between 0 and about 50, depending on how often I get to clean up my desktop - very much like my real desk 
Cleaning up means that about every second file goes straight to the trashcan since it was only of temporary use - again very much like my real desk.
I'd never put application icons on my desktop, though.
I either need them regularly, in this case they're in the toolbar, or I need them only from time to time, in this case I may very well use the standard menu.
"...where you have 15 different scientific articles open, 10 websites, 3 word processor documents, and a spreadsheet."
Oh yes, I know that problem 
Are you using virtual desktops? I am 'cause I hate having more than two windows open on one desktop at the same time. On the other hand some guys seem to handle 10+ windows on one desktop just fine...
Member since:
2005-10-12
Its a good article, and it touches a bunch of things of general interest that people have been talking about lately - customizability, ease of use, difference in desktop look and feel between Linux, Vista, XP. OSX. Its only 'personal' in the sense that it is one particular set of preferences, but the approach and the choices and the reasons for them are of general interest, they are all basically about usability.
The empty desktop was interesting. Where do people keep current files and why? In Home?
Teaching a class last year, all the students reported they found the same problem with XP which they were all using, they would often save their files and not know where they had gone, and they had problems with My Documents too. It never occurred to them to save them on the desktop. which they thought was the place you put the icons for your applications. It was made worse because most of them turned out not to know how to make new folders....!
Whereas people who have been migrated from Mac to Linux seem automatically to use the desktop as their top level file location. How do you feel about that?