I want a new Desktop

I think the Desktop as we know it needs to be done away with. It needs to be transformed into or replaced by something more useful. I can’t make any claims about knowing what that new and more useful Desktop might be, but honestly, I can’t find a single, truly useful function of the current Desktop in OS X, or Windows, or X, or insert favorite windowing environment here.

(I’m a primarily OS X user, so I will write from it’s perspective, but I’ll bet that most everything in this post applies to nearly every other modern desktop computing environment)

I typically have used the Desktop for only a few things:

1. To Display a nice background that suits my mood.
2. To hold temporary URLs that a drag from my browser for later reading.
3. To hold a few files on which I am currently working that don’t yet have another suitable home.

The first is not something I would call truly useful. Don’t get me wrong, I like nice desktop pictures, but I don’t feel that a landscape, still life, or anime character provides any more utility than a plain black backdrop. Some folks have indeed come up with some clever and more useful types of desktop pictures, such as calendars, etc. However, rather than this being in support of the usefulness of the current Desktop, I would argue that these actually highlight the problem. It means that the Desktop did not do something useful for these people, so they took it upon themselves, in essence, to hack the Desktop to do something useful for them. They have changed the Desktop metaphor, and by doing so, in my opinion, have provided more support for the argument that far more useful things that could be done in a new Desktop model.

The second item above, storing temporary URLs, is already handled more elegantly by other, more specialized software, including URLWell (site is MIA), Yojimbo, Trapper Keeper, del.icio.us, and a myriad of others—simply pick the one that fits how you work. I have tried all 4 of the ones listed above, and finally settled on using del.icio.us with a toread tag. I’ve been able to make this process even more efficient by customizing this quick posting bookmarklet to my needs. I don’t even think about dragging URLs to my desktop now.

The last item, holding files for easy access, is also already done in a more elegant way by any number of software applications and tools, including Spotlight. Dragging and dropping files onto the desktop changes their physical location in the file and folder hierarchy. No longer does that design document live in the folder with it’s other supporting documents (e.g. a requirements document). Dragging files out to the Desktop breaks up an already logical and useful grouping of documents for the sake of quick access. One better solution, in my opinion, is to use a Spotlight comment, or Finder label to identify files to which you need quick access. Then you can either use Spotlight to find them via a Spotlight or Finder search, or by creating a Finder Smart Folder that contains only items with the particular comment or label. There are any number of other solutions that use third party software, as well.

There are even several applications for OS X that attempt to hide or dim the Desktop, or automatically move files from the Desktop to another, presumably more useful, location. The fact that these applications exist at all means to me that there are other people out there who feel the Desktop is in many cases just a cluttered distraction and needs to change.

In fact, there are already computing environments where the Desktop as we know it has been redesigned or even left out entirely in order to make the environment more useful. A good example is mobile devices, such as phones and PDAs, most of which have a simple status screen, application launcher, or “Today” type screen showing upcoming calendar and todo items. Even Apple’s iPhone, which they tout as running (a scaled down version of) OS X, ditches the typical Desktop metaphor, apparently in favor of a simple launcher. Notice that it doesn’t even have a picture behind the icons.

With all of that said, why do modern desktop environments still have the same old concept of The Desktop? Honestly, I think it all boils down to one major thing: incentive. There doesn’t appear to be much incentive stemming from criticism of the current metaphor, from competition from a new and better metaphor, or from potential financial gains of expending the resources to create a new and better metaphor.

So, while I do feel there is an opportunity to do some exciting things with or in place of the Desktop, it seems at least for now, without any critical, competitive, or financial incentive, the current generation Desktop will be around for a while longer.