An Irrational Fear of Files on the Desktop

I dislike that OSX automatically saves screenshots to the desktop rather than the Pictures folder, but the line of thinking here makes a lot of sense: if you're going to use a file immediately, it should go straight to your desktop; your working area.

To be honest, if I want to work with files, I'll use a file manager -- a program ostensibly optimized to do such a task. I also heavily favor Gnome Shell, which doesn't display anything in the desktop folder by default.

When I'm working on Windows, very occasionally will I save to and work from the desktop, but honestly, I've found the Downloads folder on both operating systems has replaced that purpose. I basically now use Downloads as a temp folder/cache for stuff I'm immediately working on and/or plan to discard. This is also regardless of whether I've actually downloaded the file I'm working on, sometimes I'll put stuff in the Downloads folder from my SD card, save a file to it I eventually plan to delete, etc.

Downloads in my use case has replaced the Desktop and has almost sort of merged with the "recycle bin" metaphor, but with a little more permanency. I'm curious if anyone has a similar workflow as me.

Main reason not to have stuff on the desktop: I never see it (the desktop) anyway.

I have all my frequently used files on the desktop too, but with that out of the way... there used to be a 'real' reason not to do it, and that was Roaming Desktop. It's basically an Active Directory-fueled way of taking one's files with them across computers in an AD forest, and it basically copied files to a central server and then to a local computer once you logged on. It's completely standard and expected nowadays (at the very core it's what Dropbox does across the internet), but AD had it back when 10mbps networks were quite fancy. So in those days, not copying too many files (it didn't have smart sync - change a single character in a 5 mb file and it would copy the whole file over again) was in some cases a real concern.

The real irrational fears come from folks that see a cluttered desktop and worry that "all those files are slowing down my computer".

Older versions of Mac OS X created separate window objects in memory (just like for app windows) for every file icon on the Desktop. If you had many files showing on the Desktop, it could slow the computer down significantly.

You could verify that the icons were separate windows by hitting Shift-Command-4 and then pressing Space to prepare to take a screenshot of the window under the mouse – each icon lit up in blue individually when you moved the mouse over them. If you try it in a modern version of Mac OS X, you’ll see that the Desktop is all one window now – the problem is fixed.

My desktop is my workbench. With the trash sitting right there in the corner I do my stuff and at the end I keep the artefacts I want and throw the rest away.

It might look messy but it actually keeps reminding me of the things I need to get done.

Yeah.. I have porn. I will admit it. And I use my desktop for frequently used things. Fling my mouse to the lower right and I can see stuff.

1st monitor: http://i.imgur.com/jRNxp5M.png 2nd: http://i.imgur.com/6Kki0X2.jpg

But what if I like to have my tools and artefacts visible at all times?

Think of it like a workspace or a garage where all the mechanic's tools are hanging off the wall. This lets the mechanic keep a visual inventory at all times and decide which one to use for the next job.

Oh gosh. Seeing this title was so fitting for me. For the past few years, I've completely removed the existence of the Desktop out of my use.

Right click -> View -> Show desktop icons. I don't even miss it anymore, and have been a lot more organized since.

This is one reason why I like using KDE4. If you don't want files on the desktop, just don't include the widget. Also, you have multiple folders as your desktop.

Several linux distributions don't even allow you to save to the desktop. This is something that I've given a lot of thought after observing non sophisticated computer users for years. They just don't understand files - where to save them, where to find them, how to name them, organize them, etc.

I think the approach used on mobile devices is the correct way forward. Files should be associated with applications and not savable to the desktop. I also think that desktops/laptops should have a 'files' browsing menu next to the 'applications' menu like this distribution (Elementary OS)

http://elementaryos.org/sites/default/files/user/5/Screensho...

I think the article uses "File" and "Icon" interchangeably. I would agree that fear of having to many icons/shortcuts on the desktop is irrational, because visual single click icons/shortcuts were created specifically to be on the desktop.

However, machines can be formatted to run more efficiently based on organization of file types, so you would not want to save various files types directly to the desktop. For example in Windows files can be customized to run optimally for files containing music, video, documents or pictures. Checking my Windows 8 the Desktop itself can not be customized to run optimally for any particular file type, nor would you even want to if you were saving multiple file types on the desktop.

I hate desktop clutter. This article did not sway me.

I don't use icons on the desktop, ever. I do, however, save a lot of files there - inevitably a lot of stuff ends up there because of application defaults and/or my own laziness and lack of discipline. Sometimes I can't think of a better place to put something and the Desktop folder is so ubiquitous and convenient in file choosers and whatnot.

I've gone to the other extreme. On the Mac, you can completely disable desktop icons with this default:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false

Now my Desktop is just the background for my windows and nothing more. On the rare occasions I do catch a glimpse of it, I can see my lovely unobstructed wallpaper instead of hundreds of unused icons.

One of my favorite Help-desk anecdote is the one with the user complaining about hard drive being full because there isn't any space left. On the screen that is. I really love the interpretation.

Personally I don't think folders are good, they're 'early-on' categorization that scales badly. Somewhere down the road you'll wanna have easy access to a diagonal query against all things of date D, type T, name 'N'. Nowadays tags should be the main interaction point, folders being an predefined and indexed query. Additional queries allowed(), and maybe suggested based on navigation patterns.

() Microsoft tried 'virtual' folders, but I never got them to work ~_~;

Think of it this way: when you were a kid, were you told to keep a clean desk or a messy desk? Why?

If there is a place for you to put your books and stationary and papers and periodicals, does it make more sense to put things in their place, or pile them on top of the desk?

Eventually, you're going to have to clean up your mess. Eventually, things will have to be put in their place. Is it better to put them in their place now at a small inconvenience, or let those small inconveniences pile up into a big one later?

And are those who always put things away irrationally fearful? That sounds like an awful big stretch.

For me, it much like how I treat my Inbox. Act on it - file it, store it, delete it - just do something with it. I've been able to keep a clean desktop (nothing on it) since 2005/2006.

(Designer here) Not so irrataional unless you work on an deserted island and no one touches your files. I work in teams and as such everybody follows certain guidelines how to set up and work on a project, how to store the files, how to save the communication with the client and what not. Working on the desktop is a sure thing to lose sight of your versions and a sign of a bad backup-policy.

Desktop is literally just the tmp dir for my home directory. If I scp stuff from another box, Desktop.

If I'm not sure what will happen to a project (just a play app or will become a real app), new folder in desktop and work from there.

I do dislike it becoming > 10 folders just for the sheer scan-ability of things.

Oh and there's a link to a wireless printer there too!

Desktop would be more useful if you could map any directory onto it, e.g. ~/ or ~/code. The mapping could per virtual desktop. Maybe a symblink would work (depending on the system), but no regular users can do symlinks.

At the very least this seems like an incentive to get a bit more organized about files. I've been finding that my workspaces (namely stuff in Dropbox) have been getting messier and messier.

This is kind of true, though my gf's one has so many they've actually started to overlap each other from the beginning again which is something I'd never seen before..

but I just can't stand having files laying around on my desktop! (in my naive days, I used to delete all the files from the desktop thinking they slowed down my computer)....

I store stuff there, then periodically push it off elsewhere.

I use Ubuntu, and Window Maker (my preferred desktop environment) doesn't have a desktop in the way the default Windows shell does.

gnome-tweak-tool, get nautilus to leave your desktop alone. I no longer put stuff there that I wouldn't see anyway.