Below you will find pages that utilize the taxonomy term “Windows-Xp”
Customizing the Look of the OS
I forgot what post online got me thinking about this stuff, but I really don’t customize my computers’ desktop environments much. Generally, I tend to change the background image and leave it at that. I took a look over my desktop image gallery here on the blog to confirm my suspicions.
Starting at the bottom with Windows, you can see that until 2009 I was just going with the default look. I tended not to add launchers to my panel because, with Windows XP, it ended up really limiting the space for listen the open programs. I also didn’t have too many launchers on the desktop. I tend to always have programs maximised if I’m in front of the computer, so the only programs shortcuts I’d leave on the desktop are programs I’d be likely to launch upon starting up the computer. In fact, whenever I pay attention, I tell the installer not to put icons on the desktop.
Guess What? Linux May Not Be for Everyone
I feel like I may have covered bits of this here and there, but I couldn’t find it after a cursory check through my blog. Fanaticism is fanaticism, whether it’s religious or technological it follows the same path. Witness anyone who has just become an evangelical Christian (and it probably extends to other religions) as they return to life after their conversion. For the first chunk of time after doing so they will likely do some or all of the following: get a new wardrobe, get rid of all CDs/MP3s that aren’t by Christian bands, preach the Gospel to anyone within earshot, read the Bible daily, pray in public spaces (sometimes boisterously as possible), go to church every day, and other things. With time they may soften in some of these aspects. They may realize that, for example, it’s probably OK to listen to most of U2 and many other bands that don’t have profanity or sexually explicit lyrics. But the biggest change anyone outside of their family/best friends will notice is that they realize it’s probably not a good idea to go around telling everyone that their worldview is wrong. It turns out to be better for everyone if the member of the proselytizing religion waits for others to ask their opinion. At that time, the person asking is receptive to hearing about this new religion. (Unlike when they’re ambushed and on the defensive)
The Ego-less Desktop vs The Commercial Desktop
In the most recent LugRadio episode was a feature about how the Gnome Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) states that applications should be named in the applications menu not as the program name, but as what the program does. This is something I’d like to explore a little more in another post. But during the discussions, they mentioned an interesting point: Gnome follows (or tries to follow) the paradigm of the ego-less desktop. This means that it’s not important who coded your program, it’s important what it does. And this got me thinking about one of the HUGE annoyances I have as I read the blogs and news pages about Linux. Everyone complains about how Linux isn’t quite there yet and how it needs to fix this or that before it’s easy enough for the proverbial Grandmother. Let’s take a look at some use casse and see how Linux is precisely the opposite - it’s MUCH easier to use than Windows.