Killing Clutter With The Antidesktop

Espectr0 writes "Hate window managers? Cannot live without one? Well, you can, kind of. A Freshmeat editorial called 'The Antidesktop' talks about how you can get rid of flashy, bloaty window managers without loosing functionality." It depends on how many tasks you want to keep track of in your head, too.

Comments

X-windows

[CaptainAlbert]

> I get the graphical abilities of X without all the clutter that usually attends it

It would be churlish of me not to mention... :)

X-Windows: ...A mistake carried out to perfection.
X-Windows: ...Dissatisfaction guaranteed.
X-Windows: ...Don't get frustrated without it.
X-Windows: ...Even your dog won't like it.
X-Windows: ...Flaky and built to stay that way.
X-Windows: ...Complex nonsolutions to simple nonproblems.
X-Windows: ...Flawed beyond belief.
X-Windows: ...Form follows malfunction.
X-Windows: ...Garbage at your fingertips.
X-Windows: ...Ignorance is our most important resource.
X-Windows: ...It could be worse, but it'll take time.
X-Windows: ...It could happen to you.
X-Windows: ...Japan's secret weapon.
X-Windows: ...Let it get in *your* way.
X-Windows: ...Live the nightmare.
X-Windows: ...More than enough rope.
X-Windows: ...Never had it, never will.
X-Windows: ...No hardware is safe.
X-Windows: ...Power tools for power fools.
X-Windows: ...Putting new limits on productivity.
X-Windows: ...Simplicity made complex.
X-Windows: ...The cutting edge of obsolescence.
X-Windows: ...The art of incompetence.
X-Windows: ...The defacto substandard.
X-Windows: ...The first fully modular software disaster.
X-Windows: ...The joke that kills.
X-Windows: ...The problem for your problem.
X-Windows: ...There's got to be a better way.
X-Windows: ...Warn your friends about it.
X-Windows: ...You'd better sit down.
X-Windows: ...You'll envy the dead.

Re:X-windows

[JordanH]

The following has been attributed to Dennis Ritchie and Bill Joy, but I seem to remember it being Rob Pike. When someone pointed out that X fills a much needed void:

"I have never seen anything fill up a vacuum so fast and still suck. --- Rob Pike, on X"

Also, Dennis Ritchie was said to have been heard saying:

"Steve Jobs said two years ago that X is brain-damaged and it will be gone in two years. He was half right."

Warning

[bucklesl]

...how many tasks you want to keep track of in your head, too.

Do not chew bubblegum while attempting to use the Antidesktop.
thank you.

Re:Warning

[mccalli]

Do not chew bubblegum while attempting to use the Antidesktop.

Do not taunt Antidesktop...

Cheers,
Ian

Ick

[aengblom]

Not a fan of flashy bloated loose things.

They're on street corners near my home a lot though.

someone had to right?

Re:Is it just me?

[zrodney]

Basically, a maximized emacs window with all the commands you can use without a mouse, and no bloat.

I think that's the first time I've seen Emacs and no-bloat in the same sentence! ;)

Re:Sounds cool

[Anonymous Coward]

>> I don't recall what it was, and they actually said "whoa" and took a step back

Maybe you farted?

Re:loose versus lose

[Espectr0]

Sorry, english is not my primary language. Not to be a troll, but what is the excuse of the editor? :)

Window Manager without the bloat (PDF based!!!)

[toupsie]

Personally, I am tired of X-Windows and all the Window Managers associated with it. They are clunky hacks based on ancient tech. Fortunately for me, I found a modern, composited windowing system using the Portable Document Format (PDF) for my UNIX system. It sports crisp graphics, anti-aliased fonts, and blends 2D, 3D and multimedia content together with transparency and drop shadows. It even integrates OpenGL converting every window into a texture. As a bonus it supports all those non-Roman languages. Multiple monitor support is seemless -- no more hacking XFree86 files and searching for drivers and solving conflicts. Thank God!

Check out its home page here.

time warp

[(trb001)]

You can do fancier split screens to make several applications visible at once:

Anyone else notice how his "screen split" looks amazingly like what Desqview did back in the day for BBS consoles?

Good gravy, we've advanced to the point of reverting to 10 year old technology

--trb

Re:way OT, but Karma is cheap

[DeadSea]

But what about in the sentence:

"The mime's opinion was a mute point."

Re:loose versus lose

[Alien Being]

either "lose" or "loose."

Their spelling rules are as lose as a gose.

A tip to the fanatic

[CCRancor]

For a truly minimalistic GUI:

alias startx='killall -9 *tty*' ;)

Re:language evolves over time

[Tackhead]

> Great thought, but if you are going to assign a new word to replace "lose", pick one that is not ALREADY IN USE. Loose is a word, and it already has a meaning.

How about "Luse." (Or "luze", to throw a bone to the 1337 crowd?)

As in, "I hereby loose the hounds of BOFH upon those who can't spell, for they luse badly."

It looks weird at first, but compare it with "fused". It even has similar connotations - burned out, no longer workable, etc.

So a loose fuse can't be fused, and is thus useless. A loose fuse is a lusing fuse until you unloosening it. A fused fuse worse that a loose fuse, it's a very lusing fuse. Luse that fused fuse, (you luser!) before something catches fire!

The proposed conjugation:

I luse, he luses, she luses, we luse.
I lused, he lused, she lused, we lused.
I'm erotic, my friend's kinky, those people are perverted.
I'm a BOFH, my friend's a luser, those people are MCSEs. /rimshot.

Now that we've loosed the tight fuses and lused the lusing fuses, can we talk about moose and mice? My sister was once bitten by a moose.

Re:X's Multiple Personalities, and Windows

[mblase]

I wanted the same thing with Windows 2000 at work, but it wouldn't let me. I came close by opening my Display control panel and, under the "Effects" tab, replaced all my desktop icons with the tiny shortcut arrow. (I suppose I could have found an icon file which was completely blank, but I haven't bothered yet.)

All that was left was the text and those tiny icons, which I arranged in a single row and gave a silver background color in the "Appearance" tab. I then set my desktop background image to a screengrab of my code editor.

Now, whenever the boss is coming while I'm busy playing "Bejeweled", I just hit Win-D to hide all open windows, and casual passers-by think I'm terribly busy working on something very difficult.

Re:loose versus lose

[LoseNotLooseGuy]

Unfortunately, I was called away to an emergency at Kuro5hin. I told ThenOrThanBoy to keep an eye on things in my absence, but frankly I am beginning to doubt his commitment to the Cause.

It's hard to find good minions these days.

Re:way OT, but Karma is cheap

[Brian Kendig]

"The mime's opinion was a mute point."

Well, that goes without saying.

Re:I have NO clutter.

[spitzak]

You just described a command-line interface. With the added feature that the ability to type the command requires you to clutter your desktop with icons that you will not click on. Brilliant.