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Whose Desktop Would You Most Like To See?
An anonymous reader writes "Have you ever been curious about what someone else's computing environment looks like? Would you like to see what tools and products someone like Linus Torvalds, Bill Gates, George Bush, or Steve Jobs uses on a daily basis? What percentage of time is spent browsing the web, working in spreadsheets, programming, debugging, designing, or writing documents? How many monitors or devices do they have attached to their PC? What kind of security or anonymizers do they have in place?" For good or ill, open source developers' desktops at least are often visible in screenshots of their pet projects.
Jennas desktop is the one *I* would like to see the most!
I'd love to see RMS' desktop.
Right here :)
Darl.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
I'm curious to see what Georgie Bush's computer's like, but it's a pretty strong bet that someone just gave him an Etch-a-Sketch to play with.
George Bush's Desktop:
None. You can't put a desktop on a Etch-A-Sketch.
Gates uses MacOS, Torvalds uses Windows, and Jobs uses Linux. They're a bunch of swingaas babyyy!
Personally, I'd love to see which distro Linus uses (or whether he still rolls his own).
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are not necessarily my own, as I've not yet had my medication today.
I'm not curious anymore about what Richard Stallman's desktop looks like. I happened to be sitting behind him at the last FOSDEM conference, just before his presentation. Two observations about his desktop as I saw it that day.
:)
First of all, he doesn't use a GUI.
Second, the desktop environment that he was using was not vi.
Michael Jackson's desktop.
I was fortunate enough to be able to find a screenshot of Billy G's desktop
This would fare better as a Fark photoshop contest than as an ask slashdot.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
CowboyNeal's Desktop
Vonal Declosion
A) Why isn't this a poll?
B) IMPORTANT people don't have desktops, sometimes semi-important people have consoles.
C) How about CmdrTaco?
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Intelligence should not be rewarded; ignorance should be punished
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Especially the alledged copied source folder :)
siggy played guitar
Now we all know the real question here is...how much of this percentage of time involves porn?
I would like to see Jesus' desktop; I bet he uses OS X.
...my monitor died last week.
bhu dhu dhum dhum *crash*
Thank you, thank you... I'll be here all week.
#SickNotWeak
we already know what George Bush's desktop looks like.
The shareholder is always right.
Solitaire...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Linus uses Red Hat at work, and SuSE at Home.
I seriously doubt that George Bush -has- a desktop. What is he going to do with it? Write a reply to the Secretary of State via eMail? Look at the budget on Excel? Put together the state of the union with PowerPOint?
Come on, people in powerful places don't waste their time with this kind of crap. They have lots of people doing "stuff" for them.
The exception is likely those in the computer industry - like Gates and Jobs. Those folks have a technical background, and want to experience their own industry (obviously, having a computer on your desktop can be a help if you're a leader in the world of technology).
CEOs and other people of power are not like you and me. They have people like you and me. Or, more likely, they have people that have people like you and me. Well, twice more removed.
So, what's your IP address and root password? :)
You are not the customer.
I'd really love to see what tools they were using/are using still, when coding the vehicles. In fact, I really think Slashdot should try hard to get some info from the development team as to what OS they're running on those little vehicles, not to mention the basic hardware platform. It would be a real eye-opener, in fact, if it was discovered that they were using off-the-shelf components for the core computing systems, or if the specs turn out to be less complex than current-generation mini-itx class boards you can buy on the open market.
:)
They're supposedly a publicly-funded scientific project, so it would be revealing in itself if they refused to answer, claiming the need for secrecy. I dare you to file some FOIAs, Timothy
Get off my launchpad!
As a front-end to a Plan 9 machine :)
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Have you ever been curious about what someone else's computing environment looks like?
No. No I have not. I have been so not curious that the very question takes me aback.
Is this something like "Geeks Uncensored" or the "Weekly Geek News"? What's the favorite programing language of the Bat Boy anyway? Are we going to see Linus throwing his jacket over his monitor as the paparazzi descend upon him?
What a peculiar concept.
KFG
Linus uses an sophisticated email filter with a lot of sco.com addresses in it
Bill Gates uses a scepter and fake British lord's robes of state, to rehearse his meeting with Liz
Steve Jobs would use the stress reduction and temper control cdrom he got at Christmas if Macs could run Windows binaries.
Bush uses a Microsoft Barney
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I'll bet she has icons scattered randomly over the desktop, and all the colors clash.
The swedish site Unix.se has screenshots from several famous computeers (hey, it could be a word!) desktops here. The site is in swedish, but you'll most likely at least understand the names.
Whenever I use one of my Windows PCs. He must be satisfied with it, otherwise he would see that it be improved. But he doesn't. You get what he wants.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
"wow look at mah cursor! it's got a tail! come over here condi... check this out, lookey, when I move my mouse 'round, there's a lil' tail it's like a real mousey!"
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
And here it is...
As for his .emacs file, last time I looked, it wasn't empty, but contained a few lines to turn off the default disabling of novice-confusing commands like narrow-to-window, and I think he also enables debug-on-error. It no serious customization to speak of though. As someone else mentioned, he's presumably set up Emacs's defaults the way he already likes them.
In recent years because of injuries, he's often had to get other people to type for him while he tells them what to type ("control-F, meta-d, blah blah"). That wouldn't show up in a screen shot either, but somehow seems like it should be part of the picture. Typing for him is an interesting experience if you don't have to do it for too long. Volunteer for it sometime if the situation arises, I'm sure he'll appreciate it.
Actually, he seems to be pretty proficient with a computer. :-)
[For the high-bandwidth version go to http://bushin30seconds.org/finalists.shtml]
I have always dreamed of seeing the setup of those who work on the low-level stuff in BSD and Linux, especially today.
There are so many tools and configurations that the ultimate programmers could use to help them.
i saw the console of one of the people who worked on BSD in the late 70s and 80s...
Surprisingly, he was running Redhat 8, (almost) default install.
The default install includes such great applications like OpenOffice and Mozilla.
However, he never used those applications.
Also, he had X with GNOME installed.
However, he never used X.
I also notice vi and emacs were installed. Everyone who uses seriously uses console likes either vi or emacs (but never both).
However, he never used vi or emacs.
Yes, he installed Redhat 9.0, but he didn't really use it to its full potential.
All he used was csh, telnet, and ed.
Yes, ed.
For those who do not know ed, it is a text-only edittor that can only change the contents of one line at a time. It was mainly used back in the 60s and 70s when most computers did not have monitors, and every line had to be printed out.
However, despite his lack of creativity in the tool-selection, he is the best programmer I know, and knows the bsd kernal inside and out, as well as many of the popular device drivers.
His code is beautiful too, conforming to K&R.
The funny/sad thing was one of his specialties was supposed to be user interface. He wasn't please when the X10 to X11 upgrade moved the windows. Plus the line was in permanent marker.
That was one desktop I didn't need to see...
Here is a Screenshot of the computer on the desk in the Oval Office...
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
since Macintosh is a religion as well.
I'm not clicking any link with the word "goat" in the path.
I think this is a fundamental difference between even the most passionate Microsoft Windows user... In GNU/Linux and Unix in general, the desktop is a person thing. We change it to fit our needs, our key bindings, our window dressing, our themeable widgets.
So what does it matter what someone else's desktop looks like- particularly a non-technical person? They'll likely be using something more "out of the box" than I will. I'm sometimes curious about technical user's desktops to find out tricks about how they've made thier system more productive (such as dedicating each key on the numeric keypad to a screen in X, or using virtual dekstops to represnt connections to a given remote host via SSH, or a desktop where all the windows are automatically tiled so there's no wasted space.
Those are interesting, finding out what Tony Danza uses isn't.
No offense Tony.
- Serge
Not just for the sake of completeness. It would certainly be interesting to compare software and hardware, and I don't mean in the competitive sense. I'm more interested in seeing whether each group has independently evolved the same tool suites to do the same tasks, or whether each group has realms of innovation.
You can bet it would be a great kickstart for the next generation of entrepreneurs to have a rudimentary insight into the types of problems (and early-generation solutions) they will have to work with in their own potential projects. Ironically, of course, that may be one reason for attempting to keep this information secret, keeping an ivory-tower mystique (and securing their jobs and their governments' scientific edge) rather than opening the next "space race" to all comers.
Get off my launchpad!
Alan Cooper's book, About Face, describes an ideal desktop: not a metaphor for something else, but an easily learned, symbolic interface.
The closest thing to it currently is GNOME.
My own desktop. It's so cluttered with icons and documents that I can't see what background looks like anymore.
:)
Where was that report again?
I'm willing to bet he's got three folders on the desktop:
...of course, there's no 'Sucessful Legal Shit' anywhere...
Actually....I think I may have to see my desktop...There are too many windows open...I haven't seen my desktop in a week or so...
--<Mike>--
* Jr. himself stated that he doesn't read the newspaper.
Links
* In his book "Stupid White Men," Michael Moore claims that Bush has cabinet members read their reports to him.
* Moore also claims that Jr's parents heavily favor illiteracy foundations in their charitable contributions.
If you can find a link to that report that says Jr doesn't "trust" e-mail, I'd really like to check it out. Googling hasn't turned it up for me.
Of course, since John posts here, I'm hoping that he'd be kind enough to take a screenshot of the current desktop he has, and post it here.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
... here (linus torvalds playing frozen bubble at linux.conf.au). and you can get a glimpse of his desktop.
This is a perfect Fark photoshop topic. Someone pass it along.
No. . .Bush's desktop runs Scissors.
As a Mac user, I'd be extremely interested to see what third-party system utilities, if any, he has installed on his machine, especially given the apparent hostility Apple has to user-interface modifications.
...posting a little late for this discussion:
DEK's desktop
mefus
In Open Society, GPL Software frees YOU!
my friends went on a teacher's computer and took a screenshot of porn set in a Internet Explorer window and set it as the background picture.
Suffice to say, the teacher had many problems closing the window, even after restart.
(I'd like to see Darl's desktop. I bet he has underpants gnomes as his background.)
Linus Torvalds: Uses blackbox on three monitors, all full of Xterms running vi. The background is a roll of toilet paper, edited in The Gimp to look like a roll of Transmeta, RedHat and VA Linux stock shares.
Bill Gates: Last night's build of longhorn. Has 5 monitors: one for the PowerPoint slideshow he's rehearsing, one for Outlook, and three for all the extra clocks, sliders, gizmos, icons, etc. that Longhorn puts on the desktop. His background is one of the default WinXP images.
George W. Bush: Cheney and Rumsfeld won't let him touch the "big kid computers", but he has an Etch-a-Sketch with a caricature of Saddam Hussein sitting on a canister of nerve gas.
Steve Jobs: 3 21" Apple Cinema displays. Beta build of OSX 10.4 ("Puma"). Only has one icon on the desktop, but damn if it doesn't look *really cool*.
0 1 - just my two bits
I'm very curious to see Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini's, him being an interaction design guru 'n' all. For that matter, I wouldn't mind seeing any of the alleged experts' from the Nielson Norman Group.
Some people only learn well visually.
Some people only learn well verbally.
Most people can learn well both ways, usually with a slight preference either way.
If the preference goes far enough, it's classified as a learning disability, or 'alternate learning style'.
Given the trouble Bush has with a teleprompter, it's pretty clear he has trouble with visual learning, most likely a visual processing delay. Moore's claims would support his preference for a verbal learning style.
But what I want to know is when did it become OK to make fun of people for their learning disabilites? I thought Hollywood Liberals were sensitive and caring? I guess it's OK to pick on disabled people if they're conservatives.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
It's what all the Christian Hackers use...
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
I don't think he feels "too cool to use a window system", but rather just doesn't feel like he needs one for what he does. He's the author of an old Lisp machine window system and has written plenty of X code, so it's not like the idea of a window system is unknown or scary to him.
Part of his setup's weirdness is because he travels a lot and has limited net access on the road. He does very little online. Instead, if he visits you at your company or university, he'll typically plug his laptop into your ethernet and spend a few minutes downloading his unread email (however many hundred messages that is) into it. Then he unplugs and reads the email offline while going on his way, spooling his replies onto disk. Then at his next stop, he plugs in again, uploads his replies to the old email and downloads new mail that's arrived since the last stop. He usually doesn't use web browsers. If you mail him a URL he should see, he prefers if you send him a text dump of the contents along with it. If he only gets the URL and thinks it's likely to be interesting, he emails it to a special daemon he's set up back home, that retrieves the URL's text contents and dumps it into his next batch of email. Images? What images?
All in all it actually seems like a pretty practical system, less conducive to wasting time web surfing than what most of us are used to, but he doesn't care about that.
http://unix.se/gallery/folk Dennis Ritchie, Jordan K. Hubbard, Jon "maddog" Hall, Rasmus Lerdorf etc.
...has the name "Fisher-Price" on it somewhere.
Saved us from Carter?
The Carter administration had its problems, to say the least, but in economic terms, he left office with real gains in GDP of 14% never experiencing contraction. Reagan left up 25%, with two years of contraction and a tripled national debt. Bush I left up a pathetic 5%--one third the gains of Carter, the last year with contraction and 38% more debt. Together, Reagan and Bush increased the national debt by 430%. Clinton left with an economy having gained 33% and not a single year of contraction, admittedly the debt increased the same as under Bush I, but over twice the time. Nixon-Ford left with a net gain of 14%, with two years of contraction and 56% more debt, compared to Kennedy-Johnson over the same amount of time leaving with gains of 43% with no contraction and only 20% more debt. Roosevelt in nine years managed to leave with an economy 226% larger than that he inheirited from Hoover, who commandeered a 25% contraction.
Are we seeing a pattern here?
Even if we credit Reagan and Bush with expansion--they increased the debt by over three trillion dollars in doing it. When Bush left office, the economy was 7.1 trillion. Over the whole of ReaganBush, the economy grew by 38%--by increasing the debt to practically 50% of GDP. Terrific. What an accomplishment.
My point was that the "Democrats are bad" argument posed by a certain poster was rather unfounded as the Dems have been at the helm during the greatest crises and the greatest economic recoveries. The Republicans have been in power during the greatest political and military clusterfucks and economic contractions...so one could argue that saying "Democrats are bad, we can't afford another one" is simply based in fantasy. Carter had a better economic record than Daddy Bush, for godssake, and he's the Republican's punching bag for economics.
You can see Donald knuth's fvwm desktop and also his fvwm2rc on the bottom of this page
-Brendan
(_) Bill Gates
(_) Linus Torvalds
(_) George W. Bush
(_) Darl McBride
(_) Richard M. Stallman
(_) The Pope
(_) CowboyNeal
I bet CowboyNeal would win. ;)
She plays UT and occasionally hosts LAN parties. A LAN party with a porn start. What could be better ?
No GNU has been Hurd during the making of this comment.
I just KNOW he gets the best pr0n!
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Best debunked? Really?
I think this is a debate about the amount of destruction.
The GSA didn't find much damage to the offices and utilities themselves.
But did they fan through paper trays and listen to all the voicemail themselves?
The Post says there was no "wholesale" destruction, that doesn't exclude some pranks.
It's not like they burned down the White House or caused millions of USD damage. From the BBC story, I think they could just put those W keys back in the keyboards.
Office pranks. Actually quite funny.
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
i reckon he'd have a smithers style startup screen. Naked bill gates saying 'you are good at turning me on'
-- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
My man! also, the squirrel with big nuts, the mustard guy, domo-kun, the masturbating kittens, chirtopher walken, and will wheaton!
It's a trap!
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
wow, that took all of .45 seconds to google:
.19 seconds gets us:
...and, as others have pointed out, FDR was physically sick.
longest presidential vacation in 32 years
let's see what another
Bush has taken 250 days off as of August 2003. That's 27% of his presidency spent on vacation.
I haven't read the whole discussion, so I'm not sure if it has been said already. Once I found a webpage for a Swedish LUG, I think, that hosted some 15 screenshots of famous Linux persons' desktops, including Brian Kernighan and Richard Stallman as far as I remember. If anyone can find it, please post it here.
"Until you do what you believe in, how do you know whether you believe in it or not?" -- Leo Tolstoy