Alternatives to Icons and Start Menus?

Cibressus Lybir asks: "We've had icons, folders and menu's for a long time. I currently use two monitors, both filled to the brim with icons and several drawers on each desktop. My Start Menu, on my Windows machine is never used, because it's flimsy and too hard to navigate around. In movies you always see cool 3D desktops with stuff flying around and some kind of cool gesture or spoken word used to start up applications. The future will only bring more applications, more icons, and more time spent navigating around launching your programs. What are your ideas for the future of desktops? How can we rid our selves of the icon jungles that we call our GUI's?"

Comments

Try PaneKiller

[rayamor]

A utility called PaneKiller serves as an add on for your Windows Task bar. You can directory surf, detach views (like KDE), plus much more. This utility helped me alot when I coded for a living.

PaneKiller

True Launch Bar

[BlueCowMa]

try http://www.truelaunchbar.com/

Lifestreams

[Crayon Kid]

The concept of lifestreams seems interesting and is an approage really different from the "classic" desktop.

Winkey

[belroth]

When I use windows (work mostly) I use WinKey. This lets you set up shortcuts using the windows key, e.g. I have WinKey+X set to open Excel, WinKey+Esc to open Emacs, Winkey+1,2,3 etc to open network shares and so on. You can also use Ctl, Alt, Shift as additional meta keys.
OK so I have a small cheat sheet taped to the monitors to remind me of the infrequently used combinations but I remember most of them.

I have NO icons on my windows desktop as I think it looks horrible, they're always covered by various app windows anyway - and it seems that people with dozens of icons spend ages looking for the one they want. Most of the time I'm not using the mouse so it makes me quicker getting work done.

Keyboard Commands

[sabNetwork]

I completely agree with you: start menus are a pain in the ass. Every program takes a dump in there during installation, and it's pretty hard to come up with a good organizational system.

I use a simple program called kbstart on my Win2000 box. It's awesome. Although most aspects of UNIX aren't designed for usability, tool abbreviations are. It's much easier to type ALT-ENTER to bring up my kbstart prompt and type "PS". The alternative would be to do Start: Programs: Adobe Photoshop 6.

So I guess I'm saying, as far as launching goes, the future of GUI's is... no GUI :)

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Some ideas...

[Anonymous Coward]

You could try using Ratpoison and screen. Of course, there are a number of projects that seek to change the way various information is handled/presented/etc. See, for example, Chandler, Haystack,Gnome Storage, and WinFS. These all seem to be addressing the fundamental problem of managing ever growing amounts of information on personal computers.

Samurize?

[RandomCoil]

My first thought is that there's something wrong with the way you work, and that you you haven't figured out how to organize your Start menu. Assuming that's not the case though... :)

I've had some fun reconfiguring my Windows desktop using using Samurize. It won't give you a 3D interface or a voice commands or any of that, but it does allow you to provide links to your important applications in a different way. For the true geek, it also allows the embedding of various graphs and system monitors.

Numerous screenshots are available on the site, but they may not all be work-appropriate, so browse wisely (the main page is perfectly safe).

The problem is you

[Brandybuck]

I currently use two monitors, both filled to the brim with icons and several drawers on each desktop.

I think you are the problem. You need to organize yourself better. If two monitors are full of icons, then I have to wonder why you consider all of them so worthwhile you can't remove some of them.

I've walked by coworkers's desks and seen Windows desktops with icons lined up all the way to the right of the screen. This isn't a rarity. I can't understand how people work this way.

Organization and priority is the key. You've got four basic spots to put stuff. Menu, panel, desktop and folders. Put your applications in the menu, with links to your five most frequently used programs on the panel. The menu should be organized by category and frequency of use. Don't accept the default locations, use the menu editor! The desktop should not contain any applications at all. It should contains icons for drives, devices and projects. The latter is the key. Organize your computing into projects, and put all your data into hierarchical folders. There's also the fifth possibility of "the command line". There's no reason for non-GUI programs to be in your menu system. For instance, I use "tidy" all the time, but have never once considered making an icon for it. If you use KDE, the Alt-F2 key is your friend.

Finally, dump anything you don't use. Do you really need icons for five different music players, six different text editors, and a handful of CD burners and rippers? Do you have a document you're finished creating? Take it off the desktop and file it away!