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no more desktop icons in 4.1

Posted by Scott_Ruecker on · 5 comments
aseigo; By Aaron J. Seigo
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I just committed a change to the default desktop containment that removes desktop icon support. Yes, it has finally happened ... no more splattering icons from the "desktop" folder across the screen. Buh-bye. Let me pause while some of you get all worked up and ready to punch the "Add comment" link to flame me to kingdom come.

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Comments (5)

Let's all wake up and smell the coffee: icons suck, especially on "the desktop". Do they represent files, or executing proceses or "apps" or some other sub-moronic abstraction?

If Windows 3.11 hadn't had them, we wouldn't have to suffer through these kind of messes today.

So: use TWM, or else. You can set up twm's "icon managers" to just show the title of the window you just closed. Implicitly, icons, which now look like the only sensible way humans have ever developed to manage icons, the spines of books, only represent processes. File icons: just say no! Even Apple has abandoned the Holy Document-Centric Approach that gave us all the MSFT problems with viruses.
I like Windowlab and OLWM.
At one point I figured I actually never look at the desktop (maybe just after boot) so I wiped all icons off of it and left only wallpapers. Get me some better abstractions that don't get in my way ;)
Twm doesn't like me or my hardware. I much prefer Fvwm, which I've grown to like very much as the result of using it in OpenBSD.
Or, make all icons documents/launchers, and banish the minimized windows to a menu on the panel/dock.

I'm an Alt-Tab freak, anyway, so this fits my style perfectly.

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