For me it was a major revelation when it was pointed out that, for someone who doesn't want his desktop changed, I did install all sorts of crazy things when I was starting with Linux (Compiz plugins, anyone?). And while Gnome 3 pushed me into Mate, it wasn't because it was different but rather because it was bad. So I'm excited about someone trying something new, particularly someone who realizes that the Desktop is not a tablet.
Here's an idea that I believe I read in HN as "the original purpose of the desktop": add a Desktop Manager that manages which icons are on your desktop and makes it easy to switch.
The desktop is kind of weird, in the sense that it's prime real estate but, at the same time, there's an expectation that you shouldn't put too much stuff there, and then it ends up cluttered anyway. I think it's worth trying a stronger separation between "Desktop" and any other regular folder, emphasizing that the Desktop is where you place links to the files you need right now, but with a mechanism to clear it completely (without losing data) and another to switch which icons you see right now, kind of like browser tab groups. That way, when you're working on a project you place the files you need on the desktop and when you're done you clean it up.
I remember in the old days the desktop was like a starting point. You'd open the drive that had the program you wanted to use, double click it. Or a little later you could double click the document you wanted to edit and the relevant application would start up automatically and open the doc.
Now I never see my desktop. A handful of apps, primarily Chrome, are permanently open in front of it. The computer is always on, if I reboot then the previous state more or less restores automatically.
So the desktop itself is not really prime real estate any more. It's more of an abstract idea, the layer underneath all the useful bits. The windows have taken over.
On macOS the desktop path is where screenshots go... so mostly I just have a litter of 100s of screenshots there.
Communicating at work seems to involve taking lots of screenshots.
Usually these are files I don't really care to keep around, I just need it in the moment so I can add it to a message in Slack, Teams, Jira, Github etc.
So it feels like this primitive could maybe be built into the OS in a more developed way than just screen area -> file, so that you could access it directly from apps (in a consistent way - as an OS feature) and avoid generating junk files.
> On macOS the desktop path is where screenshots go... so mostly I just have a litter of 100s of screenshots there. […] you could […] avoid generating junk files.
Some features that may help with this:
After opening the Shift-Command-5 screenshot interface, in the “Options” menu, you can change the folder your screenshots are saved to from the Desktop to any other folder of your choice. Files will still be saved, but you may find it easier to organize those files, as they will be separated from anything else on your Desktop.
After opening the Shift-Command-5 screenshot interface, in the “Options” menu, you can change the save location to Clipboard. Or when taking a screenshot with any other shortcut, you can save just that screenshot to the clipboard by also holding Control. Copying to the clipboard ensures there is nothing to clean up afterward.
If you want to take two screenshots and then paste both, you can still use the clipboard if you enable macOS’s clipboard history feature. That would let you copy both screenshots, then paste them both into your app. To enable clipboard history, see official docs at <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/search-your-clipboard-history-mchl40d5b86b/27/mac/27" rel="nofollow">https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/search-your-clipboa... or a more detailed guide at <a href="https://www.cultofmac.com/how-to/mac-clipboard-history#enable" rel="nofollow">https://www.cultofmac.com/how-to/mac-clipboard-history#enabl....
probably_wrong · · focus · HN ↗
Here's an idea that I believe I read in HN as "the original purpose of the desktop": add a Desktop Manager that manages which icons are on your desktop and makes it easy to switch.
The desktop is kind of weird, in the sense that it's prime real estate but, at the same time, there's an expectation that you shouldn't put too much stuff there, and then it ends up cluttered anyway. I think it's worth trying a stronger separation between "Desktop" and any other regular folder, emphasizing that the Desktop is where you place links to the files you need right now, but with a mechanism to clear it completely (without losing data) and another to switch which icons you see right now, kind of like browser tab groups. That way, when you're working on a project you place the files you need on the desktop and when you're done you clean it up.
anentropic · · focus · HN ↗
Now I never see my desktop. A handful of apps, primarily Chrome, are permanently open in front of it. The computer is always on, if I reboot then the previous state more or less restores automatically.
So the desktop itself is not really prime real estate any more. It's more of an abstract idea, the layer underneath all the useful bits. The windows have taken over.
On macOS the desktop path is where screenshots go... so mostly I just have a litter of 100s of screenshots there.
Communicating at work seems to involve taking lots of screenshots.
Usually these are files I don't really care to keep around, I just need it in the moment so I can add it to a message in Slack, Teams, Jira, Github etc.
So it feels like this primitive could maybe be built into the OS in a more developed way than just screen area -> file, so that you could access it directly from apps (in a consistent way - as an OS feature) and avoid generating junk files.
roryokane · · focus · HN ↗
Some features that may help with this:
After opening the Shift-Command-5 screenshot interface, in the “Options” menu, you can change the folder your screenshots are saved to from the Desktop to any other folder of your choice. Files will still be saved, but you may find it easier to organize those files, as they will be separated from anything else on your Desktop.
After opening the Shift-Command-5 screenshot interface, in the “Options” menu, you can change the save location to Clipboard. Or when taking a screenshot with any other shortcut, you can save just that screenshot to the clipboard by also holding Control. Copying to the clipboard ensures there is nothing to clean up afterward.
If you want to take two screenshots and then paste both, you can still use the clipboard if you enable macOS’s clipboard history feature. That would let you copy both screenshots, then paste them both into your app. To enable clipboard history, see official docs at <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/search-your-clipboard-history-mchl40d5b86b/27/mac/27" rel="nofollow">https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/search-your-clipboa... or a more detailed guide at <a href="https://www.cultofmac.com/how-to/mac-clipboard-history#enable" rel="nofollow">https://www.cultofmac.com/how-to/mac-clipboard-history#enabl....