The Tao of Screen

In search of the distraction-free desktop.

By Jeffrey MacIntyre

If your computer desktop is anything like mine—and, brother, it
is—you’ve paved over every spare pixel in an iconistan of clutter.
Desktop design originated in a wistful visual metaphor,
the clean, still work surface, encouraging users to productive ends.
Leaps forward in computing horsepower and the rise of constant Internet
use has transformed the tabletop terra firma into a cockpit, an antic terminal
for the networked self. Our desktops are now a thick impasto of tabbed
windows, pull-down menus, dashboard widgets, and application alerts. No
possible distraction gets left behind, no link, feed, IM, twitter, or
poke unheeded.