What is the fascination people-- especially old people --have with desktop icons?

Why does this look like Anthony from LTT?

they just got used to it.
i started with a lot of desktop icons too, they now vanished or moved to the taskbar.
... i like the pic :D

Go ask that guy how "old" he is. I dare you. Also ask, "Why do you have all those icons on your desktop? Cause I noticed a lot of old people do that."

@Demolishun

He just laughed.

In some companies user home directory is backed up daily.

@Demolishun

Though by the standards of most people on devrant, I'm an old person. I remember 9/11 and the Challenger explosion.

@bahua

Do you remember the Challenger jokes?

Like: What color of eyes did the astronauts have?

@Demolishun

"dyed"(said aloud)

Blew, one blew this way, one blew that way.

How many astronauts can you fit in a car?

12, 5 inside and 7 in the ashtray.

@Demolishun

I heard that one for Branch Davidians, too.

old people!

@Demolishun I heard that one but it was about jews and the number was a a weeeee bit higher than 7 lmao

@Stuxnet @bahua you people...

What did Christa McAuliffe say to her husband before she left? You feed the dog, I'll feed the fish.

What shampoo did Christa McAuliffe use? They found her Head and Shoulders on the beach.

I can't think of anymore. Those came out in 2 weeks after at school. Kids are strange with death.

Young people today: "what's an ashtray?"

@bahua We get it, you vape... ;-)

But why the green hacker terminal? Why?

Not all old folk have desktop icons....
*clicks show desktop icons*

Oooooh there's something I didn't think was on this laptop 😎

Now to hide them again before someone notices.

@ScriptCoded That is Nate, he is still in the Matrix.

Its far quicker to access applications from the desktop. If you organise your desktop into regions of related applications, you can go straight to the application rather than delving around in a mess of start menus. With the modern start menu and its incessant advertising, this is even more important for not being distracted. Admittedly, this picture is excessive, but the point remains the same.

@monr0e

There are much better ways to navigate your desktop than start menus and clicked icons. Even on Windows and Mac.

@bahua there are universal ways, yes. Your desktop allows you to organise by your own structure, and create your own personal access model. That's why its better for the individual.

@monr0e alt+space, type command (or just a few letters of it)

Much easier (and faster) than reaching for the mouse and searching for an icon to click.

My personal computer does have a desktop, but I killed its support for desktop icons. They're visual clutter, and I loathe them.

They're also not organized properly if they're on the desktop, unless they're in folders, but that defeats the purpose of having them on your desktop.

Solution?
Have everything organized in your home folder, and use a quick launcher (e.g. alt+space on KDE, command-space on osx) to start whatever application you want. They have fuzzy matching, so a few characters is often sufficient.

Or you can use the terminal and have everything you commonly use in your path. but if this appeals to you, you probably already live in your terminal, so.

@12bitfloat the location of his desk is similar to windows (though mirrored)

@Root

Yep. Alfred on Mac, rofi on Linux, ffr or launchy on Windows. Combining it with DDG's bang searches is a thing of beauty.

I remember seeing someone a few years ago who seemed to have their default download location set to their desktop; I had to stop myself from saying "you know there's a separate 'Downloads' folder, right?"

Damn that posture is hot

I guess I'm old.

Fucking icons all over the place.

Download folder: all shit
Desktop: all important shit

I was in college during the Challenger accident. Specifically, I was in an aerospace engineering class. The professor of my class was friends with one of the astronauts. I've told my share of tasteless jokes in my life, and I dislike scolds, but it is true that the jokes aren't funny for those personally involved.

i either turn them off, or it doesn't allow icons on the desktop in the first place (for instance when using i3wm)

I paid monies for my monitors. I'm not leaving desktop real estate unused. Windows cover everything.

This is not an old person! This is Alan. He is 24, he is security analyst for Microsoft’s Windows 10 team

I try to keep mine to like half the screen when it’s in laptop mode (IE not docked). Honestly idk tho

I don't get it as well.
I don't even have a desktop... it forces you to order your stuff properly.

I think that the desktop was invented to be used as a quick place to access and drop things. Not to store and archive stuff.

@Rohr

That's my exact use for it, though I don't actually handle the icons on the visual desktop. On my work mac they appear, and I delete them all at the end of the day, but on my linux machine at home, ~/Desktop is just a directory where I put stuff I'm working on.

You have heard: A cluttered desk is a cluttered mind?

So what does an empty desk indicate?

@Demolishun

first you have to empty your cup.

TIL all Buddhists like to CHUG CHUG CHUG CHUG.

Holy shit, he's got two more icons on his desktop than me!

Fuck, his spine must look like a bowl of spaghetti

I hate desktop icons. I remove all of them and keep my as much clean as possible.

I even disabled the "show desktop icon"

I like my desktop like I like my women... Bare naked

Desktops are for sexy wallpapers