4 ms·

Love this. One productivity hack I discovered for myself was to set my background to a solid color I like and to make my windowing experience as "boring" as po

Love this. One productivity hack I discovered for myself was to set my background to a solid color I like and to make my windowing experience as "boring" as possible. Id otherwise sit and tweak my UI instead of working. This sort of project is quite possibly the next step in that optimization for myself.

Fnoord 5y ago
I get the Bing Wallpaper of the day on my desktop (be it Windows, macOS, or Gnome). I love it because it is consistent on my devices (except (work)phone and Citrix). Its a surprise every day, usually positive. My oldest likes it, too.
mattl 5y ago
I've had my desktop background be the same NeXT default color for years. Same on my iPhone and iPad.
qubex 5y ago
My desktop backgrounds have been solid black since 1993.
- brnt 5y ago
  Who spends time looking at their wallpaper? I couldn't tell you what my desktop background is.
  - bananamerica 5y ago
    I'm pretty sure that wallpapers are something you put so that others can see.
    - 0des 5y ago
      It keeps my Bonzi Buddy entertained when I'm busy working.
- utexaspunk 5y ago
  Mine's been solid black back since 1986 :)
  - cpill 5y ago
    it's black when I close my eyes since I was born!
    - zengargoyle 5y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigengrau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigengrau
  - xdennis 5y ago
    Mine's #333 since 2003... is what I'd like to say because it rhymes, but it's actually since 2013. I tried black, but it's easy to confuse for the monitor being off since I don't have any fixed elements on the screen.
    - Findecanor 5y ago
      #444 since 1997, more or less: For some years I used a 1 pixel high image with a single black pixel tiled vertically to delineate the area where I put Window Maker's* dock. *: Window Maker is a window manager under X11 with a NeXTStep-look-and-feel.
  - helmholtz 5y ago
    I have found my people! The solid black wallpaper reinforces in me the idea that computers and phones are tools, not accessories and it has been revolutionary. I now try to use more and more things in their default state. Vim instead of NeoVim, and an empty vimrc. The shitty fonts that ship with the distros, rather than Source Sans 3. That hopelessly ugly yellow Matlab Current-Section highlight colour. I love them all! It was staggerging to me just how much easier it was to stop, breathe, take a moment to change my mind about the fact that some config needs changing, and instead just say "it's good enough".
lproven 5y ago
Fair. Perhaps a tad extreme but fair. My favourite, and I kinda miss it, was a neat little hack/exploit of a new Windows feature in 95/NT4 + PowerToys. It gained a new option to stretch the wallpaper to fit the screen resolution. If you set the wallpaper to a tiny 2x3 BMP -- literally just a rectangle of 6 differently-coloured pixels -- then in its efforts to scale that, it turned the background into a cool smooth set of blends, just a wash of gradients. It was attractive but totally undistracting, and a ~6 byte wallpaper file took an extremely small amount of RAM. :-) Eventually, if I remember correctly, it got "fixed" and the scaling algorithm recognised sharply differing pixel colours and scaled them into GIIIAAANNNT PIIIXEEELLLS. :-(
hhh 5y ago
Interesting, I find that I spend a day or two getting everything 'right' for me, which tends to end up in this exact state where it's both boring and pleasant to look at. I also use a solid black background. example: https://files.catbox.moe/fr6hq9.png https://files.catbox.moe/fr6hq9.png
quirino 5y ago
On Linux a window manager might be another option in that direction. I use i3 (with a solid #1F4437 background :) and find it's the best way to make your desktop invisible.
dm319 5y ago
Yes. I have a similar mindset and reasoning for using Mate desktop. It's very simple, I'm spared the complexity of kde and the eye candy / novel paradigm of gnome.
etaioinshrdlu 5y ago
I cannot really use a Linux desktop or else I just spend all my time tweaking it, never getting fully satisfied.
- lproven 5y ago
  This is why I liked Ubuntu Unity. There were few options, but I didn't need them. It worked fine for me out of the box. I add a few apps, a system monitor and I'm good to go. Xfce is fine after about 10-15min's work, but Unity, for me, is set out of the metaphorical box.

Fnoord 5y ago

I get the Bing Wallpaper of the day on my desktop (be it Windows, macOS, or Gnome). I love it because it is consistent on my devices (except (work)phone and Citrix). Its a surprise every day, usually positive. My oldest likes it, too.

mattl 5y ago

I've had my desktop background be the same NeXT default color for years. Same on my iPhone and iPad.

qubex 5y ago

My desktop backgrounds have been solid black since 1993.

brnt 5y ago
Who spends time looking at their wallpaper? I couldn't tell you what my desktop background is.
- bananamerica 5y ago
  I'm pretty sure that wallpapers are something you put so that others can see.
  - 0des 5y ago
    It keeps my Bonzi Buddy entertained when I'm busy working.
utexaspunk 5y ago
Mine's been solid black back since 1986 :)
- cpill 5y ago
  it's black when I close my eyes since I was born!
  - zengargoyle 5y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigengrau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigengrau
- xdennis 5y ago
  Mine's #333 since 2003... is what I'd like to say because it rhymes, but it's actually since 2013. I tried black, but it's easy to confuse for the monitor being off since I don't have any fixed elements on the screen.
  - Findecanor 5y ago
    #444 since 1997, more or less: For some years I used a 1 pixel high image with a single black pixel tiled vertically to delineate the area where I put Window Maker's* dock. *: Window Maker is a window manager under X11 with a NeXTStep-look-and-feel.
- helmholtz 5y ago
  I have found my people! The solid black wallpaper reinforces in me the idea that computers and phones are tools, not accessories and it has been revolutionary. I now try to use more and more things in their default state. Vim instead of NeoVim, and an empty vimrc. The shitty fonts that ship with the distros, rather than Source Sans 3. That hopelessly ugly yellow Matlab Current-Section highlight colour. I love them all! It was staggerging to me just how much easier it was to stop, breathe, take a moment to change my mind about the fact that some config needs changing, and instead just say "it's good enough".

lproven 5y ago

Fair. Perhaps a tad extreme but fair. My favourite, and I kinda miss it, was a neat little hack/exploit of a new Windows feature in 95/NT4 + PowerToys. It gained a new option to stretch the wallpaper to fit the screen resolution. If you set the wallpaper to a tiny 2x3 BMP -- literally just a rectangle of 6 differently-coloured pixels -- then in its efforts to scale that, it turned the background into a cool smooth set of blends, just a wash of gradients. It was attractive but totally undistracting, and a ~6 byte wallpaper file took an extremely small amount of RAM. :-) Eventually, if I remember correctly, it got "fixed" and the scaling algorithm recognised sharply differing pixel colours and scaled them into GIIIAAANNNT PIIIXEEELLLS. :-(

hhh 5y ago

Interesting, I find that I spend a day or two getting everything 'right' for me, which tends to end up in this exact state where it's both boring and pleasant to look at. I also use a solid black background. example: https://files.catbox.moe/fr6hq9.png https://files.catbox.moe/fr6hq9.png

quirino 5y ago

On Linux a window manager might be another option in that direction. I use i3 (with a solid #1F4437 background :) and find it's the best way to make your desktop invisible.

dm319 5y ago

Yes. I have a similar mindset and reasoning for using Mate desktop. It's very simple, I'm spared the complexity of kde and the eye candy / novel paradigm of gnome.

etaioinshrdlu 5y ago

I cannot really use a Linux desktop or else I just spend all my time tweaking it, never getting fully satisfied.

lproven 5y ago
This is why I liked Ubuntu Unity. There were few options, but I didn't need them. It worked fine for me out of the box. I add a few apps, a system monitor and I'm good to go. Xfce is fine after about 10-15min's work, but Unity, for me, is set out of the metaphorical box.