Desirable Desktop:
It took me this screenshot from Zeldman to figure out that Meyerweb is style-selectable.
It also reminds me of how beautiful the Mac desktop GUI is. I’ve been a Mac-hater for years, it all started at the International School here in Bucharest. It kinda got to me when I could open only one browser window and one word document at a time (any more and you’d be greeted by an ‘insufficient memory error’ - which really got my goat up seeing as the those machines has 32mb of RAM, and my lowly P100 had only 16mb and could beat the pants off of the powermacs in question).
Since then I dwelled on those memories too long I guess, and as a PC addict obsessed with overclocking the guts of my machine, the inadequacy of the iMacs at college only incited more hatred.… violence in the case of those silly, tiny round mice..
Following the release of Mac OSX I’ve started paying more attention to ‘serious’ Mac hardware like the dual G4s and the powerbooks. Products like the iPod and those wonderful 23” HD flatscreens also helped grab my attention. Aside from being astoundingly attractive on the outside, it’s what’s on the inside (meaning OS) that brings a tear to my eye.
I’d kill to have a desktop interface like this! Everything tucked neatly out of the way, yet easily accessible: a highly efficient use of space compared to littering your desktop with icons. Mandrake 9.2 is the closest I’ve come to having those kind of toolbars available… sadly no one sane, or not, would even consider using Linux as a design platform.
So maybe I’ll think about buying a powerbook instead of a new PC notebook next year, right now I’d have to say the odds are still stacked heavily in favor of the PC notebook.
