Pixelfuckers

Well with ssc ’10 around the corner and the influx of new users, I thought it would be nice to throw out some pointers for those just starting out and presenting those beautiful setups.

1. Authenticity

This is important. Don’t photoshop it, don’t fake it, It’s never okay (unless it’s a mock-up, and in that case that doesn’t really apply here). And although ripping is not so common anymore, if it ever was. It’s still important to point out, if not too obvious.

2. System monitoring

Rainmeter – Okay so like, rainmeter is the ish for stuff like monitoring your torrents and mail-checker configs, unnecessary monitoring is tasteless, if you’re on a pc where you need to watch resources, that’s completely understandable, but if you’re only using it because it looks fancy, then that’s a little pointless and redundant (using resources to monitor resources). Also it’s on too many lifehacker featured desktops which rarely impress.

Samurize – I hardly see it used anymore but it’s great if you’re not using an alternate shell and you’re still in xp, check bernds shots here nitzuas old shots back on custo for some great examples.

Geektool – (See issues with overcompensating on rainmeter^^^^^)

Conky – Linux users generally use conky the same way that I stated was unnecessary in rainmeter, but for some reason I find it to be more acceptable, I’m not the authority on what’s legit and what isn’t, I’m “just sayin”.
In short, don’t be too try too hard with rainmeter and geektool configs.

3. Usability

Don’t sacrifice too much usability for a sexy setup. Function and form should always be as balanced as possible. This should be fairly self explanatory.

4. Don’t be too trendy

Styles come and go, for some people they have their own style, and for others they may tend to change their desktop depending upon the most popular recent styles. For good ideas on original content, visit your favorite design sites and portfolios, or a site designed by your favorite studio, pick out elements from the site itself and build something around that to practice, for examples check out nuuvo’s older stuff, like monc which was based on monc.se

5. Consistency

Colors, fonts, icons, fonts, fonts, I often don’t follow my own advice but, fonts.
If your setup is a relaxed setup based on usability default app icons are generally acceptable, though slight modifications are even better.

6. A good wall a day keeps the critics away

Okay well not a wall a day, what I’m saying is use a nice wall

- photowalls are more and more common, and how could they not be? there are plenty of great ones out there. Just make sure it fits!

- patterns/tiles aren’t a bad thing, especially when paired with a nice gradient.

- don’t make it too busy, you don’t your windows to awkwardly blend in with your wall because of a wall that’s too noisy and busy.

- as much as you liked to look at attractive females, they don’t always belong on your desktop.

- contrast is a great thing, dark walls with a light visual style/guikit/gtk theme almost always work out.

7. Mac emulation

If you’re not on a mac, don’t make it look like a mac (too much). Influence is okay, but you can never really emulate the feeling of os x.

8. Browsers

Chrome – not much can be done here.

Firefox – custom stylish scripts and tiny menu are your best friends. Minimalism while maintaining usability is always great, It looks slick and gives you more screen real estate to see what’s in your browser.

Opera – I don’t know much about customization in opera, as I’ve never really been a huge fan of the browser myself, but the gperfection suite opera skin showed me that (attractive) customization in opera is completely possible, as well as mangos shots.

Maxthon – why would you do that to yourself?

9. Your OS is always observed

The operating system you’re on, and it’s capabilities and limitations in relation to the difficulty of changing things is almost always taken into account.

10. Don’t over-do it.

I know I’ve already said this about multiple things but it’s very important in my opinion, I love reading lifehacker as much as anyone but seeing their featured desktops often makes me snort with derision, a busy desktop doesn’t always mean aesthetically pleasing.

11. THINGS THAT GO WITHOUT SAYING

RESHACK EVERYTHING.
DON’T RIP.
DON’T RIP.
IT’S A 99

Feel free to contribute to things already stated in the comments below.