The desktop of a computer can be a very personal thing to a user especially for the more serious users of computers including gamers, developers and hobbyist all of which love to change their desktops to suit both their needs and personal tastes.
What the larger operating system creators, for example Apple and Microsoft, have failed to understand is that desktops look, feel and even the way it interacts with a particular user is very personal to the user in question. In all their efforts to make their computers easier to use they have singularly forgotten that not all people use or interact with their computers in the same way or want to use the computer in same way as others. I am not saying there is not a place for a standard desktop in any operating system for those users who have no interest or the knowledge in customising their desktop.
But what they have failed in their current operating systems have failed to provide easy ways to customise their desktops for those users who would like to personalise their desktops other than usual changing of the desktop image, font and colours. This is especially true of Microsoft’s Windows 8 which really only gives the user one choice of desktop with little and no customization!
But why is it so important that an operating system can allow for a lot of customization by some users?
Because to these people, including myself, the desktop is a very personal thing, a place to express the users creative side and interact with the computer in a way comfortable to user in question. After all it how we interact with computer and we like to do it in a way we would like and comfortable with. Add to this users like myself do not like being told how to interact with our computers through a desktop which lacks any individualism or personal touches.
What both Apple’s and Microsoft’s operating systems have always lacked is an easy and stable way to customise or individualise which is fine for most normal users but has been very frustrating to those of us who love to tinker with the desktop.
Currently only operating systems which allow total control and customising of the desktop are the various distributions of Linux which allow users like myself freedom to customise the desktop to their hearts content. Add to this a whole range of base desktop software from Unity to Openbox give users like myself a wide range options for customisation and ways we interact with our computers.
The Chronicles of a Steam Powered Storyteller 