Transparent panel

[Jonathan Gardner]

--- Stephen Kuhn <skuhn at telpacific.com.au> wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-06-10 at 02:10, Jonathan Gardner wrote:
> > Someone had done it at some point, but it required
> a
> > patched gtk and maybe even X, I forget. There were
> > some screenshots, it was pretty. I don't know the
> > resource requirements, but those darned gdesklets
> use
> > up all of that if you want pretty stuff on the
> > desktop. ;-)
> > 
> > Jonathan
> 
> "Pretty stuff" doesn't get work done. I've gotten so
> "down and dirty"
> with work that XFCE4 is the only WM I use on all the
> boxen I have to
> deal with - transparency and shadowing means nothing
> anymore.
> Performance means the most.
> 

Of course not, nobody suggested that pretty stuff got
work done. Then again. I'm sitting here in my
company's brand new building and notice that the
pillars in the different wings are painted different
colors? Why? That doesn't get work done. The carpet is
a weird sort of swirly pattern, that certainly doesn't
get work done. Why carpet at all for that matter? Why
give this building any of the odd "pretty" flourishes
it has. None of that get's work done. We should have
just built a cinderblock box big enough to hold
everybody and their belongings. 
The thing is, people are more productive when things
are asthetically pleasing. Now people's tastes vary so
what's pretty to one may be hideous to another.
Now computers seem to come across as less productive
when things are pleasing to the eye, but one can
create a blazing fast desktop that depresses people to
look at thus reducing productivity, or one can make a
visually pleasing desktop and perhaps apps won't fire
up quite as fast but if the worker is happier, the
work will probably get done quicker.

Jonathan