Going minimalist...

[spicyapple]

No more Menu bar, Dock, Desktop icons, etc. for me.

I've decided to going completely minimalist, with only the most relevant apps running in the foreground, with background apps slowly fading into the background.

I've installed MenuShade, QuickSilver and turned on Dock hiding, as well as changing the wallpaper to black solid.

With the background selected, and pressing Command+Option+H, you'd be hard pressed to believe the computer wasn't asleep.

 

[GreatOne08]

Nice! You got rid of all the background distractions.

 

[MrSmith]

I expected this to be a thread about going to work in a g-string.
How disappointed I feel right now.

 

[jsw]

I find that look oddly appealing.

I expected this to be a thread about going to work in a g-string.
How disappointed I feel right now.

How is a g-string minimalist when it's clearly something which can easily be removed?

 

[MrSmith]

I find that look oddly appealing.

How is a g-string minimalist when it's clearly something which can easily be removed?

Minimalism: A style of art in which the artist reduces the work to a minimum of elements.

It doesn't say a blank canvas. Perv.

 

[jsw]

Minimalism: A style of art in which the artist reduces the work to a minimum of elements.

It doesn't say a blank canvas. Perv.

What... body hair doesn't count?

Anyway, on-topic: any noticeable issues (stability, etc.) with using MenuShade and QuickSilver?

 

[dylan]

Haha I saw that MacBreak too. I tried it but I the bright patches on my monitor really drove me nuts with the black screen. That plus it just felt a bit too geeky.

 

[thedude110]

Very sexy look.

I wish you could do something with the red, yellow and green buttons in the corner of the Finder, though. Suddenly you're making OS X look almost garish.

 

[skunk]

Minimalism: A style of art in which the artist reduces the work to a minimum of elements.

Zero is an effective minimum.

 

[MrSmith]

Zero is an effective minimum.

In maths, yes (except negatives). In art, no. A blank canvas is no longer a piece of art. "A minimum of elements" does not mean no elements at all.

 

[Flowbee]

Nice! You got rid of all the background distractions.

There's a little piece of freeware called Doodim that dims everything except the current application you're working in. You can set it to fade just a little, or fade the background completely to black. Great for getting rid of distractions.

 

[MrSmith]

There's a little piece of freeware called Doodim that dims everything except the current application you're working in. You can set it to fade just a little, or fade the background completely to black. Great for getting rid of distractions.

It sounded interesting until I read the known issues:

Occasionally the switch can fail.
Doodim may also simply fail to dim the background of the new foremost application.
Doodim has to do a little trick which may have some cosmetic side-effects when you switch between applications or when you want to click in the darkened background.

Since it's so easy to turn Doodim on or off, it's no big deal, but we will be able to fix these issues as soon as Apple's Window server APIs are made public.

In other words, this product may not work, but don't worry about it. Just turn it off.
In reality, it's freeware and since you've used it maybe they're just covering themselves for the unlikely event it doesn't work?

 

[Flowbee]

In reality, it's freeware and since you've used it maybe they're just covering themselves for the unlikely event it doesn't work?

It can go a little haywire once in a while, especially when switching between many apps or using expose, but it's pretty minor stuff... mostly it works just fine. I only use it when I'm writing or working on a project that I don't want to be distracted from. Otherwise I turn it off. YMMV