A non-traditional question to women ...

[slavik]

First, about me. I'm 20 and male and a college student. I am getting a laptop very soon. Of course, I kinda liked GNOME (even though I think KDE is more polished, but GNOME comes with less things that I will never use).

I started thinking of how to make the GNOME desktop and such look nice. Then it came to the topic of the wallpaper. From my nature, I want to have a pretty woman on it ... that got me thinking in term to what do women want displayed on their desktop ...

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. ;) )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A :) )

But the question remains ... what do women want to stare at (or show off?) on their desktop without many apps running on it?

I was also thinking, what about a 'Ubuntu Beautification Project' which involves creating GNOME Themes (most likely based on the ones available at gnome-look.org) or GDM themes or Ubuntu Splash Screens or some such.

Let's make Ubuntu not only a 'Linux for Human Beings' but also 'Linux for Men and Women' ... do the same for kids? (I'm sure they don't mind Spongebob or Fairly Odd Parents).

PS: Ubuntu needs to be a 'Linux for People' ... people don't like the ugly default GNOME. (By 'people' (all lower case) I mean myself).

[aysiu]

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. ;) )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A :) ) I realize you're talking about typical men, but I just wanted to point out that I don't fit into your characterization of men at all. I consider my wife hot, but I still put a picture of our cat on the desktop, and I couldn't care less about cars or guns... and definitely would not put them on my desktop. Again, maybe I'm atypical, but...

[slavik]

I said that you 'wouldn't mind'. :) (not to be confused with 'prefer')

[aysiu]

I said that you 'wouldn't mind'. :) (not to be confused with 'prefer') I actually would mind, though. I realize most men wouldn't, though--I'll concede as much.

[Vlammetje]

Alright.

I shall start of by classifying myself as a 'non-standard' woman (I could not care less for Tom Cruise on the desktop for example).

What do I use for wallpaper? I've had many a fantasy oriented wallpaper (unicrons mostly), I've used holiday snaps of myself or my (now sadly ex-)boyfriend, or landscape images that i like.

[Syntax13]

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A )

i find that comment to be incredibly sexist and offensive. Most men i know (including myself) would be very offended by all 3 of those things, especially the objectification of womyn.

maybe you should consider avoiding stereotypes and such broad generalizations

[strips]

i find that comment to be incredibly sexist and offensive. Most men i know (including myself) would be very offended by all 3 of those things, especially the objectification of womyn.

maybe you should consider avoiding stereotypes and such broad generalizations

To defend the thread author. I don't think he ment it to generalize all. Rater that most men like these things. I for one do like classy chick pictures on the desktop aswell as cars. When I think about it I believe about 90% of the guys I know like these kind of pictures/backgrouds.

To bad you couldn't see the humor in the post.

[aysiu]

To bad you couldn't see the humor in the post. The original post was intended to be funny?

[3rdalbum]

I have a horizontal light-blue to dark-blue gradient on my desktop... so what gender does that make me? :-P

But onto seriousness now: My sister would probably have a Claude Monet as her desktop picture, if she had a computer. Or possibly a real photo of a beautiful landscape.

[sylvester_0]

Cool thread....I've never even seen this section of the forum before.

Right now I have a beautiful pic of African landscape from http://interfacelift.com I can't pimp that site enough. Just beautiful, unbranded, high resolution wallpapers (1920x1200 wide here) all free for the taking. I've also been known to have pics of cars (Honda S2000, I WANT!!) and my boyfriend.

I'm a 19 yr old male that can't wait for college to be over.

[dickohead]

I'm 21, male, from Australia, and as an Aussie, we find the idea of guns offensive (not in terms of being offended, we just don't like them) But as for Cars and Women, surely Sport is a better choice than Guns?

But as for myself I love Scenery... space, earth, 3D design, nature, horizons, etc etc etc. And my girlfriend is pretty much the same...

But to make another generalisation (not to offend, but to attempt an answer at the original questions): men is Australia who are interested in (primarily): Women, Sport and Cars are usually called "Blokes", beer is also closely behind Cars. Women who are attracted to these "Blokes" are called "Sheilas" (Aussies right now will either be shaking their heads in disgust or smiling at how ridiculous our 'culture' is), now a typical bloke name is Barry (Bazza), and a typical sheila name is Sharron (Shazza). Now Bazza and Shazza have one thing in common - they like each other, who cares why. But Bazza also likes cars, football and camping with his mates, so his background would be him and his mates kicking a footy while on holiday (sheila's at home). Meanwhile Shazza's background would either be of Bazza's muscly body (complete with beer gut), her and her friends getting pissed, or of their dog Bluey.

To get to my point..... Sterotypes have come a long way sionce the days of Blokes and Sheilas... while some people can still be generalised in this way, I really don't think there is any wide-spread meaning left in them.

[kassetra]

Hmm. Other than the fact that most of my male computing friends would most likely never have women, cars, or guns on their desktops...

On my desktop... I've noticed that I've been leaning toward edgy, intense artwork - like Giger, Yoshitaka Amano, Dave McKean, and currently, my own work.... except for the occasional cute, psycho, or funny wallpaper that I just have to have on my screen every once in a while.

My current desktop (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/gallery/showimage.php?i=1577&original=1&c=searchresults&searchid=6219).

[macgyver2]

My girlfriend (astronomy grad student) has Picasso's Starry Night as her wallpaper. She never changes it.

I get bored, though, so I go through a lot, but never 'hot' women or cars or guns. Right now I have this (http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?327) (don't worry, the link's safe).

@ sylvester_0: Great site! Thanks for the link.

[carla]

I was also thinking, what about a 'Ubuntu Beautification Project' which involves creating GNOME Themes (most likely based on the ones available at gnome-look.org) or GDM themes or Ubuntu Splash Screens or some such.

Let's make Ubuntu not only a 'Linux for Human Beings' but also 'Linux for Men and Women' ... do the same for kids? (I'm sure they don't mind Spongebob or Fairly Odd Parents).

PS: Ubuntu needs to be a 'Linux for People' ... people don't like the ugly default GNOME. (By 'people' (all lower case) I mean myself).

I'm game! Count me in. :KS I agree--Gnome is not at all shiny to the eye.

[KevinCole]

First, about me. I'm 20 and male and a college student. I am getting a laptop very soon. Of course, I kinda liked GNOME (even though I think KDE is more polished, but GNOME comes with less things that I will never use).

I started thinking of how to make the GNOME desktop and such look nice. Then it came to the topic of the wallpaper. From my nature, I want to have a pretty woman on it ... that got me thinking in term to what do women want displayed on their desktop ...

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. ;) )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A :) )

But the question remains ... what do women want to stare at (or show off?) on their desktop without many apps running on it?

I was also thinking, what about a 'Ubuntu Beautification Project' which involves creating GNOME Themes (most likely based on the ones available at gnome-look.org) or GDM themes or Ubuntu Splash Screens or some such.

Let's make Ubuntu not only a 'Linux for Human Beings' but also 'Linux for Men and Women' ... do the same for kids? (I'm sure they don't mind Spongebob or Fairly Odd Parents).

PS: Ubuntu needs to be a 'Linux for People' ... people don't like the ugly default GNOME. (By 'people' (all lower case) I mean myself).
Dunno which men you've been observing, but they aren't the typical computer tech, I'd hazard a guess.

My current wallpaper is "animated" after a fashion: kworldclock updates every 10 minutes to give an semi-accurate picture of day and night world-wide.

However, in the past it's been nebulas, quasars and the like or some of the 3D computer graphics landscapes downloadable from Digital Blasphemy... Or none at all: Just a plain solid or gradient color.

[timbosa]

But to make another generalisation (not to offend, but to attempt an answer at the original questions): men is Australia who are interested in (primarily): Women, Sport and Cars are usually called "Blokes", beer is also closely behind Cars. Women who are attracted to these "Blokes" are called "Sheilas" (Aussies right now will either be shaking their heads in disgust or smiling at how ridiculous our 'culture' is)
I'm both shaking my head in disgust while smiling. Having lived in both Melbourne and rural Australia I'd say that most likely your refering to 'white aussie males', in which case you could probably push beer and sport up into a higher position past women...carn the saints!

I'm 21, male, from Australia, and as an Aussie, we find the idea of guns offensive
I wouldn't say I find guns offensive, just most of the people who hold them.

[Boston]

i find that comment to be incredibly sexist and offensive. Most men i know (including myself) would be very offended by all 3 of those things, especially the objectification of womyn.

maybe you should consider avoiding stereotypes and such broad generalizations

Oh let it go. I live in the most liberal state in the union and I've never heard anyone talk like that.

For the longest time my desktop was the moments after the Red Sox won the World Series. Since then it's been a CBR 1000RR.

As for the ladies, my girlfriend has her background set to some soccer player (not Beckham), and her roomates have local bands.

I guess it's really up to the individual regardless of gender. Like I mentioned my girlfriend, she and her younger sister (who's D1 material) are avid soccer players so naturally they surround themselves with things pertaining to soccer. I like sports too, just not soccer.

[nursegirl]

My experience has been that both my male and female friends have similar desktops. Art, landscapes, or meaningful photos. Or sometimes just plain. I don't have any guy friends with "hot babes" on their desktops and none of my female friends have boy bands on their desktops.

[Dragonbite]

Actually, I know a number of guy friends who do have women as their wallpaper (and one includes girls washing his convertible).

Personally I'm not offended, I'm just not one to have girl/guns/cars on my PC, and I'm not going to put those things on partially because I don't want my kids subjected to any more negative "advertising" as they are already getting!

Whoops, I'm wrong. I do have girls on my wallpaper but they are artistically created models I grabbed from DeviantArt (http://www.deviantart.com/) which has some awesome arwork and photographs.

Linspire put up a contest in DeviantArt to produce some Linspire-specific wallpaper for them to use as a default. They offered some prizes and had it open to all artists. If you want some new stuff that could produce some fresh ideas.

I made sure my chosen wallpapers were fairly similar (on the dark (colored) side) so that everything else could be complimentary (and torsmo can be seen with non-black text, my terminal with semi-transparent background, etc.). This isn't much of an issue when I use Xfce.

In Xfce, I've removed ALL of the panels so the screen is 100% clear until I start opening windows (main menu available via right-click, and list of screens and open files available via middle-click). This makes it really nice if you have an awesome picture you want to display (makes Windows users wonder when your PC is going to boot when it's already up and running before they even asked!).

I definately like the ability to have the wallpaper change between a selected list so every time I boot I never know which one is going to show up! Keeps things "fresh" :)

[Lord Illidan]

I know a friend of mine who has a nice girl on his desktop.
I am a heterosexual 16 year old male, but I don't get the car wallpapers, nor of guns. I don't find them offensive, but I just don't like my wallpaper of them. And wallpapers of women, well, I doubt my parents would approve...but I wouldn't mind them.

What wallpapers I like? I like landscapes...mostly featuring mountains or grass or storms..

I agree that Ubuntu's wallpaper is ugly.. they should take a leaf out of Suse's wallpaper...that chameleon is pretty cool.

[towsonu2003]

I've got a lesbian friend with a. jolie as desktop picture (me being her tech help: never saw the computers of other friends except one, who had no pic on desktop, strangely now that I think about that -me not seeing friends' computers). I don't think the objectification argument holds true for women as the subjects, but not the targets of objectification.

I (male) have pic of my dog (see my avatar), my girlfriend has another pic of my dog as desktop. I would try spongebob, but my dog is crazy and would most probably bite me out of anger. my girlfriend was considering a sea pic I took, but then got afraid of the crazy dog and dropped the idea...

I appreciate Syntax13's post.

[RoninGurl]

I've met guys like that, but I don't associate with them.
So, they exist, but really I think they're probably a lonely bunch.

[slavik]

Sorry for my bad post, but one thing you have to understand is that stereotypes happen for a reason.

If you ask most people about russian people, then they will mention something about vodka or ballet or rockets. Why? Because russian people do like to drink vodka and that ballet is good in russia (and rockets) are even sung by (were sung ...) by russian singers. Stereotypes are not 100% true, theya ren't even 90% or 80% true. For them to be "true," they need to happen over 50% to hold any value.

Back from my rant, I find that after many people look through libraries of wallpapers, they tend to settle on some kind of a 3D art type thing (shiny spheres or someother).

[Krigl]

Whoops, I'm wrong. I do have girls on my wallpaper but they are artistically created models I grabbed from DeviantArt (http://www.deviantart.com/) which has some awesome arwork and photographs.

I made sure my chosen wallpapers were fairly similar (on the dark (colored) side) so that everything else could be complimentary (and torsmo can be seen with non-black text, my terminal with semi-transparent background, etc.). This isn't much of an issue when I use Xfce.

In Xfce, I've removed ALL of the panels so the screen is 100% clear until I start opening windows (main menu available via right-click, and list of screens and open files available via middle-click).
Yeah, you can find a nice stuff on DeviantArt. I'm also using Xfce with auto-hide for everything (when I choose nice pic I want to see it) and mostly dark motives so characters in the transparent terminal can be easily read.

I'm using a lot of girls for wallpapers but not model-like "heroin chics", rather some artistic stuff (usualy some goth/dark/weirdo kind but also without any girls), sometimes comics/anime characters (guns including - Noir, Henrietta the Gunslinger girl), I used to have my ex-girls pic on the screen (but we were together then). Otherwise I like graveyard still lifes, apocalyptic scenes, Linux themes, whatever. I don't use cars at all (though if someone sneakes to my comp and sets esthetically fitting veteran car, I wouldn't mind), I like guns and weapons generally but don't have them as wallpapers.
My ex used to have set of changing pics - homesick themes (Seattle, landscape around her home - east of Washington state, family). Mom uses tropical island at work. My roommate used Giger's and Beksiński's paintings, great stuff.
Uff, such a long post, been talking too much, heh.

[Gustav]

I've never liked the idea of "hot" ladies as wallpaper, nor guns. I've nothing against cars but I find them qiute boring as wallpaper.

Right now I have the same picture as my avatar as background. My wife has a picture from our wedding right now and before that she had a picture of Karl Marx.

[ygarl]

I have a horizontal light-blue to dark-blue gradient on my desktop... so what gender does that make me? :-P


Blue!

LOL

[bjweeks]

I've got rolling hills;)

[towsonu2003]

she had a picture of Karl Marx.
:cool:

[vialick]

(Aussies right now will either be shaking their heads in disgust or smiling at how ridiculous our 'culture' is), now a typical bloke name is Barry (Bazza), and a typical sheila name is Sharron (Shazza). Now Bazza and Shazza have one thing in common - they like each other, who cares why. But Bazza also likes cars, football and camping with his mates, so his background would be him and his mates kicking a footy while on holiday (sheila's at home). Meanwhile Shazza's background would either be of Bazza's muscly body (complete with beer gut), her and her friends getting pissed, or of their dog Bluey.
I hear you mate, though don't forget that while the "normal" Aussie ends with "-azza", all our idols end in "-nsey" (Barnsey, Farnsey, etc)


When it comes to backgrounds, I haven't seen too much difference in male/female backgrounds. Funny pictures, the family pet, Anime/manga, people they find attractive, bands.

Infact, more girls I know would have they typical male backgrounds (cars, scantilly clad people, sports, etc) then the males.

[BinaryDigit]

At work I have a plain but pretty blue wallpaper (even though I'm running Windows). At home I have either a plain wallpaper (I never look at my desktop since I'm using the computer...with windows all over it), a picture of a nice car/my bf's supra, a pretty landscape, or a picture from my own camera (hi res).

[StageMgr2Stars]

No matter what I change it too... Tux the Penguin is always on there :)...

BTW, I'm a 19 yr old lesbian who thinks hot girls are awsome backgrounds. :)

[nothingfun]

Handy that I usually bookmark the images i save as wallpapers.
Here is a collection of recent ones:

http://www.deviantart.com/view/28196284/
http://ic1.deviantart.com/fs9/i/2006/022/b/f/Don__t_Stop_the_Car_by_MYvonne.jpg
http://tn3-1.deviantart.com/fs8/300W/i/2005/311/7/7/A_Touch_of_Tradition_by_rubberman542.jpg
http://www.deviantart.com/view/21766389/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/19350980/
http://www.millaj.com/pics/resident2-9.jpg
http://fs5.deviantart.com/i/2005/003/8/8/New_York_comes_to_Chicago_by_dogeatdog5.jpg

and a host of friends, family, my cat, pictures from my cellphone, and sometimes little pictures i make for myself that tell me to do things like 'APPOINTMENT 4PM ON MONDAY, or BUY EGGS.

and sometimes pictures i take too
http://nothingfun.com/labelo/lightfall.jpg

But just so you know -
I like pictures of big guns too, especially if I'm holding them.

[Aithnea]

On my desktop I have the Ubuntu-tan that I found off on Deviantart (search Ubuntu and go wading through the pages). Usually when I change my desktop it's because I want something different and attrive that not many people have. I like my computer to be different and as unique as I am.

[dosed150]

at the moment i have tux drinking from a windows xp carton,usually i have stargate themed wallpapers or screenshots from stargate dvds 17 year old male btw

[emlprime]

I find anti-generalization interesting. The original poster was looking to expand the breadth of desktops to include more people and is rewarded for the effort with people generalizing and then regeneralizing.

In my experience, the truth is that generalizations are the result of dealing with more people that one can have a relationship with. I can have a relationship with, and know about the specific lives of, about 150 people at any given time. Any larger than that and I have to start making generalizations. *isms, in my opinion, result from people forgetting that generalizations inherantly have a degree of error in them. It's certainly true that, given 1000 men and 1000 women randomly selected from a population in America, you'll get more men who would enjoy a picture of a gun on their background than women. That by no means indicates that all men would like guns on their backgrounds or that no women will.

My wife, who by no means enjoys objectivizing actual women, has historically had more nude women on her desktop than I have. That's because she's an artist and likes to celebrate the beauty of the female form. I admit hers were generally more tasteful than your average hustler pic, but they were certainly nude and, occasionally, erotic.

Also, I object to assumptions that all images of people, especially nudes, objectify them in a bad way. I've personally posed nude for many art classes, and I find the experience wonderful. Seeing your body nude through the lense of a camera or the eye of an artist is an enlightening experience and I recommend it to everyone. Remember that it's almost impossible to make an informed comment about something until you've tried it.

So instead of bellyaching about your agenda, try participating in contributing a list of what you do like.

Historically I've had:

Black (current)
Sci-Fi themes (Firefly/Serenity/Matrix/Underworld)
Fantasy themes (LOtR, Warcraft III, Boris Vallejo)
Science (Titan, Mars)
Nudes (My wife, Parson's Project Dancers)
My daughter (Baby pics)

Peter

[Zralou]

I have a pic of Hurricane Hugo heading straight for Florida....

If I ever become rich, I will quit my job and go join the "Storm chasers". One of my biggest desires is to see a tornado. The POWER of nature facinates me.

My husband has a plain single colour desktop (though his computer is FULL of erotic pics!!).

BTW, I carry a .45 semi-auto around with me everyday, and am expecting a pump action shotgun to arrive tomorrow (home defence), but I wouldn't have guns on my desktop.

Sara Lou

[Zerlinna]

I'm a woman and I don't have "hot boys" on my screen - well, except two penguins :-)
On my other 3 screens I have: an underwater-shot from dolphins and then two artistic kde-wallpapers (yes, I use Kubuntu).

For me it's important that the background is clear, kinda clean, not confusing or disordered. I like the colour blue and I don't want to have any human being (except maybe if they're alienated in an artistic way) on my desktop. I always grab them from kde-look.org which offers a huge choice of mostly great wallpapers.

...by the way, my bf has a picture of me on his Desktop :cool:

Z.

[Danni]

I'm a typical mother and have 4 pictures of my daughter on my 4 desktops.

I also have a picture of her on the 3 computers at college- most people can't believe she's only 2 :)

My partner normally has something either Star Trek or Stargate related on his pc- I think it's a Stargate Atlantis pic at the moment. When I get bored of staring at my daughter all day, I normally stick a Trek pic on :)

(Oh, and I haven't forgotten Tux- he dances and swims on my desktop!)

[Etoile]

I am pretty sure I am totally uncategorizable. I only got Ubuntu installed yesterday, so I'm still using the default wallpaper, but in XP I used a program to change my wallpaper every 30 minutes. I had everything from hot women (yep, I'm gay - *highfive* to StageMgr2Stars) to cats (mine and others') to favorite products to landscapes to abstract art to TV shows (trek and stargate here too)...I have a collection of 1200+ wallpapers. :)

[slavik]

I guess I am not very caterizable myself ... my linux wallpaper has 2 tux sitting in the egg chairs ... it's from the MIB scene.

My windows desktop however is a 3D render of a female in a very revealing bikini type thing. Aparently it is a character from a game. I'll remind you that making a 3D model of a person is very difficult (much more difficult than drawing one, since you have to think in 3 dimensions at once), evermind that she is female and whoever was making the render also had to think about the material (she is holding a light piece of material as if it was a long scarf spreading her arms out).

BTW: I honestly thought that this post thread has been dead for a long while.

[blackbeastofaarrgh]

I'm a 14 year old female, and my wallpapers are usually either:
Things I find on DeviantART
Artsy-Fartsy pictures I took myself (they aren't the best in the world, but if you wanna see them, they're here) (http://nerdiphythesoul.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=169)
Or some random high-resolution image I find on Google or something.
But most of my wallpapers are of nature or some computer-generated abstract thing. But my current wallpaper is a funny one. It's a picture of Nat Friedman, you can find it here. (http://nat.org/photo.php3?p=08832) I think the picture is funny. :P
Yeah, I'm a strange one.

[nocturn]

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. ;) )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A :) )


I find your post somewhat sexist in both ways.
Your assumption that all man have these common interests, and that these are specific to the male gender is flawed.

I for one don't like guns on wallpapers or anywhere. Glorified as they may be, they are tools for killing people and not something admirable.

Secondly, do I do like cars quite a lot, but so does my wife, so she's just as likely to use a nice picture of a Porsche as I am.

This is just the same assumption as saying that all men like watching sports, especially football. Yet I don't and I really dislike people automatically assuming that I know all these "famous" people based on my gender.


PS: Ubuntu needs to be a 'Linux for People' ... people don't like the ugly default GNOME. (By 'people' (all lower case) I mean myself).


Take a look at Dapper. It has a quite distinct look which is not boring. It's aimed off course at everyone, not specificly men or women, as it should be.

[nocturn]

I said that you 'wouldn't mind'. :) (not to be confused with 'prefer')

But I do mind pictures of guns. Killing people may be something than is needed sometimes (wars are a good example), but it is not be lifted to something noble nor should the tools used to do it.

[Monster Boxx]

I myslef have a stunning B&W headshot of josie moran on my fileserver. My other 2 rigs are black(plain). My Girlfriend has harry potter backrounds...

kinda lame but that is one womans veiw anyhow.

This is an awesome thread! its nice to see what EVERYONE has on their backround. I have certainly been pursueded to look into having alternate wallpaper.

[Macarthur]

I'm male
Cars? Nah... Not for me, I spend too much on computers and nothing on cars...
Guns, 'meh I don think I'd have one as a desktop
Girls? Well, I'm a Christian and consider that lust is adultry of the heart acording to Matt 5:28 and therefore won't have any "Hot women" on m desktop.
What do I have on my desktop?
Since I'm a graphics designer I have this thing about having other peoples art on my desktop. If it's not something I've taken or made/altered I won't have it there.


Just my 2 cents,
Cheers
-Mac

[djsroknrol]

Speaking for the mrs. she has landscapes and fantasy desktop pics as well as the occasional family pic...the teenager has Green Day(??), and I run a blue Horozontal gradient..to each his own...

[RavenOfOdin]

But I do mind pictures of guns. Killing people may be something than is needed sometimes (wars are a good example), but it is not be lifted to something noble nor should the tools used to do it.

Let me guess. You're a liberal. Am I right?

(EDIT: OK fine . . . you at least have one thing going for you, you didn't say the gun gets up, walks off, and kills of its own accord :p)

[aysiu]

Let me guess. You're a liberal. Am I right? Nocturn says killing may be necessary sometimes (as in war), and you think she/he is liberal...?

Sorry. I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area. That's considered moderate or conservative here. San Francisco's last mayoral election wasn't between a democrat and a republican. It was between a democrat and an even more liberal independent.

[RavenOfOdin]

Nocturn says killing may be necessary sometimes (as in war), and you think she/he is liberal...?

Sorry. I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area. That's considered moderate or conservative here. Our last mayoral election wasn't between a democrat and a republican. It was between a democrat and an independent.

It was a half hearted joke, and I also edited that in order to account for the whole "Guns don't/kill people . . ." statement that is usually thrown around.

[aysiu]

It was a half hearted joke, and I also edited that in order to account for the whole "Guns don't/kill people . . ." statement. Yeah, I know. The joke has a little bit of truth to it, though.

I just think it's kind of funny that what's considered "liberal" or "conservative" has a lot to do with what area you're from.

[Vladimir_BG]

What people have as their desktop is their own thing. A lot of people have some completly weird stuff you wouldn't expect, and trust me on this one, I'm computer technitian, and I do a lot of house calls. You can't guess for all.

Example:

Personaly, as a man, I like pictures of cars(black AMG C 55 being my favorite) and tastful pictures of women( I particulary enjoy Ubuntu Calendar) on my desktop as well.

My brother on the other hand usualy has a picture of a landscape, or none at all.

So does that me me a sexist and my brother an ok guy?
I resent that categorization.

[Etoile]

Vladimir, I think you might be overthinking it. I don't think anybody is passing judgment based on wallpaper; it's more a point of curiosity to see what women have on their screens.

[RavenOfOdin]

Personaly, as a man, I like pictures of cars(black AMG C 55 being my favorite) and tastful pictures of women( I particulary enjoy Ubuntu Calendar) on my desktop as well.


You're telling me. . .one of my desktops has a full-size pic of Brandi Phillips. :p

[slavik]

An interesting idea. How about we start a thread where people post their desktops?

[madpiratebippy]

I have either the soft-focus floral closeups like Apple sends out with OSX, or naked, sexy people (men and women). Sometimes I'll do nature scenes. Basically, if it's something I'll take to class or my professors will see, I keep it G rated. Otherwise, it's nude french rugby boys, or hot girls.

22 year old female college student, here.

[lordmyth]

An interesting idea. How about we start a thread where people post their desktops?
At the gentoo forums there's such a thread every month

[garba]

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. ;) )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A :) )


well i must have some issue then because i like having flowers on my desktop... do you really keep pictures of weapons (*pukes*) on your desktop?

[elamericano]

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A )

Pretty close to the mark. I'm surprised at the dissent. I had cars and women usually, but it always had to be a cool pic. I didn't get the guns reference at all, but then I saw the M82A, and now I see. Military pics are a broad genre, but mostly I see fighter planes.

Well, the times change, and it would be disrepectful to my wife to have some actress on the desktop. Now I look for something that will blend well with the desktop theme. The important customizations are the icons and the color scheme, so I try to under-emphasize the wall-paper. An interesting small rendering with a linux theme, or an outdoor photo with lots of space works well. I prefer someplace I've been to, so that I feel a connection to it.

The original poster put it very politely and some of you still got upset. This is normal for a 20-year-old male in college, I assure you. Learn to accept people different than you, Ubuntu people, he seems like a nice guy.

[Trocisp]

i find that comment to be incredibly sexist and offensive. Most men i know (including myself) would be very offended by all 3 of those things, especially the objectification of womyn.

maybe you should consider avoiding stereotypes and such broad generalizations
If you take offence, you likely have deep seeded issues. I'm a male, I like pretty gals, I like fast cars, and I like guns (The liking guns things stems from something different than most "OH THEY GO BOOM, YAY!!!" people though). I fit into the exact stereo type he was saying, yet I'm not the stereotypical guy. My background is almost always something I enjoy looking at, It wouldn't be a car. Those are just machines. It wouldn't be a gun, those are just tools. It might be a girl, I've only had 2 desktop backgrounds of girls my entire life, and those were of 1 girl, my ex. My normal background is light color usualy, something simple.



Cliffs: DON'T TAKE OFFENCE. Light colors = easier on the eyes.

[Littleweseth]

For the last couple of years I've been using only stuff I make myself, mostly minimal in nature. My current wall is merely a blue gradient with a photo of water lightly overlaid on it.

Aside : The water photo was taken while I was way out bush on Year 11 Camp. Nice little pool at the bottom of a mini-waterfall, which some people were dumb/brave enough to go swimming in, despite us not knowing if there was a croc in residence and it being winter.

For reference, 16 year old Aussie boy. I find American politics amusing :)

[Lin-X]

I'm a woman (never mind how old) and I go almost exclusively for digital computer graphic landscapes. I like something rather escapist, maybe science fictiony, but not too metallic/spaceship/alien looking. I also have quite a few landscape photographs,
but these have to be unusual in some way, with a touch of fantasy or weirdness --- I am not into the stereotype calendar photos of rocky waterfalls and melting sunsets.
I also have a few wallpapers that are interior views of rooms, for example, one is of an old fashioned looking study/library with an animated fire in the the fireplace. I also have a haunted house, a spooky museum, and an art studio.

Wallpaper in general has to be absolutely outstanding (in my opinion) before I will even consider downloading it. I LOATHE screensavers and won't have one.

By the way, thanks SylvesterO for pointing me to a fabulous website for wallpaper! Everybody bookmark this http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/index.php?sort=date; also give yourself a treat and shimmy on over to DigitalBlasphemy. M-m-m-m!

[Resurrection]

well i must have some issue then because i like having flowers on my desktop... do you really keep pictures of weapons (*pukes*) on your desktop?
This is a perfect example of how this thread is destroyed. When considering something offensive, perhaps we should consider the original intent of this thread. The point wasn't to stereotype, it was to try and gauge what a broad consensus of women like on their desktop. Hence exactly why it is in this category of the forums.

If you want to troll and flame over something as silly as this, take it elsewhere. And if you find guns, naked girls, cars, smurfs, penguins, martians, cats, etc on your desktop "offensive" and it makes you "puke" please do us a favor and STFU!. Yes that is an offensive thing to say and I don't care. As said before stop presenting your own political / personal agenda. I for one like guns. I like cars. I like naked women. I also like Linux penguins, and landscapes like those from Digital Blasphemy (http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/). I'm quite sure that everyone doesn't agree and I can respect that. Don't be a hypocrite. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean the rest of us have to share your view.

Tell us what you like, and always remember there is no fundamental human right to be offended, it doesn't exist.

/rant

[Lady Owl]

What to stare at or show off... Well...

- cats (at work I've had photos of my friends cats, as I can't have my own)
- owls
- nature, especially forest
- actually wouldn't mind something stylishly erotic
- at work: could think of penguins - sometimes I like to do some
- at work: water (related to my job)

[dsokus]

I am an 18-yr-old female... I have an awesome Deep Space photograph on my desktop, made by the Hubble telescope. Before I had a table of the currently known fundamental particles, and when it was Christmas I put on a Santa-riding-raindeer-into-the-air picture. People call me non-traditional too. ;)

[wh0rd]

What about hermaphrodites, you sexist *******!?

j.k. ... :D

[Bazon]

First of all I can't resist that I'm offended by the initial post saying all men like guns. That is so not true. Reasonable people hate violence.

OK, back to the question:
I myself am male, but I know five desktops women choosed:

1. My girlfriend:
http://www.filmkultura.iif.hu:8080/articles/films/images/nyar/2.gif (http://www.filmkultura.iif.hu:8080/articles/films/images/nyar/2.jpg) (click for higher res.)
2. A female friend:
http://images.google.de/images?q=tbn:tSf4w_IomlAmnM:neo95.ifrance.com/Brooke%2520Burke%2520xp.jpg (http://neo95.ifrance.com/brooke%20burke%20xp.jpg) (I guess you would have expected this - me neither...)
(click for higher res.)
3. My mother:
http://www.jetro.de/j/hp2004all/foto2004/Fotos/30092004.JPG
(I haven't found higher res, but she did somewhere...)
4. Another female friend:
A selfmade photo from an aiport in sibiria (of course I can't show...)
5. A friends girlfriend:
A selfmade photo of her cats (of course I can't show...)

BTW I'm using the nearly the default Dapper Desktop (only with reattached "Ubuntu Dapper" text in yellow letter (http://www.kram-hochladen.de/files/2006523/0.16655700_1148399634/warty-final-ubuntu-dapper1.png)) wallpaper and I really like it. :)

[louisgag]

does it make a difference wether you are a male or female user? I think there is no need to have the male and female background seperated :)

[Symo]

Resurrection:
Tell us what you like, and always remember there is no fundamental human right to be offended, it doesn't exist.

I would disagree with you there, Resurrection. There are such things as fundamental human rights and there are such things as fundamental morals. You may think both are just constructs of society but they go deeper than that. There are correct ways of living, ones which are beneficial to oneself and others, and wrong ways of living which are not beneficial to oneself or others, which are harmful to oneself and others. What you seem to be purporting is an extreme political liberalism: where you have the right to do, think, say whatever you like without needing to think of the consequences or effects of your actions on others.

Liking guns and naked women is one thing and, you may think, harmless. But you have to look deeper into it. Ask yourself, what am I supporting by buying / downloading / looking at pornographic or "sexy" pictures of women? Who are these women who stand there? Why do they feel that this is the best they have to give? Who are the men behind the cameras and the men making money from it all? Is it exploitation and can I justify my supporting it? And with guns: why am I attracted to guns? What are they a symbol for? Do guns help humanity? Have they ever helped humanity? How many people live in oppression or fear in the world and how are guns used in perpetuating that oppression?

I think you can also ask yourself more questions on the personal level: what do I get out of these pictures? Do they increase my happiness or make me more miserable? I get a kick out of these pictures but is that happiness? Am I not just chasing sensations which are here one minute, gone the next? I get a feeling of identity by associating myself with these pictures but is seeking identity really a longing for something more fulfilling in life?

You've got the freedom of speech and I don't question you that, but if you choose to use your freedom of speech then you have to be prepared to be challenged for the things you say. I know that the original question of this thread was about desktop pictures and you probably never wanted anybody to question your values, but I'm afraid you pretty much asked for it by so blatantly expressing yourself.

[fog]

I'm a 40 years old woman from Greece, linux user for 6 years
and a happy Ubuntu user for 1 year. Some screenshots of my desktop (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/gallery/browseimages.php?do=member&imageuser=21312)

[nanotube]

Resurrection:

Tell us what you like, and always remember there is no fundamental human right to be offended, it doesn't exist.

I would disagree with you there, Resurrection. There are such things as fundamental human rights and there are such things as fundamental morals.
ehrm, you might want to notice that he did not say "there is no such thing as fundamental human rights", he said "there is no fundamental human right to be offended". so, while you make a thought-provoking post, you are responding to a statement that wasn't actually said.

[Symo]

Point taken that I may have misunderstood. However, he said, "there is no fundamental human right to be offended, it doesn't exist". It was the "it doesn't exist" part that makes me think that he means that fundamental human rights don't exist. What else could it mean?
Can there exist fundamental human rights but none of which to be offended?!

[nanotube]

Point taken that I may have misunderstood. However, he said, "there is no fundamental human right to be offended, it doesn't exist". It was the "it doesn't exist" part that makes me think that he means that fundamental human rights don't exist. What else could it mean?
Can there exist fundamental human rights but none of which to be offended?!
hmm, i think you are not parsing this sentence as it was intended. to me, as a native US english speaker, the meaning is that "the fundamental human right to be offended [as contrasted with other fundamental human rights, such as the human right to freedom, the human right to justice, etc.] does not exist". the statement is making sort of a joke, because "the human right to be offended" is clearly not a "real" human right.

your interpretation may be semantically correct, because the statement /could/ also be taken to mean "there is no human right to be offended [as in, no human right will be infringed upon], because it doesn't exist". but that is certainly far from the idiomatic usage in the language, and i have to think hard to realize that it is technically a valid meaning. :)

i see your location says you are from sweden, so maybe english is not a native language for you, or maybe you are more familiar with the british rather than US english, so that may explain our difference in perception...

[Symo]

Your interpretation is probably right then, I guess. But what's he saying, that people don't have the right to be offended? He seemed quite sincere so if it was a joke I totally missed it.

I don't know - maybe I'd do good to remember that people don't always think through what they write and make flippant comments not intended for scrutinisation. It would save me some time if I did...

[nanotube]

Your interpretation is probably right then, I guess. But what's he saying, that people don't have the right to be offended? He seemed quite sincere so if it was a joke I totally missed it.

well, he was just trying to say that people shouldn't be getting offended, but just let other people honestly state what they like. the "human right to be offended" stuff was just for humorous effect (which obviously didn't work for everybody :) ).

I don't know - maybe I'd do good to remember that people don't always think through what they write and make flippant comments not intended for scrutinisation. It would save me some time if I did...
don't worry about it :). your post was an interesting read anyway. as long as you are clear and respectful in your post - that's all that counts.

[xtacocorex]

I think the premise behind this post is good, but got a little carried away.

My Backgrounds:
Aircraft, Scenery, Random Fractals

My Wife:
Pictures she's taken, Landscapes

My Brother:
Stuff he's made pertaining to the U.S. Marine Corps (aircraft related, Iwo Jima memorial, etc.)

My Friend (Male):
Switches between his pictures of him with his Corvette and him with his sniper rifle.

Coworkers (Female):
Default backgrounds (XP), Flowers, Landscapes

I think the backgrounds are based on what you like. I enjoy fighter aircraft since I want to aerodynamics for them so I have a bunch of pics of them. My wife gets annoyed because she wants me to put pictures of her as my background. I would do that, but my background has to fit what I'm trying to accomplish and fit my mood when I set it.

[slavik]

Resurrection:

I would disagree with you there, Resurrection. There are such things as fundamental human rights and there are such things as fundamental morals. You may think both are just constructs of society but they go deeper than that. There are correct ways of living, ones which are beneficial to oneself and others, and wrong ways of living which are not beneficial to oneself or others, which are harmful to oneself and others. What you seem to be purporting is an extreme political liberalism: where you have the right to do, think, say whatever you like without needing to think of the consequences or effects of your actions on others.

Liking guns and naked women is one thing and, you may think, harmless. But you have to look deeper into it. Ask yourself, what am I supporting by buying / downloading / looking at pornographic or "sexy" pictures of women? Who are these women who stand there? Why do they feel that this is the best they have to give? Who are the men behind the cameras and the men making money from it all? Is it exploitation and can I justify my supporting it? And with guns: why am I attracted to guns? What are they a symbol for? Do guns help humanity? Have they ever helped humanity? How many people live in oppression or fear in the world and how are guns used in perpetuating that oppression?

I think you can also ask yourself more questions on the personal level: what do I get out of these pictures? Do they increase my happiness or make me more miserable? I get a kick out of these pictures but is that happiness? Am I not just chasing sensations which are here one minute, gone the next? I get a feeling of identity by associating myself with these pictures but is seeking identity really a longing for something more fulfilling in life?

You've got the freedom of speech and I don't question you that, but if you choose to use your freedom of speech then you have to be prepared to be challenged for the things you say. I know that the original question of this thread was about desktop pictures and you probably never wanted anybody to question your values, but I'm afraid you pretty much asked for it by so blatantly expressing yourself.
1. ancient greeks considered it fine to leave an infant to die in the wood or to be devoured by the animals there. the greeks did not care about intent only about actions.

2. when christians were prosecuted by the romans, it was because christians were a novelty, not because they were "weird." jews have been around and known to the romans and romans were fine with that.

3. portugal and spain had church run brothels because the church considered them a "necessary evil" due to that men had extraneous sexual energy.

4. the bible also says that it is OK for slavery to exist ...

5. Thomas Jefferson wrote a whole paragraph denouncing slavery. He had slaves himself (so did George Washington). The paragraph was edited out. It also said "live, liberty and the pursuit of property" which was changed to "live, liberty and pursuit of happiness" because if it stayed at property, slaves would have to be freed.

"fundamental rights" do not exist ... we just agree that every human has that right. if I was free, I would have a weapon at my side to use against those who insult me (like germans did when romans wrote about them).

[Xanatos Craven]

I find the sheer amount of denial in this thread (mostly from the men, sorry to say) and political correctness to be absolutely hysterical.

That said... if you must know, I'm a straight white male (hooray for mediocrity!), and my wallpaper is either King Kong standing on the twin towers and punching the terrorist-piloted airplanes, Vicious (anime villian), or aquatic-themed. I have this weird thing for beaches and goldfish.

I don't know what my sister uses now, but she used to always have some really well-drawn anime wallpaper with angels and stuff on it. :P

[-Phi-]

My main requirements for wallpaper are that it be simple enough to not be distracting (monochromatic and not noisy), and interesting enough for me to think when I see it.

That said, I've used pictures of water ripples, photos of penguins, abstract CG art, and for the last few months a photo of my fiancé. I like how "up" is ambiguous in it. And he's cute too :)

http://phispace.net/lj/Desktop.jpg <- pitchur

- Phi

[Xanatos Craven]

What's that he's leaning on? I don't get it o_o;; ......... OH GOD NOES A SKATEBOARDER'S COMING

[Liz]

My desktop pic can be a variety of things. Either from digitalblasphemy. or roses, or waterfalls, or pics from the hubble telescope.
I dont put up pics of my kid. or my partner, or even friends.
I like pics of customised cars. Dont like pics of guns.
I like ones of unity and harmony, and fantasy (pegasus, rainbows, elves (legolas rulz) )

it all depends on my mood.
my partner likes lego, so hes got pics of lego things he's mad.
other friend(male) likes anime, where his girlfriend, being asian doesnt like it.
she changed his to a picture of a giraffe.
my son (15 yr old ) prefers graffiti art, or skateboards...
he has girls on his cellphone tho..

[nanotube]

I find the sheer amount of denial in this thread (mostly from the men, sorry to say) and political correctness to be absolutely hysterical.

That said... if you must know, I'm a straight white male (hooray for mediocrity!), and my wallpaper is either King Kong standing on the twin towers and punching the terrorist-piloted airplanes, Vicious (anime villian), or aquatic-themed. I have this weird thing for beaches and goldfish.

I don't know what my sister uses now, but she used to always have some really well-drawn anime wallpaper with angels and stuff on it. :P
heh well, everyone tries to be "nice" so as not to offend people. i suppose it is a fine line between that and "too much PC". :)

and while we are at it... my own desktop preferences tend toward the CG. for a long time, i had this as my desktop:
http://www.visualparadox.com/wallpapers/makingwaves.htm
then when i installed ubuntu, i stuck with the default for a while, and now have a cool CG water droplet.

on my desktop comp which i dont use much anymore, i have a pic of an apache helicopter making a turn over water. looks nice :)

there was a time when i had anime stuff as my wallpaper, too. just about anything from cowboy bebop looks good.

and for the record, i don't see anything wrong with having guns or hot women on the desktop. i myself am not particularly excited about a gun desktop. and i'd have a hot naked chick desktop, but i take my laptop all over the place, and want to avoid awkward situations ;)

[angelstar123]

I use unicorns and fantasy on my wallpaper also. Right now I have the Wiccan Rede with a great scenery in the background. I am not the typical female, I would never put some guy on my computer unless it was my sons and usually it would a picture with thier sisters also.

[Resurrection]

Sorry to Symo and nanotube, I haven't been ignoring you, I actually hadn't read this forum in weeks (notice Symo that there is at least 2 weeks between your post and mylast one). No one commented on my post for awhile, so I just forgot about it. And thank you nanotube for trying to explain.

To Symo, let me see if I can clarify by using something you said as an example:
I don't know - maybe I'd do good to remember that people don't always think through what they write and make flippant comments not intended for scrutinisation. It would save me some time if I did...
This is all just a theoretical discussion, I am not upset by your posts in anyway, so bear with me: For arguement's sake, I could be extremely offended by your comment. My post was not flippant (a word defined as Marked by disrespectful levity or casualness) and I did think through what I wrote. I could be sitting here thinking that you just basically called me an idiot who didn't think about what I wrote and who just throws out silly things. Now, no where in the basic agreed upon notion of human rights (amongst most of the world's peoples) do I have the expressed right to get offended. In other words, if I take offense to something, it does not mean that someone necessarily violated any of my individual rights. I may choose to be offended just because someone else exercised their individual rights, i.e. they post something in a forum that I don't like. Posting in a forum, IMO as long as it is not a personal attack or along those lines, does not infringe on anyone's personal rights. So even if I was mad at you for the part I quoted above (which I am not, just to clarify) I don't have any right to cry foul that you offended me, when it was not a personal attack.

So, my original point was that it disgusted me how people try to use their "being offended" to push their personal views of what is appropriate or inappropriate as a desktop wallpaper. They have the right to speak their mind and say what they like or dislike on their wallpapers, but they do not have the right to try and force the Original Poster of this thread to conform to their views. It was my opinion that people have a tendency, both here and within society to try and conform others to their views by using "being offended" as a tactic. In this manner they try to claim that by "being offended" they are having their personal rights infringed upon. In truth, they are merely attempting to push an agenda on other people through passive-aggresive means.

Re-read my original post again, I think you seized on just a part of it, that you misinterpreted. With regard to this post by you:

Liking guns and naked women is one thing and, you may think, harmless. But you have to look deeper into it. Ask yourself, what am I supporting by buying / downloading / looking at pornographic or "sexy" pictures of women? Who are these women who stand there? Why do they feel that this is the best they have to give? Who are the men behind the cameras and the men making money from it all? Is it exploitation and can I justify my supporting it? And with guns: why am I attracted to guns? What are they a symbol for? Do guns help humanity? Have they ever helped humanity? How many people live in oppression or fear in the world and how are guns used in perpetuating that oppression?

I think you can also ask yourself more questions on the personal level: what do I get out of these pictures? Do they increase my happiness or make me more miserable? I get a kick out of these pictures but is that happiness? Am I not just chasing sensations which are here one minute, gone the next? I get a feeling of identity by associating myself with these pictures but is seeking identity really a longing for something more fulfilling in life?

Here you are reinforcing my opinion. Instead of just saying that you find guns or women as distasteful in a wallpaper in your opinion, you attempt to "convert" me to your views. So I go back to my original point. This thread could have just been a fun one about what Ubuntu women have on their desktops, but instead people have used "political correctness", personal agenda, and "being offended" to turn it into their own little battleground for their beliefs. Thats sad, and it happens far too often here in my opinion. Thats part of the reason that I have not even been to the forums for a couple of weeks. I get tired of simple threads turned to political / societal debate in a matter of minutes.

This thread could have just been a "Hey Ubuntu Women, get out yer Desktops!!!!!" since this is the Ubuntu Women section. Instead its down to me writing long boring posts which further contaminate threads. I'll stop for now.

[ihavenoname]

Cool thread....I've never even seen this section of the forum before.

Right now I have a beautiful pic of African landscape from http://interfacelift.com I can't pimp that site enough. Just beautiful, unbranded, high resolution wallpapers (1920x1200 wide here) all free for the taking. I've also been known to have pics of cars (Honda S2000, I WANT!!) and my boyfriend.

I'm a 19 yr old male that can't wait for college to be over.
your right some of those are quite good. Thanx for the site! Also, sorry to break it to you but, if your 19, depending on what your major is, you have quite some time before your out of collage haha. Don't worry though, you could be 17 and wanted high school to be over!

[Muhammad]

My wallpaper is really old, the house is starting to look really ugly.

[Blind-Summit]

People people people! Relax. This topic seems to have got peoples noses up. Treating women badly, offensive, guns being bad etc!

If women pose naked for photos that are likely to end up in "lads mags" or sexy wallpapers - this is hardly discriminating women as they clearly agreed to be in those sorts of photos anyway.

The original post is hardly offensive. Whilst I'll not deny that I've had photos of girls as my background - they have always been tasteful and only topless as the most exposed. Most of the time I prefer a black and white photo if it's of a woman, or at least one with a subtle photo on as I prefer something that's not distracting.

Having said all that, the majority of the time, I will choose something clean and light (in terms of colour and filesize) I am using something called "Strange World VI" at the moment, and it's a bit of a take on the standard windows XP hills - but with a twist. It's clean sky and green grass with a post and floating island (!!!) but it's nice.

I don't find guns offensive - most of the time they are likely to be out of an FPS game like UT or something similar. Then again, what does it matter. Each to their own

[suziequzie]

What do I like to look at?

Well, currenty, I have cg-generated wallpaper, but I have, in the past, had Spider-Man, Superman, and Dolph Lundgren gracing my desktop.

ahhhh... Dolph Lundgren...

Not enough hot guys wallpapers, as far as i'm concerned. Kudos to him for having them on his official site.

[lucia_engel]

Finally, another person who has (or used to have) hot guys wallpaper...from the tone of this thread I was starting to feel weird for having Jensen Ackles and Jamie Bamber constantly living on my Desktop.

I like to make my own wallpapers. It's a great and very enjoyable way to procrastinate.

Other non-guys wallpapers I used to have: various video games, webcomics themes

[njzillest]

hmm i gues im a typical teen?? ahahah

I have a cool Gnome desktop *green
I have CS installed on both windows nd Linux
I'm not a Computer Geek, I just know a lil more than my peers
I enjoy hacking *experimental, ethical
Cant get away from Ubuntu

Love the women
Love the gunz
nd
Have a picture on my wall with my *hopefully upcomming car

[cara]

I'm trying to think what my boyfriend had when i met him. it wasnt a girl, car or a gun, just a blue... thing.

i have the ubuntu tree standard desktop, only cause its a new install and i havent looked for a theme yet.
ive had pictures of alton brown(i really like his t.v. show!), and of course ones that ive made myself in photoshop/gimp.
i'll probably use a screenie of my warcraft character tho.

if my boyfriend could pick anything it would probably be the tardiss from dr. who, lmao. hes quite, uh, nerdy.

[rpgirl]

Wow. This is a pretty cool thread.

Let's see... I'm a 24 year old female.

I like pictures of good looking actors (Tom Selleck, Nathaniel Parker, Anthony LaPeglia or David James Elliot), cars (anything BMW or VW, Corvettes or Mustangs), flowers (if it's cool, like a Georgia O'Keefe closeup or something), landscapes, lighthouses, sports logos or pictures (Red Wings, Tigers, etc), space shots, or sometimes I just have a cool comic up there as well.

I like lots of different stuff!

Amy

[Sandsound]

Not enough hot guys wallpapers

How about Antonio Banderas... sigh ! tons of real cool pic of him on the web.
He was on my desktop until I met my husband, now i just stick to penguins :-)

[Mirrorball]

This has been my wallpaper for years.
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/5332876/

[kigina]

lol wow
i have never seen this section. amazing what you can come across in a search.

[virtualcourtney]

How about Antonio Banderas... sigh ! tons of real cool pic of him on the web.
He was on my desktop until I met my husband, now i just stick to penguins

Heh. I had to ditch Banderas (and Depp, and Pitt, and...) when I got engaged.

Well, I do actually get around the "no men hotter than me!" rule imposed by the husband by using Edward Scissorhands, or Ed Norton as Smoochy.

Mostly, though, I use self-generated artwork (I've got a BA in math, headed toward a PhD, and I spend a lot of time using Mathematica on the linux boxes on campus), pictures of food (vegan food, specifically), landscapes, Georgia O'Keefe paintings, cows, penguins...just about anything that appeals to me. If it were artsy enough, I'd go with a firearm or a car. But at the moment, I'm using "fury cow (http://www.pixelgirlpresents.com/images/desktops/havard_kristoffersen/FuryCow_1200.jpg)" (which, I'm guessing, is meant to be entitled "furry cow").

Interesting thread. As there have been so many men posting what the women they know have as wallpapers, here's what the hubby has: anything I tell him to. ;)

(Just kidding on that last one. He's into starscapes, eclipses, our cat, and occasionally really cute pictures of us, which I find slightly nauseating). ;)

[Sandsound]

Heh. I had to ditch Banderas (and Depp, and Pitt, and...) when I got engaged.

Well, I do actually get around the "no men hotter than me!" rule imposed by the husband by using Edward Scissorhands, or Ed Norton as Smoochy.

Actualy I would love to have a picture of my husband on my desktop, but he thinks it's kind'a corny :-)

[Shannon]

Well, as a 23 year old female, I think my desktop wallpapers mostly fit into these categories

fandom - movies, tv shows, characters, "ships", etc. I rarely use celebrities out of character besides maybe like Katharine Hepburn/Cary Grant
personal - family photos or collages (the cat, my sisters and I, my boyfriend and I, etc.)
art/cute/photography - artsy things, drawings, scenic type photos

Right now on my linux box I have a pink supergirl S wallpaper, on my Windows I have a scrapbook style wallpaper featuring my cat, and on my laptop I have a wallpaper I made to look like a corkboard with pushpins and everything.

I know my dad has a picture of his car on his desktop, and my boyfriend usually has some game-related wallpaper. My sister is a great photographer so she usually has some artsy sort of photo she took on hers, and my other sister usually has friend photos.

[Etoile]

Actualy I would love to have a picture of my husband on my desktop, but he thinks it's kind'a corny :-)
I managed to convince my wife to let me put her on my cell phone skin. Now I can carry her picture around with me all the time! :D

[atoponce]

First, about me. I'm 20 and male and a college student. I am getting a laptop very soon. Of course, I kinda liked GNOME (even though I think KDE is more polished, but GNOME comes with less things that I will never use).

I started thinking of how to make the GNOME desktop and such look nice. Then it came to the topic of the wallpaper. From my nature, I want to have a pretty woman on it ... that got me thinking in term to what do women want displayed on their desktop ...

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. ;) )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A :) )

But the question remains ... what do women want to stare at (or show off?) on their desktop without many apps running on it?

I was also thinking, what about a 'Ubuntu Beautification Project' which involves creating GNOME Themes (most likely based on the ones available at gnome-look.org) or GDM themes or Ubuntu Splash Screens or some such.

Let's make Ubuntu not only a 'Linux for Human Beings' but also 'Linux for Men and Women' ... do the same for kids? (I'm sure they don't mind Spongebob or Fairly Odd Parents).

PS: Ubuntu needs to be a 'Linux for People' ... people don't like the ugly default GNOME. (By 'people' (all lower case) I mean myself).

I must not be the typical guy then. I don't have, nor have I ever had, hot girls, cars or guns on any of my desktops. Personally, I am a fan of abstract art, fractals, math, technology and science. Those are the categories that are always on my desktop.

I do find it interesting, however, that more guys, myself included, have answered this thread than women.

[vihm]

I also have never had any hot girls, cars, guns etc on my desktop and I have a thing for minimalist abstract art(same thing with music, I like minimalistic glitch, ambient and techno)... so usually I have just one color as my backround or a few 2D geometric shapes in different colors.

According to a test(http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/add_user.shtml) on the internet I once took, my brain is androgynous, right in the middle on the female/male spectrum - I guess I am not a stereotypical guy either.

[Sandsound]

I do find it interesting, however, that more guys, myself included, have answered this thread than women.

I know that theres a lot of woman running Ubuntu, so maybe it has something to do with the way some guys treat women on the web or in the pc-world in general ? (note that I did write SOME guys :-) )

I could imagine that some women just wanna be seen as users (not "L-users"), and doesnt wanna label themself as women. I myself was a bit offended by the whole "Ubuntu women" idea at first (as if we werent included in the "Linux for human beings"), but its actualy kind'a fun and relaxing to read.

[Biltong (Dee)]

It's kind of bobbing along in a relaxing pool knowing that your really expensive hairstyle isn't going to be splashed by insensitive clods :-).

Ubuntu women doesn't have to be taken as an offense to women in general, but a place where we can hang out after a really stressful day.
Of course, as posts are few and far between it can get mighty lonely in this darn pool. :-(

[CatieCat]

Right now on Ubuntu I have a blue glassy image my boyfriend put on for me when he installed it on my lappy. On Windows XP I have a picture of him at the computer repair store he works at. He has one of me holding a rose he bought me right now. Before that it was a screen capture from Guild Wars of my boyfriend's character and mine in an interesting position. On the crappy ol' compaq downstairs I've got Gerrard Butler as the Phantom of the Opera, so there was a drool factor there. The first one for my lappy I made a collage of the characters from Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, cause I was playing it at the time. So yeah, gimme my bf or video games, cause I'm a nerdette. :P

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/DioneNightly/lotr.jpg - the collage

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/DioneNightly/gw001.jpg - guildwars

[CatieCat]

Girls? Well, I'm a Christian and consider that lust is adultry of the heart acording to Matt 5:28 and therefore won't have any "Hot women" on m desktop.

Looking at women, even nude ones, doesn't have to be about lust. I had my boyfriend take some tasteful nude shots of me where you can't see anything one would call "private", so there is no lust involved. The body is a work of art, after all, you perscribe to the theory that God made it. I have no problem with you prefering not to look at "hot" women, but I don't like when people throw bible quotes around. And if someone feels like flaming me for saying this, I'm being nice. I COULD be a rotten evil bi-otch. But I'm not. So there :P

[CatieCat]

Resurrection:

I would disagree with you there, Resurrection. There are such things as fundamental human rights and there are such things as fundamental morals. You may think both are just constructs of society but they go deeper than that. There are correct ways of living, ones which are beneficial to oneself and others, and wrong ways of living which are not beneficial to oneself or others, which are harmful to oneself and others. What you seem to be purporting is an extreme political liberalism: where you have the right to do, think, say whatever you like without needing to think of the consequences or effects of your actions on others.

Liking guns and naked women is one thing and, you may think, harmless. But you have to look deeper into it. Ask yourself, what am I supporting by buying / downloading / looking at pornographic or "sexy" pictures of women? Who are these women who stand there? Why do they feel that this is the best they have to give? Who are the men behind the cameras and the men making money from it all? Is it exploitation and can I justify my supporting it? And with guns: why am I attracted to guns? What are they a symbol for? Do guns help humanity? Have they ever helped humanity? How many people live in oppression or fear in the world and how are guns used in perpetuating that oppression?

I think you can also ask yourself more questions on the personal level: what do I get out of these pictures? Do they increase my happiness or make me more miserable? I get a kick out of these pictures but is that happiness? Am I not just chasing sensations which are here one minute, gone the next? I get a feeling of identity by associating myself with these pictures but is seeking identity really a longing for something more fulfilling in life?

You've got the freedom of speech and I don't question you that, but if you choose to use your freedom of speech then you have to be prepared to be challenged for the things you say. I know that the original question of this thread was about desktop pictures and you probably never wanted anybody to question your values, but I'm afraid you pretty much asked for it by so blatantly expressing yourself.


Boy, my old Psych teacher would have gone giddy over this post. You need to chill out. You're basically acusing Resurection of being mentally depraved for liking guns and women. Well since you had to throw your two cents at his, I'll throw mine at you and we'll maybe when everyone is done throwing their opinion around, instead of dealing with the actually TOPIC of the thread, which is computer Wallpapers, we'll all have enough money for an ice cream.

As for naked women posing, I've done it. Done it tastefully and erotically. And let me tell you, it's powerful. It makes me feel feminine and sexy and powerful. Whether that's right or wrong to you I don't care, because it makes me feel good. In more way than one. I'm not oppressed, was never sexually molested, and I'm not a porno star. I think many women in porn are being used, but just as many are doing it because it feels good to be primal every once in awhile.

As for guns, yes they have helped humanity. They helped the pioneers hunt for food and protect their families and belongings. Now we don't need them, I have violence and war, I don't like first person shooter video games, but some people do. So long as people don't use guns to harm other people, and there are people who don't, I see nothing wrong with letting them own one. And I'm a registered Democrat saying that. Guns are not evil. Not everyone that owns a gun is evil. 90% of people who do aren't evil.

And if someone wants to have an image of a woman masturbating with a rifle as their background and they pay their bills, feed their pets, vote and don't leave small tips, then leave them alone.

[punkinside]

Guns dont kill people, its bullets ripping through peoples bodies that kills people ;) anyhow, if people didnt have guns, they'd probably just strangle each other, or hit themselves silly with clubs and cut out their innards with swords like they did before guns, back when war wasnt some guy in a bunker somewhere playing nintendo. Thats the beauty of humans: were the only species around that purposely kill each other. But thats a whole different topic

Anyhow, I just have some crazy blue kinda light waves in a black background, never had a woman, car or gun in there. Well, once, for like 5 minutes I had Ana Sofia Henao there but I found it too distracting ;) take a look:

http://www.ldc.usb.ve/~02-35074/Screenshot.png

Symo: bleh :p

[aysiu]

Just to play the devil's advocate here:

1. Bullets and guns work together. A gun without bullets isn't much use; same for bullets without a gun.

2. It's difficult to accidentally strangle someone or club her to death. It's a lot easier to accidentally shoot someone.

[nanotube]

Just to play the devil's advocate here:

1. Bullets and guns work together. A gun without bullets isn't much use; same for bullets without a gun.

2. It's difficult to accidentally strangle someone or club her to death. It's a lot easier to accidentally shoot someone.

ok, i don't know about accidental clubbing or strangling, but i'm sure there's a lot of accidental knifing. (probably a lot of accidental falling out of windows, too, and a bigger lot of accidental runovers with a vehicle). a lot of things are prone to "accidental" use

[punkinside]

Just to play the devil's advocate here:

1. Bullets and guns work together. A gun without bullets isn't much use; same for bullets without a gun.

2. It's difficult to accidentally strangle someone or club her to death. It's a lot easier to accidentally shoot someone.

1. I was just quoting Eddie Izzard, anybody heard of him? Exelent comic!
Gungs dont kill people, people kill people.. and monkeys do to! IF they have a gun!

My point is: guns or not, people kill people! And thats another thing about people: they die really easy. When all it takes is to slip in the shower reaching for your conditioner...

As with anything, there are ups and downs and usually those representing the extremes ( NRA -- Liberals ) are dead wrong. Cause everything is just a shade of gray!

[aysiu]

1. I was just quoting Eddie Izzard, anybody heard of him? Exelent comic! My wife loves Eddie Izzard. We always have a good laugh when we watch him on DVD.

[andy-]

Guess I'm typical. :???: Female body = work of art imo.

http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot1qq.png

Work safe.

p.s. notice the tatoo before you bash me. :D

[Abrii Doniger]

Sorry yes, most men I know go for the semi (or less) clad women, or cars, or sport scene shots on the desktop.

Or nothing at all.

Most women I know go for outdoor scenes, fantasy art (dragons and the like) or nature (flowers, birds, exotics).

Anything soothing, relaxing.

I have a beach scene atm but also picked up a lot of nature pics when we set this thing up. I've also, in the past, had wallpapers from hit musicals, games (made one of my own using elements of an MMO I play a long time ago), and a naked female torso in b&w dimly lit (just a lovely silouette).

[gruvsyco]

1. Bullets and guns work together. A gun without bullets isn't much use; same for bullets without a gun.
with a little luck and skill, you might be able to put some pretty good welts or bruises or maybe even put out an eye by throwing the bullets.

[Lothlómendil]

My current desktop in Ubuntu is the default for 6.06, because the design looks nice and I have yet to find another background that doesn't clash with the theme. Currently in Windows I have a picture of my boyfriend's puppy, sleeping. But I like to change the picture around a lot, with a variety of different types of images. Cool designs, animals, landscapes, pictures of friends, anything that I find appealing at the moment for no apparent reason. I think most of my friends at uni, despite what OS they use, tend to use pictures of animals and friends.

Oh, and I'm a 19 year old female college student, since everyone else is contributing that info to this topic. :)

[Nana]

I tend to go for something relaxing and unobtrusive for my background, something that doesn't steal the show. Usually this means something blue and abstract.

Actually, I have the default Kubuntu 6.06 image as my background right now. It's blue and abstract, so I like it. 8)

Anyway, my background choices mainly depend on my mood, so I can just as well have animals, landscapes, anime characters, and funny pictures on the background. I think I change my desktop backgrounds more often than I change my socks, and it should go without saying that I have a different image on each different virtual desktop.

I don't like photos of human beings on the background, though. For some reason, people on the background bother me, especially if they're people I know in real life. I once tried to have a pic of my husband as the background, but I had to change it quickly, because the picture of him kept staring at me all the time. XD

Speaking of people on the background... I actually prefer pictures of sexy women to pictures of sexy men, even though I'm a heterosexual woman myself. I just think the female body is aesthetically more pleasing to the eye than the male body.

[Ann667]

I've been trying to stay with backgrounds that I make myself. I'm a lot rusty with the artwork (I haven't picked up a pen, pencil, or a paintbrush in well over 10 years... ) and I haven't exactly gotten the hang of Gimp and Inkscape just yet, but I'm working on it. I tend to like basic backgrounds for my computer and I usually go for darker, earthy tones. (not always really dark, but I tend to not like bright or light colors as much. I have seen some nice work done in color schemes I wouldn't normally go for, though.) As I get better with the graphics programs I'll most likely create some backgrounds that are more abstract, and more interesting.


Here is a link to a screen shot of my current desktop. (http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l173/Ann667/Currentdesktop-1.png)

[Fyda]

*raises hand* Female over here.

My wallpaper collection (I obsessively have to change the wallpaper every week, at least) consists primarily of the following categories:

- landscape/nature photography (eg. mountains, lakes, skylines, lightning)
- images of stained glass windows
- animal photography - usually the "cute" or "deadly" variety
- abstract photography (see www.mandolux.com)
- starscapes and galaxies (from NASA and the like)
- food! delicious, scrumptious, wonderful food...
- fantasy artwork (Luis Royo, anyone?)

I generally don't like to have photos of humans (or any part of a human :P) on the desktop. Not sure why. And vehicles don't interest me at all. As for weapons... ornate swords are nice. So are guns from FPS games (I used to have a wallpaper of the Arctic sniper rifle from Counter-Strike).

Hmm. Aside from the "cute" animal photos and the aversion to cars/models, I don't think my preferences are especially revealing of my gender... are they?

[ezsit]

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A )

As a male I can say I don't mind these three things. I certainly wouldn't put any of them on my desktop. Call me crazy, but I keep the Ubuntu 5.10 default brown wallpaper most of the time. I have a couple of lakeside landscapes, and a few Gnome inspired (the big foot) artwork wallpapers as well. My daughter also graces my desktop from time to time, but when she sees herself she gets embarrassed and asks me to change it.

But the question remains ... what do women want to stare at (or show off?) on their desktop without many apps running on it?

My wife likes landscapes, with live calendar and weather feeds, very functional. Her desktop is way too busy for my tastes. I like plain. I don't like my eyes distracted by the wallpaper. I also have a hard time keeping track of the pointer when the background is too colorful.

As for the OP being offensive, he wasn't to me. He's young and has young male tastes, that's all. What I find offensive are men who spell women as "womyn." People who butcher language to make political statements draw attention to their own lack of education.

[Raavea]

^_^ I'm not usually termed female by my family, :lol: being a dyke, but still, I've attached a few screenies of my desktops over the past few months, and some of my favourite BGs.

Lightest Theme I Have Ever Used: http://blog.abandoneddreams.com/raavea/bblog/pictures/7cdca0539a5fd1a4828fa7982f19327e.jpg
My Favourite Orange Theme: http://blog.abandoneddreams.com/raavea/bblog/pictures/f6de329e380ec9f659634198abf7c9e7.jpg

And attached is a screenie of my desktop right now (the blue turbulence) and some of my favourite backgrounds (the planets + tree).

Me, I'll be happy with a dark landscape pic (see the orange theme) a dark spacescape theme (I used to use EVE-ONLINE screenprints, but then I found this guy's art!) or some kind of macro picture (see the light theme).

I've been trying to get a good abstract theme, sort of techie, like a picture of fire in zero-grav or something that looks like a blob of mercury.. But they are hard to get in dark colours. :lol:

[allhope]

I'm a woman and I typically use minimalistic, non-distracting wallpapers... patterns, simple vector drawings, etc. The type of thing most people would call "boring" ;) Photos usually just distract me.

[tommcd]

I get all my desktop wallpapers here:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html

I'm 46 yo male. Yes, I have long been an enthusiast of the space program and science fiction. I'm not into cars or guns. Hot women yes, my hard drive has lots of them, just not on the desktop!

[changlinn]

Guess I'm typical. :???: Female body = work of art imo.

http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot1qq.png

Work safe.

p.s. notice the tatoo before you bash me. :D

Dang thats nice, can you post a link to the wallpaper :)
Me I have on screen1 usually something to do with the pc's name, ie my desktop is spidey, so you guessed it, it has a well drawn publically submitted spiderman, other screens have other stuff, but although I do like women, cars and guns I don't have them as my wallpaper.

[Buzzygirl]

I love astronomy-themed wallpaper... stuff like "Best of the Hubble" types of pictures.

[indigoshift]

A lot of my tech support career has been working in schools, where the women employees far outnumber the men. The most common wallpaper themes I've run across on women's computers are:

--fantasy themes (fairies, unicorns, that kind of thing)
--photos of children
--photos of other relatives
--photos of friends

Photographs of friends/family seem to have always been the most common. In fact, you could almost guess the age of the lady whose computer you were working on just by looking at the wallpaper. Someone in her early 20s often had friends or fantasy themes. If she was married for 3 years or less, she'd have a picture of her husband and her--oftentimes on vacation or something. As the children were born, they would become the wallpaper. And, as she grew older and her family grew, photos of grandchildren would take prominence.

[EdThaSlayer]

I seem to fit only one of those 3...i do like putting beautiful women as my wallpaper...its just finding good ones thats tough for me...since iam a anime fan i put beautiful anime girls as my wallpaper...

[LadyDoor]

Pretty pictures!!!

No, but for serious--I tend to like something eye-catching, pretty, bizarre, funny, or creepy. Right now, though, I'm using ratpoison, so I've got NOTHING. Minimalism is, I think, my favorite so far. But then again, I've never been "normal," whatever that means. Here's a screenshot of what I use now and a pic of what I'd use otherwise. DeviantArt is a great place to find good backgrounds--the people there want their work to be seen and used on desktops (at least those who post in the desktop section), and you want a desktop background.

--Door

[macogw]

I like to put my favourite band or something funny in either a computer
or political way on there.

[SoundMachine]

I fit the stereotype, however maybe not fully, my GF put the pic there, i have just kept it. :D

I was going on a businesstrip, little did she know that the first thing that went out through the LCD projetor was her naked body.

I can laugh about it now, acutally i did then too.

My boss said, Well now we know why you are coming in late every morning, saved the situation, he's good at doing that.

[steveneddy]

I realize you're talking about typical men, but I just wanted to point out that I don't fit into your characterization of men at all. I consider my wife hot, but I still put a picture of our cat on the desktop, and I couldn't care less about cars or guns... and definitely would not put them on my desktop. Again, maybe I'm atypical, but...

This is a little off topic, but I have always respected aysiu's opinions and his help on these forums is unsurmountable. I always wonderd what the gender was, and so now I know. That's it, really.

BTW - don't know what part of the world you are in, but we have just discovered the French Press. This is a wonderful way to drink coffee. If you haven't, you should try it, if you like coffee, that is.

[rohan!]

my girlfriend has the ubuntu sample desktop of the tree (is it forest of ubuntu?)

me? i tend to work in terminal a lot, but when i come out i have fluxbox which has a nice picture of my girlfriend from a nude photo shoot that she did, though i tend not to have girl backdrops.

When i'm back at uni i'll usually have something black and white and a little blury. it all has to be a little simple because i run a transparant aterm over the desktop so i need to be able to read what it says!

oh and on my gnome desktop if i ever log into it is the screensaver fuzzyflakes (the pink one with white snowflakes) running on the root window. i like impressing windows users with that! "Hey, your desktop's moving!" :)

[BrokenBrick]

My desktop is blue... just blue...

[Senak^2]

I usally use wallpapers of my favorite anime/manga, landscapes, animals, or funny things. I guess I wouldn't mind a photo of a car but it would get old fast. I would really like to put a high resolution picture of my cats, fish, or possibly pictures of my hometown though.

The coolest desktop I ever had came about by accident. I was capturing some video from my VCR using a "TV" application and it malfuctioned in a very cool way. It layed the live video from the VCR over the desktop wallpaper but under the icons and taskbar. So I could play movies as the desktop background. Wow, Windows actually did something cool by doing something wrong.

[cha0s]

^_^ I'm not usually termed female by my family, :lol: being a dyke, but still, I've attached a few screenies of my desktops over the past few months, and some of my favourite BGs.

Lightest Theme I Have Ever Used: http://blog.abandoneddreams.com/raavea/bblog/pictures/7cdca0539a5fd1a4828fa7982f19327e.jpg
My Favourite Orange Theme: http://blog.abandoneddreams.com/raavea/bblog/pictures/f6de329e380ec9f659634198abf7c9e7.jpg

And attached is a screenie of my desktop right now (the blue turbulence) and some of my favourite backgrounds (the planets + tree).

Me, I'll be happy with a dark landscape pic (see the orange theme) a dark spacescape theme (I used to use EVE-ONLINE screenprints, but then I found this guy's art!) or some kind of macro picture (see the light theme).

I've been trying to get a good abstract theme, sort of techie, like a picture of fire in zero-grav or something that looks like a blob of mercury.. But they are hard to get in dark colours. :lol:


this is my first post on this forum but i have to say, wow. those pictures are really stunning. i just stumbled in from google (i'm looking for that one orange tree picture from ubuntu... love it...) and i can't wait to finish looking at all the pics in this topic ^^.

oh btw i'm on windows at the moment, please don't attack me. or wait this is the women's forum? sure go ahead and attack me :mrgreen:

[Ben Sprinkle]

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. ;) )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A :) )

Wrong, not everyone does like that on thier desktop.
I just use KDE's wallpaper. (Some blue one with a gear and wierd font)
Which I like.
For Windows I just use a blank black desktop.

[3200]

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. ;) )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A :) )

OK, yet another male answering a question intended for females.

Having "hot women" on one's desktop, especially in a professional environment (my laptop does double duty), is bad juju. Don't misunderstand me, I have nothing against "hot women", other than the fact they promote an unhealthy body "ideal" among females.

Cars. :-k

BFGs. I prefer the M102 howitzer. It's range, ease of use and airlift capabilities make it the perfect gun, IMHO. If you're talking about small arms, well...*shrug* one bullet launcher is just as good as another. If I have to use a small arm, the bad guys are waaaaay to close. I am odd, however, being an Artilleryman...

All that said, I prefer classic art, photos of places I've been, photos of wineries, breweries, etc. Typically my own photos, but I'll take 'em where I can get 'em.

[uchuunoyanushi]

I had verve on my old windows computer, which allowed me to switch desktops, and I had a variety of anime wallpapers, my ebil kitty, one or two cute asian boys, hide (who is far too cool to fit into the general category of 'cute asian boy'), and my Astros winning the NL pennant last year.

Then, after the harddrive died and we got it replaced, I put a wallpaper of beastie (http://www.mckusick.com/beastie/index.html) on the windows computer, cause the irony was to pretty to resist.:twisted:

Once I got my shiny new desktop and switched to Ubuntu, I had to have a wallpaper that streched nicely over my dual monitors, so I put up a picture of a genuine Danish channel that I took in Tokyo. =P

[kateshine]

I realize this is a little cheesy, but I REALLY LIKE the default Ubuntu desktops. I never used any of the included windows desktop images. But the Ubuntu desktop has classic lines and sophisticated style. I like it.
However, if I had to choose something else, I would choose art, perhaps Picasso (probably not his cubist work, though) or perhaps one of my husband's pieces (not because he's my husband - because I like them!)
I would like to add, though, that this all seems a little silly to me. No offense to anyone, but none of the men I know like guns... most of the men I hang out with are either comic book geeks (more my husband's crowd) or music geeks (more my crowd). Even then, though, I could not reliably predict what any one of them would like, much less as a group. Ditto for the women I know. But - to each his or her own.
KateShine

[argie]

Most of the wallpaper I use now is from:
http://americanpsycho.deviantart.com/

Also, I hate guns, ugly looking things. Little yachts, yeah, they're really awesome.

[D!mon]

first, I'm not woman :)
I have stormblue picture from kde-look on my desktop.. I think it's beautiful!

[Synapse56]

I know for sure that men without an interest into one particular field don't mind 3 things:
-Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
-Cars (I am partial to the Mini Cooper since finding parking with it seems easy. ;) )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A :) )


Maybe you do, but please don't think all men are like you.

I'm a normal guy but don't like guns / football / pin-up models / cars etc.

Pretty stupid to assume we're all the same.....

[SunnyM]

I get most of my stuff from pixelgirl. When surfing the site looking for new backgrounds, there are three sections I head to, anime, vector art (I love vector art) and cute. If it's got a little anime kitten with big eyes, it's been on my desktop. Twice.

For holidays, I try to find things within my perferred style that fit the holiday mood. I found some lovely "spooky" vector art backgrounds for halloween this year. If I can make my system match it using art.gnome or gnome-look, then it's been a good day. :-D

Most of the time everything flows together. Start button, theme, login manager, apps that are skinnable (xmms for example) all have to go reasonably well together, or it won't last with me.

I tend to change everything at least once a month (more when I'm feeling inspired.) unless there's a holiday, then it gets changed about a week before the holiday hits. I've threatened to put Miyavi (a lovely Japanese musician) on my desktop, but haven't actually done so yet. :mrgreen:

[kopilo]

My girlfriend normally has wallpapers from movies or TV series that she likes.

[steven8]

I use movie title screens from here:

http://www.shillpages.com/movies/mnew.shtml

[kopilo]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! :D

[steven8]

You're quite welcome. I always agonized over finding something cool and different for my desktop. Then one night it hit me. I googled movie title screens and found that wonderful site!

[seshomaru samma]

I think the default Ubuntu walpaper is not nice
but the one called 'Ubuntu Lagoon' is very beatiful , it goes well with the Linsta theme and is my current walpaper

[skydivingbiker]

Hey, atleast he didnt mention football.

I wouldnt mind sexy (non-blonde and 6' tall) girl or guns on my desktop.

Some people dont like guns. Well.. if you dont support sending our soldiers to a soverign nation to kill its natives.. why... you must be a terrorist coddling 'liberal'

... lots of other assumptions and stereotypes out there floating around too.

But im a guy and my desktops are photos of far away places. Like Sugar Loaf Mountain in south america

[Dual Cortex]

I realize you're talking about typical men, but I just wanted to point out that I don't fit into your characterization of men at all. I consider my wife hot, but I still put a picture of our cat on the desktop, and I couldn't care less about cars or guns... and definitely would not put them on my desktop. Again, maybe I'm atypical, but...

I agree.
I wouldn't put a pictuer of a model(/car/guns!!) on my desktop, just as aysiu said, I couldn't care less about cars or guns!
Now, thought I would like looking at models, etc. I don't think they would fit nicely in a desktop wallpaper.
I think you are describing mostly a hardcore-gamer in college.
And as far as aysiu... I just think he has some weird attraction to cats!:-k

\\:D/

[samjones]

well im gay and tho that dont make me a woman i guess its a different perspective, again im not pretty enclined to have a picture of a gun of that kind on my desktop nor am i into women or cars, for me...
i like a little something more green i love to see green bamboo on my desktop maybe its cos im in china but maybe its because it makes me feel fresh in such a dirty world...


sam


ive seen the light, and its orange.

[Henry Rayker]

I use a lot of pictures of nature on my