# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Other Discussion and Support > Ubuntu Women >  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.  :Wink:  )
-BFG (Big ... Guns, again, I am partial to the Barrel M82A  :Smile:  )

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).

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## 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...

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## slavik

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

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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

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## 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.

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## aysiu

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


 The original post was intended to be funny?

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## 3rdalbum

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

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.

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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 (don't worry, the link's safe).

@ sylvester_0:  Great site!  Thanks for the link.

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## 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.  :KDE Star:  I agree--Gnome is not at all shiny to the eye.

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## 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  )
> 
> ...


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.

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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 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"  :Smile:

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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).

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## Krigl

> Whoops, I'm wrong. I do have girls on my wallpaper but they are artistically created models I grabbed from DeviantArt 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.

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## 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.

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## ygarl

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


Blue!

LOL

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## bjweeks

I've got rolling hills :Wink:

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## towsonu2003

> she had a picture of Karl Marx.


 :Cool:

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## 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.

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## 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).

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## StageMgr2Stars

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

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

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## 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...by_MYvonne.jpg
http://tn3-1.deviantart.com/fs8/300W...bberman542.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...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.

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## 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.

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## 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

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## 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

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## 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

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## Zerlinna

I'm a woman and I don't have "hot boys" on my screen - well, except two penguins  :Smile: 
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.

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## 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  :Smile: 

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  :Smile: 

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

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## 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.  :Smile:

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## 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.

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## 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)
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. I think the picture is funny.  :Capital Razz: 
Yeah, I'm a strange one.

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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

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## 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...

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## 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  :Razz: )

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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.  :Razz:

----------


## 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  :Smile:

----------


## 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.  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.  :Wink:

----------


## wh0rd

What about hermaphrodites, you sexist bastard!?

j.k. ...  :Very Happy:

----------


## 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:
 (click for higher res.)
2. A female friend:
 (I guess you would have expected this - me neither...)
(click for higher res.)
3. My mother:

(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) wallpaper and I really like it.  :Smile:

----------


## 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  :Smile:

----------


## 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

----------


## nanotube

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


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.  :Smile: 

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  :Smile:  ).



> 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  :Smile: . 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.  :Capital Razz:

----------


## -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  :Smile:  

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.


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".  :Smile:  

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  :Smile: 

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  :Wink:

----------


## 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.

----------


## gamerchick02

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  :Smile:

----------


## 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" (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.  :Wink: 

(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).  :Wink:

----------


## 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  :Smile:

----------


## 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!  :Very Happy:

----------


## 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  )
> 
> ...


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/humanbo...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  :Smile:  )

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  :Smile: . 

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.  :Sad:

----------


## 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.  :Capital Razz: 

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

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y19...htly/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  :Capital Razz:

----------


## 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  :Wink:  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  :Wink:  take a look:

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

Symo: bleh  :Razz:

----------


## 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.  :Confused:  Female body = work of art imo.

http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?i...eenshot1qq.png

Work safe. 

p.s. notice the tatoo before you bash me.  :Very Happy:

----------


## 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.  :Smile:

----------


## 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.

----------


## 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  :Capital Razz: ) 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,  :Laughing:  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/raav...982f19327e.jpg
 My Favourite Orange Theme: http://blog.abandoneddreams.com/raav...98abf7c9e7.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.  :Laughing:

----------


## 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"  :Wink:  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?i...eenshot1qq.png
> 
> Work safe. 
> 
> p.s. notice the tatoo before you bash me.


Dang thats nice, can you post a link to the wallpaper  :Smile: 
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.  :Very Happy: 

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!"  :Smile:

----------


## 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,  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/raav...982f19327e.jpg
>  My Favourite Orange Theme: http://blog.abandoneddreams.com/raav...98abf7c9e7.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.



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  :Mr. Green:

----------


## 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.  :Think:  

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 on the windows computer, cause the irony was to pretty to resist. :Twisted Evil:  

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  :Smile: 
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.....

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## 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.  :Very Happy: 

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.  :Mr. Green:

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## kopilo

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

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## steven8

I use movie title screens from here:

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

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## kopilo

Thank you, thank you, thank you!  :Very Happy:

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## 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

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## 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

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## 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! :Think:  

 :Dancing:

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## 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.

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## Henry Rayker

I use a lot of pictures of nature on my desktop. One of my favorites, actually, is of a Hippo and a Tortoise who are friends.

I haven't ever had pictures of cars or guns on my desktop. My girlfriend took a nice picture of herself (just a headshot, you pervs) and I used that for a while, because it was black and white and fit with my theme at the time. That's the only woman I've had on my background.

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## DoctorMO

Accordingly science says green themes calm you down. reminds you of being back in the safe trees (we never should have left the oceans)

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## kikiwitch

I started using Linux 5 years ago, I have always been into computers, was programming in Delphi when I was 11, Then I wanted to make website, that moved me onto php (open source) and apache which of course led me to linux.

The first time I ever got it working was SuSE Linux, Then I moved from SuSE to Slackware, Slackware to Debian. Now im trying out Ubuntu on my desktop.

(I've also ran Gentoo, Redhat, RHEL, Fedora, Centos, a few others).

But to be fair I still also use windows because of it's interoperability with everything which is still far ahead of any Linux desktop. (THough Linux is getting pretty damn close, If it could map smb shares seamlesly (which is possible, just not used properly) then I could work with my windows machines better, rathar than having to use the command line and mount the samba share or copying the files to my laptop.


Anyway...

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## Jamesmccloud

im not a woman, but of the women i see using computers, most put up either the default or some fangirl fare, be it anime, a tv show, band, or something of the sort. 9/10 though is some flavor of "default". its one of those few situations where men prefer aethste-- good-looks over women, who (in my observation) prefer utilitarian default wallpapers or solid colors. not that you care about my wallpaper, but its a solid-white one with marvin(hitchhikers guide) in the corner. on my media center computer, its a high resolution naturescape (right now its a tree...i think.) that shows off all 720i pixels.

kinda like those birds where the male tries to dress up his little nest to attract the women birds. or something.

EDIT: i didnt see this topic is 16 pages long. sorry those of you on different topics,  :Smile:

----------


## ケイト

> But to be fair I still also use windows because of it's interoperability with everything which is still far ahead of any Linux desktop. (THough Linux is getting pretty damn close, If it could map smb shares seamlesly (which is possible, just not used properly) then I could work with my windows machines better, rathar than having to use the command line and mount the samba share or copying the files to my laptop.


It's not properly used? If you click on Places in GNOME's Menu Bar, there's an option "Connect to Server...", and there you can with no hassle connect to SMB shares (and many other services) with only a few clicks.

----------


## cnn66

Hot women (models, actresses, girlfriends, wives, etc.)
hehe

----------


## DoctorMO

cnn66, please go away

----------


## happy-and-lost

I use pics of sweaty musicians I take at gigs as my wallpaper  :Very Happy:

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## kikiwitch

> It's not properly used? If you click on Places in GNOME's Menu Bar, there's an option "Connect to Server...", and there you can with no hassle connect to SMB shares (and many other services) with only a few clicks.


Except when you try to open up the file in some apps you get "Protocol not supported" because of course the software was never written to use smb:// as an address protocol.

Thus you have to copy the file to your desktop to edit it.
It's a shame it's not just an interface smbmount... That would work seamlessly in any app.

----------


## kikiwitch

> I use pics of sweaty musicians I take at gigs as my wallpaper


I use a mix of pictures taken on the camera, anime backgrounds ( www.animewallpapers.com) etc.

I like pretty but functional themes.

My desktop is to be useful after all and not just a work of art suitable for a gallery.

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## DoctorMO

I recon that if they could develop the protocol stack slightly further down in the system, in gnu tools for instance or perhaps kernel level protocol routing. you'd be able to open http pages, save them back. or smb/sftp/etc.

I know they have this in gnome so you can edit things in gedit from smb, ssh or ftp but it needs to be more intergrated.

kikiwitch, I like your avitar, good film.

I use no wallpaper. I sometimes use a top down picture of a glass of coke that sort of looks like a scotish man playing the bagpipes.

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## kikiwitch

Thanks!  :Smile:  Your penguin fairy is really cute!

But yes, that's my one biggest dislike, the second is how much space gnome seems capable of wasting drawing windows and looking pretty in general.

I want to make the most of my 1280x1024 (or sometimes 1024x768 when im on the move).

I've already dropped the font size of everything and used a compact theme so it's pretty ok now.

----------


## DoctorMO

Ah my avitar is from reading too many Bonita Sara tales which is sad to say are not available any more.

Seperation is the key, modularity of function as well as code in some cases.

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## casperiv

This thread is very very long and interesting to read.

My desktop is always one of two things, a car or a solid color.  I usually have a solid color to reduce the amount of overheard of loading that last little bit into memory for a desktop image (A habit I developed in Windows).  Since I’m into cars and race them regularly, I have been known to have pics of cars (either from online or from race events that I attend).

Adding to the conversation about generalizations what guys might have as backgrounds depends on the demographic.  Most "guys" by the definition of teenagers to 20 something’s that are not orientated with computers as their main focus will almost always have something like cars or girls.  It's simple, these are what we are striving to obtain/obsess over.  Just like geeks putting gaming pics or fan art.  For an example of this, walk through a dorm or frat house and check out the wall papers.  Then go to a random gamer’s computer and check theirs.  One consideration to make is that girls will always be a fixation of a strait single guy, so it will carry through many demographics and age brackets adding to the influence on a generalization of the male population.

As a side note: I hope people are kidding about being offended about being generalized.  If being generalized in a comment that is not particularly negative and is generally accurate causes you true offense, then I would have to say that you may need to evaluate your significance from a 3rd parties standpoint.  While a generalization may not reflect you exactly, it’s fine. the point of a “generalization” is to use a global view of something that may not be all the same but using the majority for an example.

----------


## zoetrope666

Hi, 

I've noticed that this forum is generally centered on including women more within the computing realm, but find that many of the discussions revert to arguments regarding separatism, and attempts at defining and justifying *why* women need a space that acknowledges them more explicitly. My own two cents worth is as follows: Since the 70s, women-only and women-friendly spaces have been considered of social importance due to the general fact that women have and continue to be a socially suppressed class, who from an early age are socialised to avoid spaces which are typically male-dominated, including all things scientific and mathematic, and by extension, all things about and relating to computing. I do realise that the internet has some ability to afford women a level of empowerment previously unheard of via increased communication, but I would suggest that there is still plenty of work to do before women will feel fully embraced by the IT realm, as computing and the net - like the world at large - continues to be marked by gender inequities which can tend to alienate women from full participation in typically male-centered realms like this. 

More on the topic of this thread, however, I don't really consider my desktop background choices to be gendered - rather I factor in things like aesthetics, eye strain, the extent to which it clashes with or enhances my icons, and whether it suits my overall system theme. I love the default 'human' ubuntu 6.06 theme, and so I generally try to tailor my backgrounds to suit this colour scheme and style. Some examples of the backgrounds I make and use are available at: http://art.ubuntu.com/main.php?g2_itemId=817
Some of these, you could say, are quite 'feminine', however my boyfriend also uses these themes - which makes me think they're more gender-neutral than anything. 

Cheers,
zoetrope.

----------


## Lynoure

I never really got the idea of desktop wallpapers. They seem to be there to be stared at when there is no windows. Why would I want to stare at the area that is not a window or another (except if it is console, of course)? My aim tends to be to maximize the work area, and that makes all the desktops I look at least 2/3 covered, leaving not enough visibility to allow for a picture. So I go for a gradient colour instead.

When I was learning dvorak, I had briefly a dvorak layout guide tiled to be a background picture, but I soon switched to displaying the same picture in a window visible an all desktops.

For something pretty to look at, outside the context of computer desktop backgrounds, I like the art of Luis Royo and Rob Gonsalves.

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## hrsetrdr

> Since the 70s, women-only and women-friendly spaces have been considered of social importance due to the general fact that women have and continue to be a socially suppressed class, who from an early age are socialised to avoid spaces which are typically male-dominated, including all things scientific and mathematic, and by extension, all things about and relating to computing.


Wow, where did that come from?  "Socially suppressed"?   Western cultures are observably very woman-centric, while at the same time projects very negative images of men from all directions, in society.  I'll agree that women have been conditioned/socialized by the '70's feminist movement, and that has helped them to realize their own potential in the science, commercial and political arenas. Men have "moved-over" and accepted women in the "male-dominated" fields when said women have shown their abilities.   The flip-side of that coin is, that the villianization of males has become *Institutional*, with even commercial interests now portraying males as inept, bubbling and shallow, in media advertising.

Back On Topic:
Desktop?  Almost exclusively scenic outdoors images...mountains, lakes, deserts etc.

 :Wink:

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## zoetrope666

> Wow, where did that come from?  "Socially suppressed"?   Western cultures are observably very woman-centric, while at the same time projects very negative images of men from all directions, in society.  I'll agree that women have been conditioned/socialized by the '70's feminist movement, and that has helped them to realize their own potential in the science, commercial and political arenas. Men have "moved-over" and accepted women in the "male-dominated" fields when said women have shown their abilities.   The flip-side of that coin is, that the villianization of males has become *Institutional*, with even commercial interests now portraying males as inept, bubbling and shallow, in media advertising.



Quite simply, my statement regarding women as a socially supressed class came from the past three years of study I have undertaken - via an Arts degree - studying sociology, history, women's studies, anthropology, and political science - amongst other disciplines - which all seriously question the extent to which women's status and lot in life has changed via the developments of the mid-to-late twentieth century, and which all stress that women have not only historically been oppressed by society, but that their full interaction within society continues to be supressed. Yes, since the 70s we have seen some major changes and advances in the lot of women, but we have also seen a hell of a lot of anti-feminist governments come into power since that time who have helped to effectively erode such changes. Not to mention the general social backlash to feminism that has meant that those women who do attempt to stand up for women-centered causes are most often demonised and silenced. 

I would argue that western society is not women-centric at all. Many areas of society continue to assume male predominance and supremacy, and fail to consider or represent women - a simple example being the relative lack of women within parliaments, legal systems, top positions in business, science, *computing*, etc.. And yes, you could say 'well there are *some* women in these positions' - but overall statistics show that women are continually prevented from reaching these heights. Academically, women in places like Australia (where I live) are shown to perform better, with women graduates outnumbering men - but nevertheless, a notable glass ceiling prevents women from reaching the peak social positions. So I would therefore argue that our society does not hold up women as better than men, and has not changed to be "women-centric", but rather continues to believe that men are "better for the job", than women - and by extension, that women are not as capable, intelligent or worthy as men, socially.

You said: "I'll agree that women have been conditioned/socialized by the '70's feminist movement, and that has helped them to realize their own potential in the science, commercial and political arenas."

That is not what I said. I said that women are socialised by society *to distance* themselves from such disciplines as science, and commercial and political arenas. Yes, the 70s has helped *some* women to realize their potential in these areas, but by and large women are *still* encouraged to take on stereotypically "feminine" pursuits such as being a nurse instead of a doctor, a secretary instead of a businessperson, etc, etc. And, these positions are quite simply not as socially respected, when compared to that which a male doctor or lawyer or politician recieves, thus perpetuating women's position as socially inferior to men.

I therefore disagree with your claim that, "Men have "moved-over" and accepted women in the "male-dominated" fields when said women have shown their abilities," as figures show that in many realms this just *does not* occur. 

You said: "The flip-side of that coin is, that the villianization of males has become *Institutional*, with even commercial interests now portraying males as inept, bubbling and shallow, in media advertising."

Yes, there is some advertising out there that portrays men as inept, bubbling and shallow - but I would argue that there is a hell of a lot more advertising presenting *women* in such ways, than there is of men. Women are continually objectified by the media, with *feminists* continually being villianized whenever they speak out against the entrenched mysogyny that such imagery conveys. I don't recall seeing any advertising which "villianizes" men in the same way, nor objectifies them to the same level. 

In this, your claims that men are somehow socially disadvantaged now - based most on negative portrayals you've seen of men in the media - are a little too simplistic, as they fail to recognize the full breadth and history of the issue. 

Cheers,
zoetrope.

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## nenyalorien

honestly, i'm a narcissist. so my desktop displays my picture.  :Razz:  but currently, it's plain black in my windows XP desktop, while i haven't tweaked my ubuntu desktop yet. had to go XP for a friend.  :Razz:  ahh the perks of two hard drives. but i digress. 

it's no brain surgery, actually. people will go for what they want. it's not about stereotypes. my husband likes pink. does that mean he's gay? does that mean he'll put pink fluffies all over his desktop? nope.  :Razz:

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## hrsetrdr

> Quite simply, my statement regarding women as a socially supressed class came from the past three years of study I have undertaken - via an Arts degree - studying sociology, history, women's studies, anthropology, and political science


Yes, we have similiar educational background...I recieved my Arts degree in Psycology in 1976. We'll have to agree to disagree however, in the final analysis of the status of women today, and the impact that the Women's Movement has had on Western societies.




> The flip-side of that coin is, that the villianization of males has become Institutional, with even commercial interests now portraying males as inept, bubbling and shallow, in media advertising.


I had said that villianization of males has become Institutional, I did not say that Men are socially disadvantaged, as you credit me as saying below:



> In this, your claims that men are somehow socially disadvantaged now - based most on negative portrayals you've seen of men in the media - are a little too simplistic, as they fail to recognize the full breadth and history of the issue.


It may seem to you that my "claims"(as mentioned above) are simplistic, and that they somehow fail to recognise the _full breadth and history of the issue_.  
Well now, _full breadth and history of the issue_  sure has an *Academic* and authoritative air to it, but what value and relevance does such statement have, to what was said?  I am certainly aware of the "full breadth and history" of Women's issues, having been a college student right in the midst of the '70's, especially one engaged in the study of the various fields of Social Science.    

My view: 
 Women here in the United States have all the opportunities Men have, by law.   Women may engage in any profession they desire, hold any Public office they desire, and ample legal means for remedy if they precieve that their success has been impeded in any way.
Statistics may in fact show that certain occupations haven't acheived the mandated quota of female employees; what such statistics do not take into account is whether or not Women even [u]want[u/] some of the jobs that happen to be "dominated" by Men.
"Glass ceiling"? A bit cliché and somewhat dated, but when the inevitable discrimination lawsuit arises, it will be incumbant upon the woman filing it, to prove that in fact she had been denied advancement, and that she was entitled to such with her qualifications.

...just my perspective

Cheers,

hrsetrdr

----------


## DoctorMO

An interesting subject:

There is cause to say that the levels for women in certain fields are two folds, the minority of current members of those feilds who are sexist and the social conditioning that both men and women recieve in order that they forfill the echo of their gender roles.

I believe the second factor to be the stronger since men are being and have been for a long time; conditioned to accept women as equals (or better than men where the case varies)

There is also a side issues where the current structure of employment in those fields is geared towards the strenths of men and possibly that the women don't feel those fields bring out their strenths either real of conditioned.

It must be noted that women and men are different generaly; but specificly one is not _better_ than the other. it's more likly that there are complex values assocated with human behvour that gives rise to statisitics which can be way layed into giving a context which was never there and the results are purly a result of the reality of the people involved.

So long as everyone is given a chance to make the best of them selves in the fields they wish to go for without hinderence, misguidence and cultural conditioning then the results regardless of skew must be accepted as to be in accordance with the wished of those people invoved in the statistic.

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## geoisonfire

You know what's so funny is that this post is supposed to be a question to women, but 99% of the people here seems to be male. lol

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## Nonno Bassotto

I didn't read the whole thread. Anyway I kinda like girl pictures on the desktop. Still I dislike car pictures and I sure would HATE to have weapons on it.

Anyway I think that the best desktop background is abstract. In any case it should not be too distractive, and it should blend well with my current icons and theme.

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## DARKGuy

I'm male just for the note... and I like to have abstract backgrounds... oO I just have a girl on my GDM login (I'll let you find which one  :Capital Razz: ) but no porn at all xD... my mom on her Windows box (I want to make her use Ubuntu since crappy Vista is coming out and she says she won't play WoW on this "crappy OS" heh XD) likes to put pictures where she looks pretty and my sister disney channel wallpapers heh x).

To the thread's author: I set up a win98 box for my cousin when I stayed at his house for 31st dec. (300Mhz, 64Mb RAM, and I had the Ubuntu 6.10 CD and he wanted the PC for gaming, no way he'd use Ubuntu, sadly) and I left the comp half-configured while I went to check something outside, and when I come back, I find a picture of a girl with a sexy pose on a tuned car o.O... hah.

Either way, everyone is different ^_^; not all males are equal ¬_¬;; and I personally hate when girls go like "all men are the same" D: 'cause it's not true  :Sad:

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## cricketshadowolf

Cool Thread. I Just have a blue screen at present. I just changed over to Xubuntu as it runs faster on my old Dell. But I did have a picture of my grandson Dylan on it before. He is so Cute. I need to get a current picture before I put it back. But now I got another grandson and I guess I will just have to get a digital picture of him as well and switch wallpapers every so often. I have my desktop otherwise themed with the Brushed Chrome with Piranha accents for my windows. Nice clean and no frou-frou colors. I have also in the past downloaded some Native American artwork and photographs of Native American statues from a friends website.  It is interesting how many posts here are from the dude's. 
I have only been computer literate for a few short years. I couldn't even e-mail in '98. In 2000 I hit the library while my arm was in a cast and learned the basics. In '02 I shared my attic rooms I traded for childcare with a friend and lots of computer paraphanalia. I asked him to teach me. He gave me a pile of computer parts and 3 Debian disks and said bulid...install!!! Then he left for three months to set up a computer network in Atlanta. Then later I found Ubuntu when I ordered a package of Linux distros online. Now he gives Ubuntu disks to all his new converts.
So, I have learned to build and install software the hard way. Lots of trial and error. 
So, what do women like on their desktops? I guess thats about as individual as the women that use Linux. And we must be all true individuals or we wouldn't be forging ahead where few women have gone before.

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## maed

nice thread (;
being a 19 year old straight female I've had quite a variety of wallpapers, ranging from not-so-completely-dressed women to self-taken photos, vector / abstract ones, anime-oriented wallpapers, artsy photos and repeated patterns. I don't recall having neither cute'n'cuddly small animals nor hot guys though.

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## sloggerkhan

As a college student, I'm forced to concede that MOST men will have hot women as wallpaper and not mind in the least. However, guns and cars are not so common. Most guys aren't as into cars as they used to be, and I have never in my life seen anyone use a gun as a wallpaper. I've seen gun-toting v-game characters, tanks, airplanes, commandos, and all manner of things with firepower, but never a gun by itself.

Personally, I avoid having women as wallpaper, though I have made an ubuntu woman wallpaer out of the SUSE version. 

Currently, I have a beryl themed wallpaper and a regular ubuntu wallpaper and more than anything else, I prefer that wallpaper isn't too 'busy' so that I can easily pick out files and such visually.

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## EmilyRose

For a super, super, super long time I had a LOTR: FOTR desktop... but since I moved to Ubuntu I've been sorta rotating through some of the better pics I took in Peru/Spain

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## Pikestaff

I'm a 23-year-old girl, and about 99% of the time my desktop is video game related... or otherwise exceptionally dorky... =P  Currently I have a VG Cats wallpaper on my desktop, and an Azumanga Daioh (it's an anime) wallpaper on my laptop.

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## Vomit-Orchestra

Used to have grass.
Now its a picture of the hubby and i whilst intoxicated.

----------


## rudder

You know, some stereotypes are pretty accurate.  In the southeast (US) where I live this is fairly true... guys in the rural areas tend toward the following (in no particular order):

ladies
sports teams
cars
dead dear (the truly *special* crowd anyways)

not many people I have seen like just guns on their screens, unless you count the ones next to the dead dear mentioned above.  Most of these folks are _really_ country though and not the type that I tend to associate with.

As for me, I dig everyday objects in nature (flowers, etc.) in a very closeup fashion... with the colors tuned up nice and vivid and with great contrast.  My wife on the other hand likes big landscapes... mountains and such.

----------


## Scarlett

I've always kind of thought that guys who put pics of hawt chicks on their desktops were the kind of guys that weren't getting any in real life.  *shrugs*  Maybe a stereotype... I dunno...   :Razz:  

As for me... well, I'm an interior designer and I treat my desktop like an art project.  It's always changing and it's always got to look coordinated in terms of style and color.  Right now I'm going for a sleek, hi-tech look with glassy black Beryl window borders, dark grey text fields and a stunning picture of the Horsehead Nebula taken from Hubble.  Just for fun, I found a theme that adds purple text and turquoise highlights.

I'll probably get bored of it in a few months and change it to something soft and fluffy.  That's the great thing about my desktop... it's a lot easier (and cheaper) to redecorate than my home.

----------


## rudder

> I've always kind of thought that guys who put pics of hawt chicks on their desktops were the kind of guys that weren't getting any in real life.  *shrugs*  Maybe a stereotype... I dunno...


I'd agree with that idea... unless of course, the hawt chick was their wife or girl friend :Smile:

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## amber

I'm new to the forum so I am jumping in here kinda late, but I am a girl and my last desktop had a picture of an evo8. It's not just guys that are into cars  :Wink:

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## DragonTU84

Hey, I know I am kinda late into this too. Yet I am a 23 yr. old female, and run Ubuntu 6.06 LTS on my machine. I also installed the KDE desktop, when I feel like a change from the traditional GNOME look.

Anyways, my backgrounds consist usually of things KDE, GNOME, Ubuntu or Linux related. I right now have a Hello Kitty Ubuntu background I found on the net for the GNOME desktop, and for KDE I have a cool looking abstract background with the word "Linux."  :Very Happy: 

I also have another comp. that dual-boots Windows and Ubuntu Linux. My fiancee usually uses the Ubuntu on that machine, and he has a cool looking background with the word "ubuntu" on fire. 

For Windows, I have a background of him and I at a party. For HIM...hehehe...he has a naughty pic of me.  :Embarassed:  He hardly uses it though...since it usually distracts him.  :Laughing:

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## gldvxx

anime or video game characters i like (LAIN, katamari damacy)  i've also had tastefully (artsy, black and white) nude women.  for work computers i usually like digital/3d art (i used to have the mushrooms graphic everyone was using for a long time).  oh yah i'm a girl  :KDE Star:

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## Prometheus.172214

Hmmm Interesting topic ..... I'll go with the women, cars and guns series..... But then I also have this thing for taking screenshots from my games and using them as a desktop background..... Well, I am new to Linux and am right now with teething problems, but then maybe somewhere down the line, I can work on themes too. Sounds like a cool idea.

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## Mrs Twaddle

I'm new to ubuntu, but my backgrounds normally come from digital blasphemy, or are ones I have made myself.
Don't have any particular theme at the moment. I am trying to find a nice glassy purple one that I like. I'm not a fan of black themes, though my current background is mostly black

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## Curtisc

Does anyone else use desktop backgrounds for school?  I usually have something like tables of Laplace transforms, or the amino acid side chains... I figure if I see them often enough, they might stick.

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## Cannonade

I think if my bloke wanted to put pictures of 'hot chicks' on his desktop, I would do unpleasant things to him! However, he usually prefers to have pictures he's taken himself on, I believe his last was a bonfire on the beach here in Aberystwyth.

As for me, I am not a 'typical' woman. Things such as Brad Pit, makeup and skirts don't even come into my vocabulary. Yes, I did have themes involving BFGs, one time even THE Quake 3 BFG! One of my themes before was the new Leviathan vehicle from UT2007, now UT3. At the moment, my ubuntu laptop has a badger on the desktop (my bloke's nickname is badger, partly why) and my PC is an image of the sun through a H-alpha solarscope I editted with darts stuck in it. Also, it was Strongbow a few weeks back.

My themes change from day to day, and are usually dark colours.

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## Staplerchild

I have a bunch of 3d spheres on my Ubuntu desktop and a field with a windmill on it on my Windows desktop.

I generally go for wallpapers that are serene or abstract.

----------


## Banished

I like looking at computer hardware (it's beautiful), so I have a close up picture of a motherboard on my desktop right now,  and I usually alternate it with pictures of my dogs.

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## Lucifiel

Hmmm... I'm female and about to install Ubuntu.  :Smile:  

I'd probably put: attractive-looking people(gender matters not), mm... something that's cool and sexy(it could be a computer or some cool-looking device but I'm not into wheels though) or something artistically awesome.  :Smile: 

The latest wallpaper I was using for WinXP(before heaven succumbed into hell) was from SilkRoad Online(I don't play that game though).

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## daynah

Recently I've been using the default ubuntu wallpapers. Isn't that crazy? I just love brown.  :Smile:  Brown is totally the new black!

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## nenyalorien

now my Ubuntu desktop has lovely PINK tulips! my OS X desktop has a more delicate flower in a daintier pink... i have magenta in the background of my NeoOffice (spawn of Open Office made specifically for Mac)... i have the same pink tulip from my Ubuntu desktop on my twitter account.. pink pink PINK!

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## skrimpy

well I currently have a very sweet looking ubuntu logo on the background of this computer.  On my XP computer I have rotating background wallpaper - pictures of my kids and FFXI fanart, a couple of flower photographs a good friend took, a scene from the movie Pride and Prejudice, and a scene from a webcomic (10k Commotion).  Kinda eclectic there but so am I.

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## tom56

I don't have hot women, cars, or guns on my desktop but I get what the OP meant. I think cars and guns can be lumped into a general category of "shiny things" - men do tend to have pics of shiny things on their desktop. I often have an Olympus OM1 or Moulton as my desktop background because they are the prettiest shiny things amonst the shiny things I own. Other than that, the default wallpaper, or a funny comic.

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## GreyShadow

I like lots of trees!

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## starwings

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

  Hi,
      I'm female and I tend to prefer nature (especially weather related), space (both photos and photorealistic), landscapes (forests, mountains, water), and animals (dogs and goats-farm scenes-more pastures than man made buildings). At work I had a wallpaper of a couple dogs playing chess for a while but I usually go back to landscapes. I tend to not like pictures of people even in a gorgious landscape. I LIKE people plenty <g> its just disconcerting to me to look at a picture with another human looking back at me constantly. I'd rather have no wallpaper than a picture of a pop star on my desktop and vehicles have no meaning to me. I do like color gradients but find nature and landscapes effect me more emotionally. I usually use gradients or photorealistic textures when I have the choice in application skins. 
gentle day,
Lisa B :KDE Star:

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## MadTheologian

I usually have a Threadless.com shirt design as background, although recently I've put up a V for Vendetta theme.  

No beefcake nor cheesecake pics, tho'.

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## justin whitaker

The responses to this thread are all over the board, which just goes to show, the stereotypical view is wrong. 

Personally, as a male of the species, I love to look at cars and women...but as I get older, I realize it's not exactly MATURE to have it on your computer desktop. There is a time and a place if you are into that sort of thing.

What drew me to that conclusion? Well, my best man's Dad wanted to show me something on his new laptop three years or so ago, and the wall was some Playboy bunny, or maybe a porn star. Whatever. The point is, here is this 62 year old guy, showing off his new laptop, with a wall that is neither professional, nor mature. 

My rule of thumb is: if you can't show a presentation with that wall on the desktop as you are opening Office, then it shouldn't be there.

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## DoctorMO

> My rule of thumb is: if you can't show a presentation with that wall on the desktop as you are opening Office, then it shouldn't be there.


You need to watch more cartoon network. life is more than just mature; I bet your inner child screams for cookies every day.

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## olieviya

_I_ like those 3 categories you claimed men like and I'm a girl (shock horror! lol). I think guns, cars and hot women make good wallpapers and have had all of them decorating my desktop at one point in time or another. I'm not stereotypical though and I know that.

I suppose stereotypically men do like those things as backgrounds, and that's fair enough. But stereotypes are what most people first think of, it doesn't make them right.

Anyway you can see my current desktop which I have attached, it's a bit weird but I like it.

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## nanotube

> _I_ like those 3 categories you claimed men like and I'm a girl (shock horror! lol). I think guns, cars and hot women make good wallpapers and have had all of them decorating my desktop at one point in time or another. I'm not stereotypical though and I know that.
> 
> I suppose stereotypically men do like those things as backgrounds, and that's fair enough. But stereotypes are what most people first think of, it doesn't make them right.
> 
> Anyway you can see my current desktop which I have attached, it's a bit weird but I like it.


erhm... i don't see any attachments.  :Smile:

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## SirShaggy

I am a 37 year old male. I never thought of guns for killing people, they are for getting food. I live in eastern Oregon and hunt when I need too. I actually have never had a gun as a screensaver though and most likely won't. I do like pictures of girls very much but have 2 kids and it seems difficult to explain why there is a girl on my screen they don't know. I love cars and trucks, have had several pictures of them over the years.
Lately, I switch back and forth between Gnome screensavers and pictures of my kids who I love dearly but only get to see every once in a while these days.............

Thats the beauty in how I see things. You can always have what you want and bypass what you don't like!

SirShaggy

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## Blindraven

> 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



QFT.

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## gmanlivid

well i'm male. personally, i couldn't be bothered with guns and cars and stuff on my desktop. i like it to look clean. so usually some nice landscape pictures with water or clouds or sky or something like that. my ubuntu (removed the OS until i decide what i want) had a nice blue sky backround. my xp is pretty much the same.....in fact i went as far as hiding my icons for the smooth clean tidy look.

i'm not standard male.........nor am i gay for anyone who though thats where my preference is pointing lol.

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## Bachstelze

20yr, male. I have no problem in admitting that "hot" (whatever that means) girls/women are what you're most likely to find on my desktop (as well as forum avatars  :Very Happy:  ), though I think the pictures I use are a slight bit more tasteful than those of the average guy  :Wink:  If you want to know, right now my desktop is a picture from David Hamilton's _A Place in the Sun_ (and the avatar is from _The Age of Innocence_). Cars and guns ? No, thanks  :Razz:

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## kmir

I like best when there is nothing on the desktop or anywhere else that will be suited to distract me from what I want to do.

Now: What Gender am I???

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## Aishiko

first some corrections it is Barret not Barrel and it's Fairy not Fairly.

I'd not mind that gun in my collection, however I have better things to spend several thousand dollars on.

My desktop is often fantasy pictures, or anime style art work.

As for women desktops, having worked on USAF bases I tend to follow their rules for pictures and have gotten others in trouble by reporting offensive desktops, one of which was naked women doing things you don't want kids to see, I'll leave it at that.

Often I saw the other girl's desktops as either the default image, self/family/pets, or landscapes/famous cities/famous Landmarks.

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## phoenix96

> 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


Seriously - what the hell are you talking about?

Guys like women, and guys like looking at women. It has nothing to do with objectification - it's a complement that we want to see them on the thing (most of us) look at most.

The 'stereotype' of men liking women is not a stereotype at all... obviously. If you're gay, then it's a different story of course.

This is coming from a guy who has a leaf as his background by the way.

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## mikewhatever

Hot women, cars and big guns on the desktop ... I don't think so. It does not even matter if it I like those things or not, it would be barbaric to have this stuff on mine, no matter what others think. Here are some I like
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/sh...32&PHPSESSID=6
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/sh...49&PHPSESSID=6

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## M6bud

I'm a 17 year old male from America and I laughed when i saw that question. Its funny how people take things so far. As for myself I have used everything from cars, girls, guns, pictures that i made myself and landscapes. My sister and mother usually use animals and landscapes. Most girls i know don't put men up on their desktops. Great question and great answers.

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## UI-Freak

Apparently women do not like or want Linux at all, and a nice wallpaper won't change much. 

I laugh at all these cool screenshots Linux users post at many websites. The main attraction is the wallpaper (and blackish themes), but with or without these cool wallpapers the operating system is still the same with all its benefits and deficits: the total lack of professional desktop software, bad hardware support and horrid usability problems.

"Linux is best for technically savvy users or for people whose needs are so basic that they will never need anything other than the bundled software."

- New York Times

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## elizabeth

> Apparently women do not like or want Linux at all, and a nice wallpaper won't change much.


This is _really_ out of line.

We're working to support Ubuntu and encourage more women to use, develop and contribute to the community. Your post manages to both insult women and Ubuntu. I'm not sure why you're here at all if these are your intentions.

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## nanotube

> Apparently women do not like or want Linux at all, and a nice wallpaper won't change much. 
> 
> I laugh at all these cool screenshots Linux users post at many websites. The main attraction is the wallpaper (and blackish themes), but with or without these cool wallpapers the operating system is still the same with all its benefits and deficits: the total lack of professional desktop software, bad hardware support and horrid usability problems.
> 
> "Linux is best for technically savvy users or for people whose needs are so basic that they will never need anything other than the bundled software."
> 
> - New York Times


don't be trolling. if you want to start a "is linux good" discussion, start a thread (or join one of the many existing ones). there's no call to bash linux in a thread on wallpaper preference.

also, since i can't resist, i'll note that windows is also best for technically savvy users. just about anything is best for savvy users: cars are best for savvy drivers, ovens are best for savvy cookers, watches are best for savvy time-readers. is it a surprise, then, than an OS (any os) is best for users who are savvy in using said OS?

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## jbaerbock

I'm also not a typical male. I like fractal images, landscapes, and funky computer part related backgrounds.

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## brue68

As to the original topic of the thread, I'm a male and while I do not personally _have_ a picture of a gun for my desktop, a friend of mine does.  He has a picture of the brand new Beretta 90-two, just came out this year and he bought one instead of a Walther P99.  He graduates from the academy for a local Sheriff's Department this week, so he'll be getting a Glock as well, from the department.

As for myself, I have used sexy anime girls, but I mostly have landscapes (real or fake).  I'm not into cars, but I had a fake interior of a car done in an Ubuntu theme.  So the OP was not completely off in his stereotype of males not minding such things on their desktops.  I wouldn't choose some of the backgrounds, but if a car, gun, or girl happened to be there, I wouldn't feel a need to change it.


As for my girlfriend, she just has the default blue background from when I installed Flyakite on her (windows) laptop.  Otherwise, she has cute things like animals, or she will have something related to Japan or Asia, possibly a snowflake pattern.


As for the comment about humans being the only species with war and murder, that is demonstrably false.  Chimpanzees have war and murder, there is video and photographic evidence of a group of Common Chimpanzees tearing off the genitals of a male from a rival group whilst beating him to death.  Jane Gooddall witnessed a civil war among a group of Common Chimpanzees when a portion of the group started spending all their time in another part of the territory, and stopped associating with the main group.  The main group eventually started systematically hunting down and killing every single member of the splinter group, children and adults.  This kind of behavior is not limited to primates, either. One need only watch "Meerkat Manor" to see warfare and boundary disputes among non-primates.  Dolphins will kill seals or smaller species of dolphin for seemingly no reason, other than entertainment.  Once the dolphins are done bouncing the victims around like beach balls, they abandon the corpses and move on.

It is highly pretentious of us to assume that we are so different from the rest of the Animal Kingdom that we are the only ones capable of such things.

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## wispygalaxy

*Well, I'm a girl and I use a variety of images.  Mainly I use nature images, like the beach, mountains, rivers, forests, all that nice stuff.  Sometimes I use anime or video game images from Jak & Daxter and Ratchet and Clank.  Other times I use pictures of my favorite DJs or record labels.  I'm not too much into the cute doggy or kitty wallpapers *

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## XRzero4

Okay, call me a noob, What the heck EVER. I don't get the whole "The" highlighted in red thing.  Is it really necessary?

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## FFred

> 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  )


Frankly I don't know how to put this but those three options sound like a great way to look like a prepubescent *** IMO.

I wouldn't even dream of putting a girl, car or gun(??) as my desktop background. 

I generally use my own photos as backgrounds, taken specifically for this purpose. The current one is a lotus flower floating on a pond.

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## nanotube

> Frankly I don't know how to put this but those three options sound like a great way to look like a prepubescent *** IMO.


well, you obviously found a way to put this, haven't you? a gratuitously insulting way, but a way nevertheless... ah well...  :Rolling Eyes:

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## UI-Freak

So I am insulting you because I claim that women do not like Linux? I even receive an infraction for this from a moderator? Oh please! We are all adults here, are we not? I am not out of line. Isn't it a fact that Linux has a very, very, very small female user base?




> An EC funded study (2006) summarized in the Flosspols report, indicates that about 1.5% of FLOSS community members were female, compared with 28% in proprietary software. The Ubuntu Census Survey (June 2006) also reflects a similar female ratio with 2.4% women actively volunteering in the Ubuntu community.

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## nanotube

> So I am insulting you because I claim that women do not like Linux? I even receive an infraction for this from a moderator? Oh please! We are all adults here, are we not? I am not out of line. Isn't it a fact that Linux has a very, very, very small female user base?


yes, according to all stats i've seen around, it is a fact. 

isn't it also a fact that this thread was not about linux usage statistics, but about wallpapers (regardless of OS, really)? isn't it also a fact, therefore, that your post was completely off-topic? 

isn't it a fact that you said "women do not like or want Linux at all", whereas your own statistics say that at least 1.5% of the user base is female? 

isn't it a fact that you were deliberately inflammatory by claiming "the total lack of professional desktop software, bad hardware support and horrid usability problems" for linux, which is patently untrue (the minimum needed prove that is to show at least one piece of professional desktop software for linux)? and again also completely unrelated to the topic of this thread, which is desktop wallpapers?

isn't it a fact that you posted that quote from the nyt "Linux is best for technically savvy users or for people whose needs are so basic that they will never need anything other than the bundled software." in yet another attempt to be deliberately inflammatory? 

there are lots of facts around here, and most of them are not helpful to your case.

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## potentia

> isn't it a fact that you said "women do not like or want Linux at all", whereas your own statistics say that at least 1.5% of the user base is female?


Ehm, that actually supports his claim.  :Wink:

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## nanotube

> Ehm, that actually supports his claim.


last time i checked, "at all" means "completely" which would mean "0%". i don't see that as support for his statement - it was clearly an exaggeration, made to rile up potential readers, as was just about everything else in his post.

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## potentia

Yeah, _but_ come on, 0% and 1.5% is actually almost the same, if you look away from mathematical theory. I think he tried to say "wallpapers won't attract women, and something may scare them off" which could be a "cultural" thing as well as a practical thing.

I wonder why this forum has so many threads about wallpapers and default wallpapers. People have changed them actively for years now, it really doesn't matter. A little more focus on the OS itself would probably be more productive.

For politicians or Linux a number as dangerously low as 1.5 % only is an indicator clearly showing that something is dangerously wrong. I prefer a 50 / 50 share of women and men in any kind development or politics, so almost zero really shows a huge problem, right there.

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## voided3

I'm a male in college and Interfacelift.com is the root of a lot of my backgrounds. I go either for the abstract OSXish backgrounds, landscapes, or guitars (or if it's a computer that's less than 500mhz, a solid color). Basically I go for anything that matches my OS theme or I think looks cool. I'm a guiarist/bassist too and I had a pictures of a Rickenbacker 360/12 and a Fender P-Bass as my backdrop for quite a while.

BTW I always find it hilarious when I see a guy open his laptop in class and I see he has a picture of a naked/scantily clad woman on his desktop (and I think the snickers of others in the room affirm that). Look at that in your free time if you want to, not while taking notes in public. I had a guitar student show me some songs he had on his computer one time when I was giving a lesson at his house and he had a similar background; I tried to keep from laughing since he was in middle school.

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## nanotube

> Yeah, _but_ come on, 0% and 1.5% is actually almost the same, if you look away from mathematical theory. I think he tried to say "wallpapers won't attract women, and something may scare them off" which could be a "cultural" thing as well as a practical thing.


i don't think i ever denied that there /is/ a disproportionate absence of women in linux. what i was pointing out was that he (1) made the statement in a deliberately inflammatory way, with almost every sentence containing an exaggeration, and (2) given the subject of this thread, was quite off-topic in doing so.




> I wonder why this forum has so many threads about wallpapers and default wallpapers. People have changed them actively for years now, it really doesn't matter. A little more focus on the OS itself would probably be more productive.


it is merely a classic case of the "bikeshed problem". see the following links for some details about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_of_the_bikeshed
and 
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...ESHED-PAINTING

the gist of it is - a lot more people feel competent to discuss wallpaper (basically, no knowledge or thinking required), than to discuss "meaty" questions. 




> For politicians or Linux a number as dangerously low as 1.5 % only is an indicator clearly showing that something is dangerously wrong. I prefer a 50 / 50 share of women and men in any kind development or politics, so almost zero really shows a huge problem, right there.


we'd all /prefer/ it, but the question of why that is not the case is a complex one that requires some thinking and research. just saying "hey, women don't want linux, and wallpaper ain't gonna change that, etc etc more linux bashing" is a rather pointless statement, as it presents no new insights on the causes of the problem, or potential solutions thereto. the already low value of the post is reduced even further by the abrasive wording.

anyway, i've said enough about this, and should get back to doing some real, actual work  :Smile: .

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## potentia

Thanks for the links to the *"*Color of the bikeshed" links, it was interesting reading and even made me smile. It could be true!

From what I know from work (and from my wife) both men and women will eventually have pictures of their kids on their desktops...  :Wink: 

Have a wonderful day!

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## nanotube

> Have a wonderful day!


you too  :Smile:

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## Jive Turkey

I'm 36yo male, I like guns, cars and women, but not really on the desktop.  I prefer simple abstract, low contrast dark images for the desktop that give some illusion of depth.  Think smooth chocolate in feisty, or ABSTRACT-Aquarius from gnome-art.

I skipped some pages here but in the moral undercurrent of this thread I'm surprised that no one has pointed out that cars are more dangerous than guns.  At least in terms of sheer numbers of people killed each year in the US and probably most developed countries.  I think it has been around 50,000/year here for a long time.  Gun related deaths don't even reach 10% of that, and I'm pretty sure nudie pics don't kill anyone.  Guns and nudie pics also don't pollute nearly as much either.

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## sentientd

I'm 24 and very new to Ubuntu. My husband deployed overseas a while  ago and suddenly I decided that I wanted to be able to use Ubuntu. We installed it right before he left, but then I had some video driver issues. 

I've gotten a lot of help here and this is really fun!

I don't usually like landscape wallpapers at all or animal pictures (well not for my desktop). I've always been really picky about my wallpaper. I want the theme to match and to make everything seem as cohesive and polished as possible.

Most of the time I wind up with something artistic. I'm a comic book geek... I'm really picky about my anime... blah blah blah. I just try to look for something thats different and really nice looking. I usually wind up with some of the more artistic anime style art.

Of course there was that one time I found the photoshop of the ceramic maneki neko shooting laser beams from its eyes and ravaging a city... I wish I could find THAT pic again!!! ^_^

Anyways,

I think a beautification project is a neat idea!

I wish I knew how to create and distribute themes. I love to customize my desktop. It fills some semi-artistic void in me..

I have the hardest time ever finding a theme that I really like! And sometimes the previews look nice but the turn out to be not so great. 

Well here's my desktop... I'm going for a "dreaming" sort of theme and I finally got all my animations set up to support the ethereal whimsical sentiment. 

Sorry for the mess. "Do Not Want" Panda was visiting today.

Next I need to learn to further customize AWN.



Yup... thats it.

I tried to post two pics, one with some of the effects, but I think I'm only allowed to insert one per post.

And since it came up... I'd just like to add that despite being female... I really really REALLY enjoy getting to shoot big guns!  :Twisted Evil:  

...So you'd better watch out!  j/k! lol  :Tongue:

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## de_valentin

My wife had a great wallpaper on her XP, it was some sort of movie picture, of two people standing in front of each other holding hands in the middle of a road, and there was a lot of text/characters (japanese, chinese who knows) in the picture it could be a poem but it might just as well have been credits or some cheesy bit. It's probably for the best that we don't know. 

And me, I mostly have a vacation photo as a wallpaper, but I did have my wife in a sexy pose once but I couldn't get any work done and I was allways afraid my/her parents would come by and see it so I took it of.

as far as guns and cars go nah

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## jal4568

Another female user here....I'll admit I don't care for the default Ubuntu wallpaper very much but there's so many locations to get great art from that it bugged me for all of about 0.5 seconds. It certainly didn't turn me off the OS. I never really noticed anything about Ubuntu that put me off "from a womans perspective" but I'm an engineer so I'm kind of used to just dealing with a male-dominated settings.  

As for my typical desktop, here's a link to some screenshots. I tend to favor minimalist colors, patterns, art, landscapes both real & fantastical and occasionally something humorous. While I have fannish pictures saved on my computer, I don't really like them as wallpapers. Especially hot guys, I find them too (ahem) distracting. 

Also, I'd never considered it before and this may horrify some but I could really go for a gun-themed desktop. However, I'm a quite stereotypical Texan and a somewhat atypical woman in that regard. *goes to search gun weblogs for pictures* 

Some really interesting discussion here.....

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## spai

I just have TUX wallpapers. But my sisters always tend to have Filmstars, Scenery or Pinky stuff

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## wade32505

I'm a 54 year old guy and I tend to have beautiful women as the background on my computers at home. Then again, they tend to be the theme of the artwork around the house also. Love art.com. 

Generally, the ladies at work have photos of their kids.

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## hvac3901

> Of course there was that one time I found the photoshop of the ceramic maneki neko shooting laser beams from its eyes and ravaging a city... I wish I could find THAT pic again!!! ^_^


Anything like this?

http://customize.org/wallpapers/17437

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## LamsterBunny

deleted

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## forest.r

I (male) prefer trippy or techy looking wallpapers, though sexy women are pretty good to. Cars and guns are not my thing.

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## Megrimn

I (female) have always had a "Sonic" themed desktop, though the blue blur himself has never been on it.  Thank goodness I finally _have_ my own computer, so my sister can't change it.

I personally think that this


> *Are about*


 would make a great guy's desktop.

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## Swagman

> 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.


Back in the 70's when I lived there  (Forrestfield, WA) it was..

Bruce and Arlene

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