BumpTop βeta

Interesting article in Lifehacker this morning in the featured desktop category. Gina Trapani writes about BumpTop, a desktop interface replacement for Windows. It looks cool. I haven't tried it for two reasons: first, it's a closed beta; second, I haven't had time yet!

What are the basics? Well, it looks like it takes the desktop paradigm a step beyond where Microsoft has taken it. It's a 3D style desktop with the ability to stack icons in "Tidy Stacks" and "Untidy Stacks". Sort of like my real desk. However, it doesn't look like it uses my standard organization technique; the old stuff is on the bottom and the new stuff is on the top.

Seriously, this doesn't make sense to me for a desktop. It does, however, make sense to me as a filing system. You don't really do long-term storage on your desktop, but you do in your filing cabinet. I try to keep the number of icons on my desktop to a minimum (although, there is a LOAD of stuff on top of my real, physical desk, both at home and at work). I'm not saying BumpTop doesn't have some cool features; it does. Grouping, stacking, organizing, pinning things to the wall, etc. I like the paradigm, but I don't see any utility as a desktop, as I said.

If you're interested in BumpTop, check out their website, and you can follow them on Twitter.