Stop Being Broken

Desktop Wallpaper

Thursday, 17th January 2008

Show

Explaining the odd misnomer “desktop wallpaper” and suggesting a change for the future.

Desktop Wallpaper: Do you agree with the solution? (If not, please leave a comment)

• Yes
• No

View Results

 Loading ...

• 

Tags: computer, desktop, metaphor, mural, picture, tile, wallpaper

9 Comments to “Desktop Wallpaper”

1. Kraemer says:

   17 January 2008 at 9:38 pm

   Indeed. Very interesting for techno-philologists like myself. I hope you’ve got a backlog of content to cover. This is going to be fun.

   Off to change my desktop picture now.

   Reply
2. Jared says:

   18 January 2008 at 9:28 am

   I’ve always preferred Apple’s term, “desktop background.” Pretty much the same thing.

   Reply
3. BMF says:

   18 January 2008 at 9:52 am

   Fantastic concept for a show!

   I heartily disagree with renaming desktop wallpaper to desktop picture. While yes it makes total sense, the name has already been decided and used for a decade. You don’t change a standard for the sake of change. Renaming the desktop wallpaper to desktop picture serves no grander purpose than to change up the lingo. Do the people out there that don’t understand what Desktop Wallpaper out number the people that do?

   Please keep publishing this show. It is an awesome idea and I look forward to viewing future episodes.

   Reply
4. Leia says:

   18 January 2008 at 10:30 am

   I’m with Jared. I like “desktop background”.

   Reply
5. Keith says:

   21 January 2008 at 4:39 pm

   Cool idea for a site, and I enjoyed the snarky comments, like about tiling my bathroom and listening to the wireless.

   This show made me think about how the airlines renamed the “cockpit” to the “flight deck.”

   Reply
6. Chris says:

   23 January 2008 at 9:20 am

   I concur, total misnomer. For your next segment you should survey the number of people that actually contain gloves in their “glove box”. I suspect very few.

   Perhaps we should rename “glove box” to “storage compartment”.

   Not a sermon, just a thought.

   Reply
7. Mareegirl says:

   1 February 2008 at 6:30 pm

   I want to contribute something witty and clever, but I keep deleting everything I come up with. Maybe it’s because I haven’t slept in four days. I’m okay with giving up “wallpaper.” Maybe I’ll do it for Lent. Oh, there you go.

   Reply
8. c says:

   30 April 2008 at 6:15 pm

   It really is just Windows people who speak of wallpaper. Back in the day, Mac users had Desktop Patterns, before they became Desktop Backgrounds. Only Microsoft would think it meet to so mangle a metaphor as to put wallpaper on top of a desk surface.

   Reply
9. Nivi says:

   4 June 2008 at 9:44 am

   i like calling radios wirelesses
   also: THE WHOLE OF COMPUTING IS BASED ON BAD METAPHORS
   files, folders, the desktop, the recycle bin, etc.
   a lot of programs are named after real-world equivalents as well
   even the word computer is a metaphor

   Reply