[Russell Dawkins]

I have been reading a thread on the DAW MAC forum about this.

It seems there are nothing but opinions being offered, some saying that the desktop itself is nothing but a folder and it doesn't make any difference to the speed of operations. My knowledgeable Mac tech seems to differ, though, and feels a totally empty desktop is to be desired.

Any facts-based information on this?

[msteindler]

Here's the take on clutter from the people at Smalldog. In my experience, some of the most knowledgeable Mac techs around.

http://blog.smalldog.com/article/396/easy-maintenance-clear-that-desktop

[planet10]

The Small Dog article is right. TO add a bit...

Every icon on the desktop creates a new instance of the Window Manager*. Each one eats up RAM and at least a few clocks everytime the OS cycles thru the open processes thus slowing down your Mac 2 different ways.

*(ie from SD: this is because Desktop images are treated like dynamic windows, rather than static images.)

dave