I’m minimal, but not at the expense of convenience.
Background: One of my own photos. On Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/robwilkerson/3262922251/in/set-72157606398523695/.
The icons on the desktop are those that I need some immediate visbility into or reminder of. They’re actionable in the very short term. Normally, there are none, but I have a couple of things going on today. I also display mounted drives so that I don’t forget to unmount them. Don’t laugh. It happens.
The dock is hidden, but contains only one application - Google Quick Search Box. That’s the only one I can’t launch from Google Quick Search Box (obviously) and need another convenient means of access to. I also keep an Applications stack so that apps are easy to install even if the disk image doesn’t provide its own alias.
The menu bar contains only those items that I use or monitor regularly. Dropbox, Adium (I like knowing my own status at a glance), Gmail Notifier, smcFanControl (even the new MBPs get pretty hot), VPN status, iStatMenus memory monitor, sound (sometimes I don’t have to hands to hit Fn+F11/F12), airport and the date. I never use Spotlight, but removing that icon is more trouble than its worth so I haven’t bothered.
(Submitted by robwilkerson)
