I noticed a comment by Torque that he did not use icons on his desktop. I don't either, was wondering if this is popular with all of you desktop fanatics. My sister says it actually takes away from whether or not a picture is actually a good desktop background.

I use icons in the bar (kde kicker for me).

whether you use a bar (windows) or a dock (mac) or icons you are always going to have something intruding on your image unless you use the clumsy auto hide bar/dock functions so i guess you just have to live with it and not worry too much about aesthetically challenging your desktop as it is, afterall, just a bit of decoration and not an integral part of how your machine works. In Mac OSX you can create far more intricate icons with transparency effects and resolutions of up to about 128 x 128 so you can have icons that compliment or even add to the overall effect of your desktop.

I use Mac OSX as well and for me it's a matter of how much rearranging etc. I want to do to accomodate an image. I do like to have what I use most on my desktop for easy retrieval so when I mention on an image that it's workable. I speak only for my personal preference and that usually means that at least the outside of the image leaves me space for folders and menu bar and the center makes a nice focal point. Again, that's only for me but can make the personal difference whether an image I've voted highly on ends up in my favorites or not. It seemed when I first began posting that many were commenting about needing icon space on the left. When I asked about it on the discussion board, the end result was near everyone chose differently and I was back to square one and just decided to create without those concerns. My highest rated image is not "workable" for me. lol. So, good luck! ;)

I like to use icons.... loads of them. It justs makes life so much easier. I don't clutter my desktop with them, but I have at most 3 rows.

I like images to have some icon space, but once in a while, I hide my icons for a bit of change, and to enjoy some spectaculare wallpapers.

kde kicker is cool, but looking at a linux desktop makes me feel like I have work to do :p

I agree with crusader, but I don't have 3 rows.

Agree , i have 3 rows to.

I use the desktop for the images and projects I am working on so I don't have to hunt them down in the documents folder, and so I don't forget about them. I don't keep any shortcuts on the desktop, I have the Dock on OS X for those {with the autohide on}.
My desktop can end up with as many as 30 files on it sometimes when I am using several applications to make an image and/or have several projects going on. But when I am finished with them, I store them in my documents folder and eventually get my desktop empty again except for my disk icons.