A few weeks ago I discussed drawing tools and reviewed SmartDraw 2010 Professional. At the time I wrote that the only significant problems I had with SmartDraw were that it was fussy about where it allowed you to install it, and that to import Visio diagrams, Visio had to be installed. I awarded SmartDraw a rating of 4.5 out of 5 but I hereby reduce that to a rating of 4.

The reason for this is, as with so many products, it's not until you really beat them up that you start to find the warts. In SmartDraw's case the warts are a few bugs that you don't discover until you start making complex diagrams.

One of these bugs involved moving a large group of objects with the mouse, which crashed the application. The same thing occurred twice more and then I gave up and started a whole new drawing. It may have been some sort of error in the internal data representation, but this is behavior that simply shouldn't happen.

Another problem: when you're using the mouse to move an object that is connected by lines to other objects, sometimes the object is relocated and the lines stretched accordingly while other times the connected objects move as a group as if the line geometry were fixed. This is annoying and if there's some logic to this then it's not at all intuitive.

OK, so what else has annoyed me? Let see, where to start … how about a product called BumpTop?.

BumpTop is, at least technically, extremely clever; it turns your Windows or Mac desktop into a 3D space with physics. Let me explain: The default presentation of BumpTop makes your desktop look like you're peering into a box; that is, down at four walls and a floor.

By default there are a few icons in the scene; a couple of pictures on the walls along with a printer icon, and other icons for whatever documents you left on your desktop.

So, try grabbing an icon by mousing over and clicking and holding. Now drag and … throw! The icon skids across the floor, arcs into the "air" and, wap! It hits the wall and slides, in a very lifelike way, back down to the floor.

I could spend more time explaining the dynamics of this environment and just how slick and polished the graphics and physics are, but why? None of this is actually useful. Entertaining, yes -- useful, no.

What I find very strange is how many people and publications waxed ecstatic about BumpTop. Andy Hertzfeld, who was part of the original Apple Macintosh team, invested in BumpTop and claims it "allows users to leverage a lifetime's worth of intuition and experience with the real world to interacting with the simulated world behind the screen," while CrunchGear's John Biggs opined that BumpTop is "A Better Windows desktop" and VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi gushed "BumpTop gives Windows desktop a much-needed makeover."

Perhaps I'm missing something. Perhaps this is the kind of thing that consumers dream, nay, lust after but somehow I doubt it. It seems that the desktop reimagined is always a cartoon version of reality: Amusing but never a true replacement.

Of course, not only could I be wrong about the likes of BumpTop, but your mileage might also vary. So, tell me young Jedi, what are you looking for in a better desktop? What are your users looking for?

Gibbs seeks enlightenment in Ventura, Calif. Universal truths to gearhead@gibbs.com.