Microsoft Dreams of a Taskbar-less Utopia

Really intriguing stuff about interface design news we found by way of Usernomics: I Started Something is reporting that Microsoft was just issued a patent for a new taskbar-less interface for Windows. They’ve got the whole patent sheet laid out on the site for you, with explanations for each piece. It seems really unusual, using something called “clipping lists,” but we suppose that’s the way it would be with taking something so thoroughly engrained as a taskbar, in OS X, Windows, or otherwise, and approaching it in another direction.