Yesterday I received an email from 360desktop announcing their long awaited beta release. I fired up my download manager and downloaded the small file.

In case you are wondering what 360desktop is?

More room for everything you like to do
360desktop transforms your desktop into a panoramic workspace - with more space for everything. Slide around your new workspace quickly and easily between all your open applications, windows and widgets - it’ll spin you out.

Easily make desktop widgets from your favorite parts of the web
See something that you like online? You can now clip it and put it right on the desktop: any part of any webpage or grab your favorite web widgets, RSS feeds, games, videos - whatever you like - it’s totally up to you!

An endless selection of stunning 360-degree wallpaper
Bring your desktop to life, with an endless selection of stunning 360-degree wallpaper. Incredible web enabled 360s, that can be inspiring, entertaining , branded, useful or just plain fun - whatever your interest, work or play.

And what’s coming next …

Create your own interactive 360s
Think of the desktop as an “interactive canvas”. Create simple 360s from your favorite images, photos, or online albums such as Flickr, or transform the desktop into a multimedia mash-up, with web content integrated into the photo background.

Share your creations and favorite 360s everywhere
Share your favorite 360s and your own creations with your friends. Publish any 360 as a web widget that you can embed within MySpace, Facebook and your other blogs and social networks.

At first, I was very excited as I have been waiting for it for so long but once I tried it, I immediately wanted to uninstall it. Why? I had this impression from initial screenshots on the site that 360desktop would be about getting full 3d control over your desktop in which you could move the desktop in all directions smoothly with some cool effects. but it wasnt the case, all 360desktop does is that it pointlessly scrolls your desktop horizontally, moreover you cant even set your own wallpaper. In beta, we have only 2 wallpapers to choose from which kind of sucks in my opinion.

Verdict:
360desktop has disappointed me. It might be useful for those with small monitors who want more horizontal space but does an average Joe really need horizontal space in this age when widescreen monitors are so common? Plus the inability to customize the desktop with a wallpaper of our choice doesnt make it worth it.

Taimur Asad (Via Startup Meme)