Shading windows is a very good way to clean up the desktop. 
There are some more ways but i like shading. Sadly no OS has
an implementation that makes shading very useful, that is 
all the shaded windows still overlap and you can not access 
a desired window directly without moving others away. The 
only exception i know is IRIX, where shaded windows collapse
to boxes that get stacked on the dektop. You also have the 
ability to configure the look of the collapsed windows and 
where an how they get stacked on the desktop.
This is what Ridge aims to be in Version 1.0. If you want to
help me realize this drop me a line.
