Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 271 posts

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#71

Post by ilaksh »

He asked about Desktop OS, but I actually spend say least half of my desktop time inside of the browser.

And the browser is its own OS in many ways.

I think that Portals are one of the interesting new developments in the web "operating system".

Personally I think the desktop is only going to be "cool" for another 5-10 years.

Because I think that the XR chip(s) are good enough now for very good augmented/mixed reality. We are waiting on some type of glasses that are closer to normal glasses, lighter weight than VR headsets. That do not cause eyestrain and just look almost like normal glasses.

But to get back to the web. Eventually we will see the web and desktop systems start to integrate and merge back together. As this happens there will be more interactions between desktop applications such as hyperlinks and embedding being more common.

You may also see very convenient but intrusive AI activity. Such as monitoring what's on the screen to give suggestions for applications or configuration or whatever else.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#72

Post by dognotdog »

no_wizard wrote: post #63

I e recently arrived at the conclusion that we need semantic interfaces (think semantic web). Where things are naturally cross referential and indexing is useful beyond clever search hacks. With so much of our day to day lives being digital it would be UI 2.0 to finally break this barrier. It struck me like a brick wall how I released that my interactions with the “machine” are incredibly isolated from one another an…

Those observations resonate with me. This does sound a lot like the now almost ancient dream of Prolog/Smalltalk where you'd have this much more semantic and malleable environment to work with and shape to the specific purpose it needs to fulfill, without any artificial barriers.

And I don't see why that semantic singularity couldn't be local (or at leat private), instead of the current hodge-podge of "cloud" offerings trying to siphon as much data as they can – under the guise of improving the user experience – just to lock you into their version of the perfect walled garden.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#73

Post by frenchy »

no_wizard wrote: post #63

I e recently arrived at the conclusion that we need semantic interfaces (think semantic web). Where things are naturally cross referential and indexing is useful beyond clever search hacks. With so much of our day to day lives being digital it would be UI 2.0 to finally break this barrier. It struck me like a brick wall how I released that my interactions with the “machine” are incredibly isolated from one another an…

While I think you're right in the sense of "semantic interfaces are our best hope for driving inovation", I'm not optimistic this will happen. Everything I've seen in popular desktop UX has been migrating away from even the slightest semblance of that for the past 10 years.

The problem is that semantics require coordination, and agreement on some semblance of a common language. Popular apps can just strong-arm others into making the clever hacks, which for them is far less effort than coordinating some sort of UI language.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#74

Post by mynameisvlad »

timdaub wrote: post #68

I think Desktop UI is great. What I dislike instead is my Android phone's UI. It's 100% proprietary, meaning I have little influence over some decisions. E.g., if I don't want to be disturbed on my PC, I just quit all messenger apps. On Android, but only since very recently, there's a DnD mode. I don't use it because I don't understand what it is doing + it has been burried somewhere as OS-level app. Then of course,…

Android has allowed you to individually turn off an application's notifications since Android 4.1 (https://www.digitaltrends.com/android/how-to-turn-off-notifi...). That's 8 years ago now.

Also pretty much every phone allows you to turn on DnD from the notification drawer.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#75

Post by linguae »

I am working on a side project where I am building a desktop environment for Linux and the BSDs that implements OpenDoc-style components using Common Lisp, where components are objects and where they could be combined not only by using code, but graphically as well. This is inspired by Smalltalk, Lisp machines, and OpenDoc. Another aspect of this desktop environment is its support for very flexible user interfaces that can be easily modified. This project is motivated by my frustrations with existing desktop environments (I lament the stagnation of macOS) and my desire to see something like a modern Lisp machine.

Below is a document that describes my ideas:

http://mmcthrow-musings.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-proposal-for-...

I'm still in the very early phases of this project; there's no code available, and I'm currently in the process of learning Wayland and graphics programming (I have a background in systems programming and I've been getting up to speed on graphics programming in order to carry out this project).

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#76

Post by saagarjha »

timdaub wrote: post #68

I think Desktop UI is great. What I dislike instead is my Android phone's UI. It's 100% proprietary, meaning I have little influence over some decisions. E.g., if I don't want to be disturbed on my PC, I just quit all messenger apps. On Android, but only since very recently, there's a DnD mode. I don't use it because I don't understand what it is doing + it has been burried somewhere as OS-level app. Then of course,…

Since it’s Android, I wonder if you could install something open source and more to your liking?

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#77

Post by saagarjha »

jayd16 wrote: post #66
mmackh wrote: post #62

I’ve had this thought for a while that the Desktop UI needs to be reinvented to fit the user in two main ways: - People Centric. Associate files, notes, alerts, calendar entries, emails, documents with your contacts or contact group. Chat using an open protocol. This is in stark contrast with the data silo approach we have going on now. - Project Based. Want to create a new app? Create a new project. All files associ…

I think the "hide the file browser" has had some pretty mixed results when attempted on mobile. File browsers and file extensions come in handy. For example, the zip/archive workflow. Does it make sense for all archives to live under the zip app? Does it make sense to have to share files to and from a zip app in different bespoke app level UI? If its OS UI how is it really any different than a file browser?

The mobile platforms seemed to have settled on “services” for this kind of thing. Take content from one app, apply a transformation on, put it in another.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#78

Post by saagarjha »

brnt wrote: post #70
usefulcat wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now mostly everything just works 'Mostly' is the key--and the problem. I've been using Elementary OS as a daily driver for at least a year, maybe two (and before that I used Mint for several years). For the most part (there's that pesky word again!), it works quite well. And it really is beautiful--aesthetically, I quite like it. But boy do I wish that bluetooth would work reliably. Since working at home full time,…

If you want it to just work, stay away from those cutting edge distros stick to Linux' Windows: Ubuntu LTS. Its boring, but like Windows, that's precisely why it works out of the box.

Elementary OS is based on Ubuntu LTS.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#79

Post by Cthulhu_ »

The desktop as it is right now is, imo, just fine - as in it's barely there. On Mac (work), I use cmd+space (Spotlight) to open apps, ctrl+` to open up a terminal dropdown, and maybe some Finder here and there. On Windows (leisure) I just use the windows key (open start menu, focuses on the search key) to open up things, and usually it's one of the game launchers (e.g. Steam).

The OSes are not in my way right now. If anything, I want app builders to move away from web technologies. Steam should be a native app. I suspect the main reason that we don't see more native apps is that the native UI toolkits are limited in their design options / freedom.

I wonder if there's work being done to compile web apps into something that improves performance. WASM is one step I guess, but that's only the 'executable' part of it; we need something similar for the DOM + styling. Or Electron / Chrome should do more aggressive (and persisted) optimizations.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#80

Post by jayp1418 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #79

The desktop as it is right now is, imo, just fine - as in it's barely there. On Mac (work), I use cmd+space (Spotlight) to open apps, ctrl+` to open up a terminal dropdown, and maybe some Finder here and there. On Windows (leisure) I just use the windows key (open start menu, focuses on the search key) to open up things, and usually it's one of the game launchers (e.g. Steam). The OSes are not in my way right now. If…

Check red language it offers native GUI app development, ada+gtk also provide cross platform app development support. There might be others but I am not sure.V language also offers n ative GUI apps
Post reply on HN