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Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

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Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#201
post #199
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you need to address your petition to app developers. The OSes are not the source of the problem.

That's not completely true. MacOS has started this process where all apps are checked for safety prior to launching. It makes app launch seem slow, which feels like an app problem.

This, plus the thermal throttling in MacOS makes my same Mac hardware run noticeably slower than it does under the windows partition.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't necessarily mean "learn to code" in such explicit manner with my original comment. More like learn technology itself and some strong basics of how everything works so people would be more equipped to grok this new world we're living in. To get a driver's license you need some basic knowledge of car internals. I'd argue that computers are infinitely more important in our society than a car yet majority of peo…

I'm a software engineer and even I struggle to understand how some of the applications I use work. This month I had to figure out why my laptop's monitor brightness keys randomly stop doing anything and it led into a rabbit hole of systemd, udev, ACPI, the intel xorg driver and other unpleasant things. Next month I might run into a sound issue and I'll have to dig deep into completely different areas like pulseaudio…

Don't worry, we are already putting computers into our cars, so the things will only improve from there. /s

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#203
post #199
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you need to address your petition to app developers. The OSes are not the source of the problem.

That's not completely true. MacOS has started this process where all apps are checked for safety prior to launching. It makes app launch seem slow, which feels like an app problem.

And yet everybody applauded the mac ad when they mocked Windows UAC. Apple are such hypocrites

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#204

The next desktop OS, I hope, will be a real, physical desk. I'd like a computer that doesn't have a glowing screen and a tortured simulation of a space that doesn't exist. Instead I would prefer that I could simply write on a sheet of paper under a calm lamp and move to the white board when I feel like it. I could use my voice if I needed to or gestures as my abilities allow. The computer is there but you can't see i…

Now this is interesting. I would love to see a working demo of the screenless office in action.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#206
post #118

In my workflow all I need is a good window manager. The one on MacOS is not good even with extra apps (Rectangle). There is too much degree of freedom in moving a window pixel by pixel. I want it to automatically lay out the windows. The other problem is a lot of things open are Chrome tabs nested within a Chrome window. I wish there were no tabs and the OS window manager would automatically surface the right tabs an…

I just need Apple to get out of the 80s and add an "always on top" option to their windows. Something so simple and useful and OSX just cant handle it.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Real question: Do we continue to dumb down software to exclusive casual usage for house-moms or we try to move our society to be more techn savy as we are clearly moving to a more tech relying world. Why shouldn't everyone know how to code? Why shouldn't everyone churn their own butter? Why shouldn't everyone sew their own clothes? Why shouldn't everyone build our own homes? Should we continue to dumb down feeding,…

While the parent is a bit extreme in his views that "everyone should know how to code" (which is rubbish to be honest, everyone should know how to go about general problem-solving, but not how to code), the underlying problem is a different one and has nothing to do with "gate-keeping", instead that "one-size-fits-all" doesn't work. For some reason, UIs are now designed towards an "average user", but as the airforce…

> everyone should know how to go about general problem-solving, but not how to code

General problem-solving ability seems like a synonym for fluid intelligence, which is not very malleable. Learning to code, on the other hand, is possible with effort. I learned to program in the 4th grade, with videos and books I myself bought, without having internet access. (I could use dial-up if I really needed it, but it was expensive and slow, so I used it very sparingly; I don't remember how much, but around 5 hours per month seems an upper bound.) I had no support whatsoever from anyone (except that my dad paid for the books and videos), my mom only let me use my computer for like 3 hours a week (shared between gaming and doing anything else), my computer was old and slow, ... . Now, I sure have a high IQ, but I doubt that we couldn't have 20% of the urban population reach some basic computer literacy when they are 24 years old. Heck, calculus is known by more people than coding. Most non-poor people waste 16+ years of their life in K12 and undergrad, and learn very few useful skills. Imagine what would happen if we taught people a curriculum that did something other than pure signalling.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the explanations. I realise that the spatial file manager is missing these days, but I prefer the navigation file manager. Whenever I use BeOS I find the plethora of open windows for each directory unnavigable. You can get Finder to open each item in a new window and hide the sidebar to make it spatial-like, although I am not sure if there is a method of making "open in new window" the default. I think the…

What I'm saying is, you don't need the permissions at all . From the user's perspective, everything is 777. If you happen to have the edge case where more than one user is using a personal computer, and there is a desire to keep things safe from each other, then you should use encryption for this since it actually works. File permissions are easily bypassed with local access and a boot disk. As I recall, Pottering is…

Oh no Pottering at work again! That's what finally drove me from Linux - PulseAudio and having dysfunctional stuttery sound after upgrading from Fedora 7 to 8 I think?? It worked fine beforehand. And then realising I was spending forever tinkering rather than actually getting anything done.

After I went to Mac I didn't look back. Now I look at the mess and debate of SysV, DHCP server in the startup etc. and can only imagine that this home system concept will be the same. As you say, over-engineered and unreadable. Ugh.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have an iPad Pro that’s useless for software development without SSHing into a machine. And even that is a horrible experience because the iPad keyboard doesn’t allow key repeat, making vim a terrible experience. That used to be an issue anyway. Maybe they’ve fixed it.

And no escape key! How do you get out of VIM insert mode? Control-[? Might as well use Emacs. At least there's an Option key for Meta.

You can rebind some keys on the iPad allowing for the relatively common “rebind Caps Lock to Escape”. That’s how I have mine set up.

Re: Re-Thinking the Desktop OS

#210

Honestly I think a lot of ideas about where to go with Desktop OSs these days are just complexity fetishist slashfiction. I don't think we need new complicated paradigms, instead we should take a look at our history of what worked and what didn't and build based a simple combination of good ideas we already have. My opinion, short version, hastily written, and incomplete: 1) Applications are self-contained objects th…

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