WriterdeckOS

Theres a screenshot here: https://writerdeckos.com/#usage

My critique as a designer is that no typographic measure has been added (eg max-width), so it’s very hard to read.

I’d suggest to them that they make a column in the middle for the text that is around 40 characters wide and Lee text flow in that.

This is used by many text editions for their distraction free mode. It’d add more typographic ‘white space’ around the outside also, contributing to the calm and focussed intentions.

I like https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/ and have used it for years and years, you can configure the look and feel pretty extensively.

Lots of ways to skin that cat (especially if you are a linux user) but focuswriter does everything I need, very little I don't and there is a frame/mindset shift to using the same tool for a specific task.

> However, if I discover I need to look something up, a hard block on internet access would be a problem.

When I'm in "writing mode", I forbid myself from doing quick lookups, because I can almost never stick to the "quick" part of the process, and end up chasing rabbits. Instead, I just put something like (verify) or (research to confirm yay/nay) while writing, and move on to what I can do in the moment. Then much later do I go through with a "editor" mindset and address all those things in one go, rather than in the moment.

I guess kind of like picking work into a queue rather than doing it immediately, and leaving it hanging until I can work through the entire queue in one go.

The idea of a low-distraction laptop OS is a good one, but I'm not sure that this is necessarily the best approach.

If I mentally model such a thing myself, I end up with something that looks a lot like Classic (pre-OS-X) Mac OS. It's simplified and has just enough presence to properly host graphical applications. No taskbar, no notifications (or associated drawer), no self-populated launcher menu. File manager is spatial so it doesn't need a sidebar or navigation chrome. Multitasking is technically possible, but high-friction since the only way to switch between running apps is the little app switcher menu in the top right corner and becomes more cumbersome the more apps/windows you open. Included browser does not support tabs, only windows. Shortcuts to frequently used apps must be added intentionally (to your desktop as aliases/shortcuts or to the launcher menu).

This design strongly encourages singular focus without forcing it. If you want to have music playing in the background or need to open a browser window for research you can, but gravity is constantly pulling you back towards your task since the machine isn't pleasant to use for goofing off.

Some of these options would have been way cooler than Tilde; perhaps it could provide alternate options too?

https://terminaltrove.com/categories/text-editors/