Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux

#171

Post by deskamess » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 6:28 PM UTC

Recursing wrote: post #11

shanewei wrote: post #3

What do you miss from the Desktop app that the CLI doesn’t cover? I’m mostly on Linux too and have just been using the CLI, so I’m curious.

1. Same experience as my non-Linux coworkers, so we can share learnings and processes 2. Scheduled tasks that run locally ( https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-rec... ) importantly different from Claude Code routines 3. Multiple projects/isolated memories in the same folder 4. Better UI

> Multiple projects/isolated memories in the same folder

I cannot stand this and do not know how to start a new project/session in a new folder. Even if I select a new folder in the UI when typing the first prompt of a new session, it keeps going back to the first folder I created. For this reason alone I am thinking of going to the CLI. But if anyone has any answers, I am all ears.

Re: Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux

#172

Post by majorbugger » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 6:29 PM UTC

Yeah nah it's yet another security risk. There was an article recently about Claude Code desktop installing some browser files, it wasn't a hole per-se but doesn't make the whole thing trustworthy.

Re: Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux

#173

Post by eggnet » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 6:29 PM UTC

mastax wrote: post #163

WD-42 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything that isn’t very simple? Like a llm chat interface? If zoom and Microsoft Teams of all people can do it, anthropic should be able to. Have you considered that maybe their code is just bad?

If all you want is a chat interface you can install Claude.ai as a PWA. The value proposition of the Claude desktop app includes being able to screenshot and interact with desktop app windows, the file system, etc. That drags you into desktop environment and compositor API hell.

I assume it would be chrome debug, and their chrome plugin, like it is on macos and windows. They could punt arbitrary app control easily enough.

Re: Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux

#174

Post by 9dev » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 6:31 PM UTC

nullpoint420 wrote: post #146

I'm still surprised at how many developers still turn their noses up at using Linux. Like... You already use Docker and deploy to K8S... On Linux...

I don’t really care about the OS. I want a beefy laptop with a good keyboard and trackpad, long battery life, and a crisp screen. Preferably very silent, bonus points for a clean design. That’s the value proposition of a MacBook.

Re: Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux

#175

Post by giancarlostoro » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 6:32 PM UTC

tokioyoyo wrote: post #149

nullpoint420 wrote: post #146

I'm still surprised at how many developers still turn their noses up at using Linux. Like... You already use Docker and deploy to K8S... On Linux...

That’s very much not the same thing though?

Docker was designed for Linux, and on Windows you have to run a VM just to let Docker function.

Re: Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux

#176

Post by aniviacat » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 6:36 PM UTC

jorvi wrote: post #159

WD-42 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of us are happy gnome doesn’t support tray icons. We are sick of devs thinking their app is so important it needs a visual presence at all times. If I need your app I’ll bring it to the foreground, we have the technology. Global shortcuts definitely a pain point with Wayland but the portals are making progress.

> A lot of us are happy gnome doesn’t support tray icons. A lot of us = very few people in total, apparently. There's a reason Dash to Dock and AppIndicator are packaged by default on most Gnome distros and overwhelmingly installed on those that don't have it. Even Gnome itself has started development on a native systray, although in classic Gnome NIH fashion they either want to implement a new standard or are were e…

> There's a reason Dash to Dock and AppIndicator are packaged by default on most Gnome distros

Back when I still had a need for it it was solely because some apps do not have proper support for missing tray icons (you can only fully close them via the tray icon), not because I actually like the feature.

I appreciate that GNOME tries to move on from this. Unfortunately it doesn't have the market control that Windows has, so not all app developers follow suit.

Re: Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux

#177

Post by preg_match » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #135

bigyabai wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do I bring your app to the foreground if I can't see an icon anywhere? On GNOME? Alt-tab, super overview, or click the dock icon. It's literally not any more complex than multitasking on an iPad.

[flagged]

[dead]

Re: Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux

#178

Post by amlib » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

hparadiz wrote: post #161

jorvi wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of us are happy gnome doesn’t support tray icons. A lot of us = very few people in total, apparently. There's a reason Dash to Dock and AppIndicator are packaged by default on most Gnome distros and overwhelmingly installed on those that don't have it. Even Gnome itself has started development on a native systray, although in classic Gnome NIH fashion they either want to implement a new standard or are were e…

The tray icon dock/panel in KDE is fully removable. You can just delete it. So the opposite of that is also a thing. No one is forcing you to always have a visual presence of a program. Even Windows let's you hide tray icons forever if you want.

But then you run into the problem of apps assuming the tray icon exists or is visible, but isn't, leading to problems such as the program just disappearing when you close it's window with no way to reopen it (some do reopen when you try re-executing it, others do nothing or just spawn a whole new instance...) or even having no access to some function that is exclusive to the tray icon menu.

All these issues can happen in any platform, Linux is just the more annoying/unpredictable one, with GNOME taking the cake for being so obtuse. There is either a carelessness from the developer or the ad-hoc nature of those "tray icon" systems is to blame.

Re: Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux

#179

Post by btown » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 6:42 PM UTC

I find Claude Desktop on macOS infinitely better at managing RAM when you have 10+ or more parallel sessions.

(Some for different aspects of full stack features, some for managing specific client situations advised by the codebase and its tools!)

The CLI is not designed to be lightweight, and it’s easy to get into situations where every CLI session consumes multiple GB of memory alone - stack them up and it’s a lot!

And not all terminal GUIs handle multiple tabs well enough to see all sessions at a glance.

So on top of the plugin features, desktop is a really useful thing to have!

Re: Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux

#180

Post by IncreasePosts » Sun, Jun 07, 2026, 6:44 PM UTC

btown wrote: post #179

I find Claude Desktop on macOS infinitely better at managing RAM when you have 10+ or more parallel sessions. (Some for different aspects of full stack features, some for managing specific client situations advised by the codebase and its tools!) The CLI is not designed to be lightweight, and it’s easy to get into situations where every CLI session consumes multiple GB of memory alone - stack them up and it’s a lot!…

What exactly is taking up so much space? Why does it need anything more than whatever the context is? Isn't it just sending text over an API?