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On Desktop GUI Minimalism

mycophobia.org

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Re: On Desktop GUI Minimalism

#81

Post by Wowfunhappy »

> An application launcher menu would simply be a folder you open like any other, containing launchers. Open the folder, size and shape it how you want, put it in whatever view style you want, and stick it somewhere on your screen.

The author is not taking the metaphor far enough! He left out one of my favorite pieces of Mac OS.

The folder should not contain application launchers. It should contain the actual applications themselves. An application is just a file. To "install" an application, copy the file to a location on your hard drive. To "uninstall" an application, delete the file.

Under the hood, applications can be a collection of files, whatever, but the GUI should treat each application as one file.

Re: On Desktop GUI Minimalism

#82

Post by netdoll »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #81

> An application launcher menu would simply be a folder you open like any other, containing launchers. Open the folder, size and shape it how you want, put it in whatever view style you want, and stick it somewhere on your screen. The author is not taking the metaphor far enough! He left out one of my favorite pieces of Mac OS. The folder should not contain application launchers . It should contain the actual applica…

It's not mentioned in the article, but the author uses AppImages for GUI applications wherever and whenever he can. He's very well aware of this aspect of the classic Mac OS and seeks to emulate it as closely as possible.

Re: On Desktop GUI Minimalism

#83

Post by cjaybo »

bstar77 wrote: post #78
tomnipotent wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it also significantly increased my productivity But how? What were you doing that involved window placement or positioning that "makes you more productive"? I just don't see how these activities, in the context of doing day-to-day work, could shave off more than a few minutes a day. "Significantly" implies to me some double-digit percentage increase in the ability to accomplish tasks, and I just can't see how a win…

I have a Mac and a Linux box for work. I have been using my Macbook for some AI work I'm doing, but my workflow has been a mess. I had 4 desktops going, 2 projects opened w/debugging, many browser tabs opened to various docs, MS Teams, Outlook, etc. I don't even run Apple music anymore because it makes my laptop too hot. On my mac the desktops constantly change position for unknown reasons. Managing windows is a huge…

I know this isn’t the point of your post, but in case it helps your experience in MacOS:

1. You can change the setting so that workspaces do not change their position/order. See: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/214348/how-to-prev...

2. The third party app “alt-tab” provides an alt tab experience that is much better than the native one, and is likely more similar to the behavior you expect from Linux. See: https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app

I also personally like to use Rectangle for window positioning using keyboard shortcuts, tried the various auto tiling solutions like yabai and amethyst in the past but I think the flexibility of Rectangle is worth having to remember and use a few keyboard shortcuts.

I think it’s unfortunate that so many third party apps are required, but with a bit of babysitting MacOS can be pretty decent to work with.

Re: On Desktop GUI Minimalism

#84

Post by ssnepenthe »

bluepoint wrote: post #5

Cool insights in Desktop! I really hope that someone comes up with a desktop metaphor for the hundreds of open browser tabs (which I think are the new bookmarks) that hang open in an endless horizontal list. Imagine tabs which are like documents, can be moved around, minimized, and spatially organized in folders and subfolders. Actually, why does this not exist somehow?

It may not be exactly what you have in mind but there is an interesting extension along similar lines (mostly for chrome) called TabFS that mounts your open tabs as a filesystem...

https://omar.website/tabfs/

Re: On Desktop GUI Minimalism

#85

Post by unicornporn »

bluepoint wrote: post #8
somnic wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an extension for firefox called Tree Style Tabs. I never really got into it but some people are quite enthusiastic, pretty similar to what you describe though.

This sounds interesting. I will check it out.

Even better: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/

Re: On Desktop GUI Minimalism

#86

Post by bluepoint »

ssnepenthe wrote: post #84
bluepoint wrote: post #5

Cool insights in Desktop! I really hope that someone comes up with a desktop metaphor for the hundreds of open browser tabs (which I think are the new bookmarks) that hang open in an endless horizontal list. Imagine tabs which are like documents, can be moved around, minimized, and spatially organized in folders and subfolders. Actually, why does this not exist somehow?

It may not be exactly what you have in mind but there is an interesting extension along similar lines (mostly for chrome) called TabFS that mounts your open tabs as a filesystem... https://omar.website/tabfs/

That is impressive. I am wondering if it can be included in some desktop gui. Thanks for pointing it out.

Re: On Desktop GUI Minimalism

#87

Post by sillywalk »

netdoll wrote: post #23
Avshalom wrote: post #19

It's a shame that rox filer is functionally dead and the rox desktop ecosystem (small as it was) is even dead-er I think author would have enjoyed it.

ROX is one of those things which is great except for the ecosystem it tied itself to. I would love to see a Wayland rewrite one day, or something using the same concepts. Or really anything that isn't r/unixporn tile rice #9001

You can run RiscOS on a Raspberry Pi. It's what's rox is based on I believe.

RiscOS is quite nice to use, but it is .. limited. No wifi for instance. And the filesystem uses . (dots) for folder separators, so xfering files can be a pain.

Re: On Desktop GUI Minimalism

#88

Post by bstar77 »

cjaybo wrote: post #83
bstar77 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Mac and a Linux box for work. I have been using my Macbook for some AI work I'm doing, but my workflow has been a mess. I had 4 desktops going, 2 projects opened w/debugging, many browser tabs opened to various docs, MS Teams, Outlook, etc. I don't even run Apple music anymore because it makes my laptop too hot. On my mac the desktops constantly change position for unknown reasons. Managing windows is a huge…

I know this isn’t the point of your post, but in case it helps your experience in MacOS: 1. You can change the setting so that workspaces do not change their position/order. See: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/214348/how-to-prev... 2. The third party app “alt-tab” provides an alt tab experience that is much better than the native one, and is likely more similar to the behavior you expect from Linux. See: h…

Thanks, I will give them a look. I have yabai installed, but I really need this machine to be stable and secure and yabai is neither.

Re: On Desktop GUI Minimalism

#89

Post by foul »

mst wrote: post #74
hackeraccount wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember using some X11 windowmanager way back with desktop resolution higher then the the monitor. If you put the cursor on an edge it would scroll over. It was surprisingly nice but in retrospect a bit too mouse heavy. I've since gone over to tiling. Sway in particular.

My fvwm2 setup is like that (the config line "DeskTopSize 3x3" does the trick) plus keybindings to jump the cursor a half or a whole screen so I don't usually need to touch the mouse while navigating around (focus follows mouse is essential to this).

I was thinking about switching to Ian Jackson's wm of choice, vtwm [1], but the fact that fvwm has even that it's incredible.

FVWM is truly the living bible of window management.

[1] vtwm.org

Re: On Desktop GUI Minimalism

#90

Post by Woshiwuja »

nunodonato wrote: post #56
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been on a similar quest but my purpose was to eliminate distraction, and becoming more productive was just a side-effect. i3 (actually sway) helps me with focusing only at those windows that belong to a specific task, and often in full-screen. if I must use a GUI browser which has tabs and constant distraction then I can do so, but the context switch isn't "just mental" but I have to change over to another virta…

I more or less do the same, but using gnome and only one monitor. Most people criticize gnome without actually giving a chance to use it the way it was designed to be used. Coupled with the use of workspaces, it has significantly increased my focus (or rather, decreased my distractions)

the biggest problem for gnome are bloat and limited configuration compared to the alternatives
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