no real innovation has happened on the Linux desktop in 5-10 years.
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no real innovation has happened on the Linux desktop in 5-10 years. the only changes have been to backend stuff that effectively works the same (sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse) while everything you, the user, see is basically the same as it was 5 years ago.
a few more things work now, but mostly just because of *fixing* stuff; i don't class things like proton as generic Desktop Innovation because you could already run that game on windows. i mean people trying to change the way we use computers, to make them smarter and faster to use.
things like nepomuk from the kde 4 days, that were trying to make your entire desktop be structured and interoperable, with central data stores that would work with everything and enable new connections between your stuff, and make it all searchable, in real-time
freedesktop were working on Zeitgeist, which let you provide data to a local activity logging daemon which could then provide insights into your frequent tasks to make all your applications come together in knowing what you're working on, when. they also had telepathy, which was a standard API that all your messaging apps could have transports for, then display all of your data in one frontend that you could choose
gnome were helping with telepathy and Zeitgeist, but also making Conduit, an application that could have dedicated sync routines for every device you connect; a music CD could automatically get ripped and uploaded to a server; a camera could automatically have its files imported, deleted, and put into a queue for you to review. gvfs, one of the most magical-feeling parts of gnome, was started in 2018
kio, kde's similar universal filesystem thing that makes it capable of incredibly slick workflows like just dragging flac files out of a "mounted" music CD and having them transcode in real time, came out nearly fully-formed in kde 4
i should be clear, none of this is to discount the incredible amount of work people have put in with recent years; the Wayland transition is really, really big and *does* make my touch devices infinitely better to use, battery life better, and has brought a lot of extremely coherent integration. gnome, despite the shit i give them, have made the only competitor to even come close to macos' design and functionality cohesion. kde is faster, has made those under-the-hood technical changes work to make an actual impact to applications functioning well. but i can't think of anything these projects have done that is ambitious *and creative*. if you know of any, let me know though!
the point here isn't to say things are bad because... they aren't. Linux on the desktop is the best that it's been Ever. but i think people should look beyond the current paradigm for ways to make and build it better. if nothing else, it's always fun to dream. -
no real innovation has happened on the Linux desktop in 5-10 years. the only changes have been to backend stuff that effectively works the same (sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse) while everything you, the user, see is basically the same as it was 5 years ago.
a few more things work now, but mostly just because of *fixing* stuff; i don't class things like proton as generic Desktop Innovation because you could already run that game on windows. i mean people trying to change the way we use computers, to make them smarter and faster to use.
things like nepomuk from the kde 4 days, that were trying to make your entire desktop be structured and interoperable, with central data stores that would work with everything and enable new connections between your stuff, and make it all searchable, in real-time
freedesktop were working on Zeitgeist, which let you provide data to a local activity logging daemon which could then provide insights into your frequent tasks to make all your applications come together in knowing what you're working on, when. they also had telepathy, which was a standard API that all your messaging apps could have transports for, then display all of your data in one frontend that you could choose
gnome were helping with telepathy and Zeitgeist, but also making Conduit, an application that could have dedicated sync routines for every device you connect; a music CD could automatically get ripped and uploaded to a server; a camera could automatically have its files imported, deleted, and put into a queue for you to review. gvfs, one of the most magical-feeling parts of gnome, was started in 2018
kio, kde's similar universal filesystem thing that makes it capable of incredibly slick workflows like just dragging flac files out of a "mounted" music CD and having them transcode in real time, came out nearly fully-formed in kde 4
i should be clear, none of this is to discount the incredible amount of work people have put in with recent years; the Wayland transition is really, really big and *does* make my touch devices infinitely better to use, battery life better, and has brought a lot of extremely coherent integration. gnome, despite the shit i give them, have made the only competitor to even come close to macos' design and functionality cohesion. kde is faster, has made those under-the-hood technical changes work to make an actual impact to applications functioning well. but i can't think of anything these projects have done that is ambitious *and creative*. if you know of any, let me know though!
the point here isn't to say things are bad because... they aren't. Linux on the desktop is the best that it's been Ever. but i think people should look beyond the current paradigm for ways to make and build it better. if nothing else, it's always fun to dream.a lot of ideas fucking sucked and did not work but i will take that over nobody trying to do anything new
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no real innovation has happened on the Linux desktop in 5-10 years. the only changes have been to backend stuff that effectively works the same (sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse) while everything you, the user, see is basically the same as it was 5 years ago.
a few more things work now, but mostly just because of *fixing* stuff; i don't class things like proton as generic Desktop Innovation because you could already run that game on windows. i mean people trying to change the way we use computers, to make them smarter and faster to use.
things like nepomuk from the kde 4 days, that were trying to make your entire desktop be structured and interoperable, with central data stores that would work with everything and enable new connections between your stuff, and make it all searchable, in real-time
freedesktop were working on Zeitgeist, which let you provide data to a local activity logging daemon which could then provide insights into your frequent tasks to make all your applications come together in knowing what you're working on, when. they also had telepathy, which was a standard API that all your messaging apps could have transports for, then display all of your data in one frontend that you could choose
gnome were helping with telepathy and Zeitgeist, but also making Conduit, an application that could have dedicated sync routines for every device you connect; a music CD could automatically get ripped and uploaded to a server; a camera could automatically have its files imported, deleted, and put into a queue for you to review. gvfs, one of the most magical-feeling parts of gnome, was started in 2018
kio, kde's similar universal filesystem thing that makes it capable of incredibly slick workflows like just dragging flac files out of a "mounted" music CD and having them transcode in real time, came out nearly fully-formed in kde 4
i should be clear, none of this is to discount the incredible amount of work people have put in with recent years; the Wayland transition is really, really big and *does* make my touch devices infinitely better to use, battery life better, and has brought a lot of extremely coherent integration. gnome, despite the shit i give them, have made the only competitor to even come close to macos' design and functionality cohesion. kde is faster, has made those under-the-hood technical changes work to make an actual impact to applications functioning well. but i can't think of anything these projects have done that is ambitious *and creative*. if you know of any, let me know though!
the point here isn't to say things are bad because... they aren't. Linux on the desktop is the best that it's been Ever. but i think people should look beyond the current paradigm for ways to make and build it better. if nothing else, it's always fun to dream.bluesky cross poster turned this into a 12-part thread lmfao
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no real innovation has happened on the Linux desktop in 5-10 years. the only changes have been to backend stuff that effectively works the same (sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse) while everything you, the user, see is basically the same as it was 5 years ago.
a few more things work now, but mostly just because of *fixing* stuff; i don't class things like proton as generic Desktop Innovation because you could already run that game on windows. i mean people trying to change the way we use computers, to make them smarter and faster to use.
things like nepomuk from the kde 4 days, that were trying to make your entire desktop be structured and interoperable, with central data stores that would work with everything and enable new connections between your stuff, and make it all searchable, in real-time
freedesktop were working on Zeitgeist, which let you provide data to a local activity logging daemon which could then provide insights into your frequent tasks to make all your applications come together in knowing what you're working on, when. they also had telepathy, which was a standard API that all your messaging apps could have transports for, then display all of your data in one frontend that you could choose
gnome were helping with telepathy and Zeitgeist, but also making Conduit, an application that could have dedicated sync routines for every device you connect; a music CD could automatically get ripped and uploaded to a server; a camera could automatically have its files imported, deleted, and put into a queue for you to review. gvfs, one of the most magical-feeling parts of gnome, was started in 2018
kio, kde's similar universal filesystem thing that makes it capable of incredibly slick workflows like just dragging flac files out of a "mounted" music CD and having them transcode in real time, came out nearly fully-formed in kde 4
i should be clear, none of this is to discount the incredible amount of work people have put in with recent years; the Wayland transition is really, really big and *does* make my touch devices infinitely better to use, battery life better, and has brought a lot of extremely coherent integration. gnome, despite the shit i give them, have made the only competitor to even come close to macos' design and functionality cohesion. kde is faster, has made those under-the-hood technical changes work to make an actual impact to applications functioning well. but i can't think of anything these projects have done that is ambitious *and creative*. if you know of any, let me know though!
the point here isn't to say things are bad because... they aren't. Linux on the desktop is the best that it's been Ever. but i think people should look beyond the current paradigm for ways to make and build it better. if nothing else, it's always fun to dream.@doskel tbf I think we needed this big slump of no innovations so that we can get that work done
but I think desktop GNU/Linux is basically perfect now, and now we can get to the fun stuff
though i fear flatpaks and wayland might make it a bit tricky tbh, it seems very much designed to emulate android -
no real innovation has happened on the Linux desktop in 5-10 years. the only changes have been to backend stuff that effectively works the same (sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse) while everything you, the user, see is basically the same as it was 5 years ago.
a few more things work now, but mostly just because of *fixing* stuff; i don't class things like proton as generic Desktop Innovation because you could already run that game on windows. i mean people trying to change the way we use computers, to make them smarter and faster to use.
things like nepomuk from the kde 4 days, that were trying to make your entire desktop be structured and interoperable, with central data stores that would work with everything and enable new connections between your stuff, and make it all searchable, in real-time
freedesktop were working on Zeitgeist, which let you provide data to a local activity logging daemon which could then provide insights into your frequent tasks to make all your applications come together in knowing what you're working on, when. they also had telepathy, which was a standard API that all your messaging apps could have transports for, then display all of your data in one frontend that you could choose
gnome were helping with telepathy and Zeitgeist, but also making Conduit, an application that could have dedicated sync routines for every device you connect; a music CD could automatically get ripped and uploaded to a server; a camera could automatically have its files imported, deleted, and put into a queue for you to review. gvfs, one of the most magical-feeling parts of gnome, was started in 2018
kio, kde's similar universal filesystem thing that makes it capable of incredibly slick workflows like just dragging flac files out of a "mounted" music CD and having them transcode in real time, came out nearly fully-formed in kde 4
i should be clear, none of this is to discount the incredible amount of work people have put in with recent years; the Wayland transition is really, really big and *does* make my touch devices infinitely better to use, battery life better, and has brought a lot of extremely coherent integration. gnome, despite the shit i give them, have made the only competitor to even come close to macos' design and functionality cohesion. kde is faster, has made those under-the-hood technical changes work to make an actual impact to applications functioning well. but i can't think of anything these projects have done that is ambitious *and creative*. if you know of any, let me know though!
the point here isn't to say things are bad because... they aren't. Linux on the desktop is the best that it's been Ever. but i think people should look beyond the current paradigm for ways to make and build it better. if nothing else, it's always fun to dream.@doskel well, the only thing a desktop environment has to do is managing windows, starting programs and maybe have a clock in a corner. Gnome is doing that extremely well. Much better than MacOS. I don't know why they are always compared. MacOS is stupid. But if you search for innovation, maybe don't look at the 2 giants, but all the smaller, more experimental DEs. Hyperland is doing things differently, even though it's also already big.
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@xerz this is pretty neat, albeit it still doesn't have the wild creativity and optimism i see in older desktop tech
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no real innovation has happened on the Linux desktop in 5-10 years. the only changes have been to backend stuff that effectively works the same (sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse) while everything you, the user, see is basically the same as it was 5 years ago.
a few more things work now, but mostly just because of *fixing* stuff; i don't class things like proton as generic Desktop Innovation because you could already run that game on windows. i mean people trying to change the way we use computers, to make them smarter and faster to use.
things like nepomuk from the kde 4 days, that were trying to make your entire desktop be structured and interoperable, with central data stores that would work with everything and enable new connections between your stuff, and make it all searchable, in real-time
freedesktop were working on Zeitgeist, which let you provide data to a local activity logging daemon which could then provide insights into your frequent tasks to make all your applications come together in knowing what you're working on, when. they also had telepathy, which was a standard API that all your messaging apps could have transports for, then display all of your data in one frontend that you could choose
gnome were helping with telepathy and Zeitgeist, but also making Conduit, an application that could have dedicated sync routines for every device you connect; a music CD could automatically get ripped and uploaded to a server; a camera could automatically have its files imported, deleted, and put into a queue for you to review. gvfs, one of the most magical-feeling parts of gnome, was started in 2018
kio, kde's similar universal filesystem thing that makes it capable of incredibly slick workflows like just dragging flac files out of a "mounted" music CD and having them transcode in real time, came out nearly fully-formed in kde 4
i should be clear, none of this is to discount the incredible amount of work people have put in with recent years; the Wayland transition is really, really big and *does* make my touch devices infinitely better to use, battery life better, and has brought a lot of extremely coherent integration. gnome, despite the shit i give them, have made the only competitor to even come close to macos' design and functionality cohesion. kde is faster, has made those under-the-hood technical changes work to make an actual impact to applications functioning well. but i can't think of anything these projects have done that is ambitious *and creative*. if you know of any, let me know though!
the point here isn't to say things are bad because... they aren't. Linux on the desktop is the best that it's been Ever. but i think people should look beyond the current paradigm for ways to make and build it better. if nothing else, it's always fun to dream.linux desktop peaked with xsnow and no ""innovation"" will come close
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no real innovation has happened on the Linux desktop in 5-10 years. the only changes have been to backend stuff that effectively works the same (sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse) while everything you, the user, see is basically the same as it was 5 years ago.
a few more things work now, but mostly just because of *fixing* stuff; i don't class things like proton as generic Desktop Innovation because you could already run that game on windows. i mean people trying to change the way we use computers, to make them smarter and faster to use.
things like nepomuk from the kde 4 days, that were trying to make your entire desktop be structured and interoperable, with central data stores that would work with everything and enable new connections between your stuff, and make it all searchable, in real-time
freedesktop were working on Zeitgeist, which let you provide data to a local activity logging daemon which could then provide insights into your frequent tasks to make all your applications come together in knowing what you're working on, when. they also had telepathy, which was a standard API that all your messaging apps could have transports for, then display all of your data in one frontend that you could choose
gnome were helping with telepathy and Zeitgeist, but also making Conduit, an application that could have dedicated sync routines for every device you connect; a music CD could automatically get ripped and uploaded to a server; a camera could automatically have its files imported, deleted, and put into a queue for you to review. gvfs, one of the most magical-feeling parts of gnome, was started in 2018
kio, kde's similar universal filesystem thing that makes it capable of incredibly slick workflows like just dragging flac files out of a "mounted" music CD and having them transcode in real time, came out nearly fully-formed in kde 4
i should be clear, none of this is to discount the incredible amount of work people have put in with recent years; the Wayland transition is really, really big and *does* make my touch devices infinitely better to use, battery life better, and has brought a lot of extremely coherent integration. gnome, despite the shit i give them, have made the only competitor to even come close to macos' design and functionality cohesion. kde is faster, has made those under-the-hood technical changes work to make an actual impact to applications functioning well. but i can't think of anything these projects have done that is ambitious *and creative*. if you know of any, let me know though!
the point here isn't to say things are bad because... they aren't. Linux on the desktop is the best that it's been Ever. but i think people should look beyond the current paradigm for ways to make and build it better. if nothing else, it's always fun to dream.@doskel honestly i'd argue that this has largely applied to the desktop in general
windows 10 and 11 really don't seem too different outside of some design tweaks and things being moved around a bit, and macOS seemingly hasn't changed all too much since it was renamed from OS X; the only "major" difference i can see is the addition of their respective genAI features, as controversial as they are
the only one i know of really doing anything too different is haiku, but that's just because it's a revival of an unconventional desktop system that was abandoned decades ago
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@doskel honestly i'd argue that this has largely applied to the desktop in general
windows 10 and 11 really don't seem too different outside of some design tweaks and things being moved around a bit, and macOS seemingly hasn't changed all too much since it was renamed from OS X; the only "major" difference i can see is the addition of their respective genAI features, as controversial as they are
the only one i know of really doing anything too different is haiku, but that's just because it's a revival of an unconventional desktop system that was abandoned decades ago
@doskel probably worth linking this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fZTOjd_bOQ
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no real innovation has happened on the Linux desktop in 5-10 years. the only changes have been to backend stuff that effectively works the same (sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse) while everything you, the user, see is basically the same as it was 5 years ago.
a few more things work now, but mostly just because of *fixing* stuff; i don't class things like proton as generic Desktop Innovation because you could already run that game on windows. i mean people trying to change the way we use computers, to make them smarter and faster to use.
things like nepomuk from the kde 4 days, that were trying to make your entire desktop be structured and interoperable, with central data stores that would work with everything and enable new connections between your stuff, and make it all searchable, in real-time
freedesktop were working on Zeitgeist, which let you provide data to a local activity logging daemon which could then provide insights into your frequent tasks to make all your applications come together in knowing what you're working on, when. they also had telepathy, which was a standard API that all your messaging apps could have transports for, then display all of your data in one frontend that you could choose
gnome were helping with telepathy and Zeitgeist, but also making Conduit, an application that could have dedicated sync routines for every device you connect; a music CD could automatically get ripped and uploaded to a server; a camera could automatically have its files imported, deleted, and put into a queue for you to review. gvfs, one of the most magical-feeling parts of gnome, was started in 2018
kio, kde's similar universal filesystem thing that makes it capable of incredibly slick workflows like just dragging flac files out of a "mounted" music CD and having them transcode in real time, came out nearly fully-formed in kde 4
i should be clear, none of this is to discount the incredible amount of work people have put in with recent years; the Wayland transition is really, really big and *does* make my touch devices infinitely better to use, battery life better, and has brought a lot of extremely coherent integration. gnome, despite the shit i give them, have made the only competitor to even come close to macos' design and functionality cohesion. kde is faster, has made those under-the-hood technical changes work to make an actual impact to applications functioning well. but i can't think of anything these projects have done that is ambitious *and creative*. if you know of any, let me know though!
the point here isn't to say things are bad because... they aren't. Linux on the desktop is the best that it's been Ever. but i think people should look beyond the current paradigm for ways to make and build it better. if nothing else, it's always fun to dream.@doskel um i had some whimsical/nice ideas for ui stuff. i'll probably never do them because i don't actually have the relevant expertise but yeah.
- a desktop designed for media centers as a nice replacement for smart tvs.
- pop launcher but better
- file manager with fun folder customization features
- guided setup program that starts with the settings you need to be comfortable during the installation, then offers either manual setup or a questionnaire setup where it guesses what you want based on your answers to a few questions
will elaborate if asked but i am assuming nobody cares.
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no real innovation has happened on the Linux desktop in 5-10 years. the only changes have been to backend stuff that effectively works the same (sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse) while everything you, the user, see is basically the same as it was 5 years ago.
a few more things work now, but mostly just because of *fixing* stuff; i don't class things like proton as generic Desktop Innovation because you could already run that game on windows. i mean people trying to change the way we use computers, to make them smarter and faster to use.
things like nepomuk from the kde 4 days, that were trying to make your entire desktop be structured and interoperable, with central data stores that would work with everything and enable new connections between your stuff, and make it all searchable, in real-time
freedesktop were working on Zeitgeist, which let you provide data to a local activity logging daemon which could then provide insights into your frequent tasks to make all your applications come together in knowing what you're working on, when. they also had telepathy, which was a standard API that all your messaging apps could have transports for, then display all of your data in one frontend that you could choose
gnome were helping with telepathy and Zeitgeist, but also making Conduit, an application that could have dedicated sync routines for every device you connect; a music CD could automatically get ripped and uploaded to a server; a camera could automatically have its files imported, deleted, and put into a queue for you to review. gvfs, one of the most magical-feeling parts of gnome, was started in 2018
kio, kde's similar universal filesystem thing that makes it capable of incredibly slick workflows like just dragging flac files out of a "mounted" music CD and having them transcode in real time, came out nearly fully-formed in kde 4
i should be clear, none of this is to discount the incredible amount of work people have put in with recent years; the Wayland transition is really, really big and *does* make my touch devices infinitely better to use, battery life better, and has brought a lot of extremely coherent integration. gnome, despite the shit i give them, have made the only competitor to even come close to macos' design and functionality cohesion. kde is faster, has made those under-the-hood technical changes work to make an actual impact to applications functioning well. but i can't think of anything these projects have done that is ambitious *and creative*. if you know of any, let me know though!
the point here isn't to say things are bad because... they aren't. Linux on the desktop is the best that it's been Ever. but i think people should look beyond the current paradigm for ways to make and build it better. if nothing else, it's always fun to dream.@doskel they need to bring beOS tabbed windows back, even if CSD makes it complicated
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no real innovation has happened on the Linux desktop in 5-10 years. the only changes have been to backend stuff that effectively works the same (sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse) while everything you, the user, see is basically the same as it was 5 years ago.
a few more things work now, but mostly just because of *fixing* stuff; i don't class things like proton as generic Desktop Innovation because you could already run that game on windows. i mean people trying to change the way we use computers, to make them smarter and faster to use.
things like nepomuk from the kde 4 days, that were trying to make your entire desktop be structured and interoperable, with central data stores that would work with everything and enable new connections between your stuff, and make it all searchable, in real-time
freedesktop were working on Zeitgeist, which let you provide data to a local activity logging daemon which could then provide insights into your frequent tasks to make all your applications come together in knowing what you're working on, when. they also had telepathy, which was a standard API that all your messaging apps could have transports for, then display all of your data in one frontend that you could choose
gnome were helping with telepathy and Zeitgeist, but also making Conduit, an application that could have dedicated sync routines for every device you connect; a music CD could automatically get ripped and uploaded to a server; a camera could automatically have its files imported, deleted, and put into a queue for you to review. gvfs, one of the most magical-feeling parts of gnome, was started in 2018
kio, kde's similar universal filesystem thing that makes it capable of incredibly slick workflows like just dragging flac files out of a "mounted" music CD and having them transcode in real time, came out nearly fully-formed in kde 4
i should be clear, none of this is to discount the incredible amount of work people have put in with recent years; the Wayland transition is really, really big and *does* make my touch devices infinitely better to use, battery life better, and has brought a lot of extremely coherent integration. gnome, despite the shit i give them, have made the only competitor to even come close to macos' design and functionality cohesion. kde is faster, has made those under-the-hood technical changes work to make an actual impact to applications functioning well. but i can't think of anything these projects have done that is ambitious *and creative*. if you know of any, let me know though!
the point here isn't to say things are bad because... they aren't. Linux on the desktop is the best that it's been Ever. but i think people should look beyond the current paradigm for ways to make and build it better. if nothing else, it's always fun to dream.@doskel how about this for ambitious https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/draft-code-submitted-to-kde-plasma-turns-it-into-a-full-vr-desktop/
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