9 ms·

TheDesk desktop environment

131 points by smartmic 2y ago

drivingmenuts 2y ago
What differentiates this from other desktop environments?
- BirAdam 2y ago
  From what I saw in their video, there’s a top bar that on mouse-over expands and becomes a virtual desktop switcher with an arbitrary number of virtual desktops. Otherwise it appears to be a somewhat standard floating window setup. I didn’t see a menu, but my guess is that there is one or there’s some sort of rofi/dmenu work-alike or that it makes use of one of those.
  - Gualdrapo 2y ago
    Kinda made me dizzy - animating the whole panel with all that stuff (clock, etc) can't be any good for accessibility, but no easy task to do a whole DE regardless.
    - vundercind 2y ago
      Oh man, you’re not kidding, watching those gifs made me reflexively long for the “reduce motion” settings toggle.
      - BirAdam 2y ago
        I really don’t like to put down the creative work of others, but yeah. The motion stuff made me realize just how great UIs like Win95 and early Mac System were. I love creativity and experimentation, but I dislike lots of motion, lots of animation, and especially stuff that moves under my cursor without me moving it.
- rajishx 2y ago
  It's a new one? I guess you are not the target audience of this Windows manager if you are not willing to give it a try and explore the features and the experience before rationalizing it's usefulness
  - bruce511 2y ago
    While I'm sure -I'm- not the target market for a new Windows manager, it really is helpful to understand up front why a project exists. Sometimes it's a different feature set. Sometimes it's the same (or reduced) feature set or an emphasis on performance. Sometimes it's the side effect of using a new language. Sometimes it's just an exercise in learning. While these things are all completely valid (and more besides) the underlying reason is usually helpful when deciding if I am "willing to give it a try". Context matters, and it's helpful to understand if the developer's context is compatible with my context.
  - lelanthran 2y ago
    > It's a new one? I guess you are not the target audience of this Windows manager if you are not willing to give it a try and explore the features and the experience before rationalizing it's usefulness To add some perspective, I am the target audience for a new Window Manager, but I'm still gonna need a goal or mission statement before I try it out. No need to be fancy, just use one of the following stock phrases: For people who like eye candy... A clutter-free, spartan environment Smart(er) tiling/stacking/workspace management Lean and fast Big with tons of value-added features Highly customisable "It Just Works(tm)" A (simpler|more complex) alternative to (Gnome|Plasma|Windowmaker|Xfce)[1] A (new|old|ancient) way to manage workflows Designed for (programmer|designer|gamer|salesman) productivity After all, creating a minimal Window Manager is about 2kLoC (in C). Someone who went to the effort to write maybe 20kLoC a) Ain't stupid or incompetent in the least and b) Must have had a good reason for doing so! Telling the world that reason can only help - the majority of us support new projects, we don't diss them for no reason (for that, we go to reddit :-)) [1] Yes, I know that some of those are desktop environments and some are window managers. No, I don't want to argue about the difference.
    - 2y ago
- smartmic 2y ago
  Found more about it here: https://vicr123.com/projects/thedesk/ https://vicr123.com/projects/thedesk/
pipeline_peak 2y ago
Don’t Linux people realize there are a limited number of people to work on these things in their spare time for free?
- elcritch 2y ago
  Perhaps the folks working on the project in what is presumably their spare time for free do know this?
  - bitwize 2y ago
    The idea is that it's irresponsible to diffuse the limited amount of effort by launching your own desktop environment project rather than contributing your talents to one of KDE or GNOME. I don't ever see myself using this DE, but the fact that it seems to be one guy's labor of love kind of makes me happy.
    - DiggyJohnson 2y ago
      But presumably they aren’t interested in working on a part of a larger project that they have less creative and admin control over. This is a huge deal and precisely the answer to your question.
      - pipeline_peak 2y ago
        Something in the scale of a modern DE could become decrepit, outdated, and difficult to use real quick without major support. There’s more DE’s than I could shake a stick at and like 5 of them are usable for a an average user.
        rad_gruchalski 2y ago
        Well, like it’s just your opinion, man… Opinions are like asses, everyone has their own.
        DiggyJohnson 2y ago
aprilnya 2y ago
Anyone else remember seeing this on OSFT years ago? Kinda nostalgic
kkfx 2y ago
Not to be polemic but... Another floating windows manager ? It's about time to came back to free tiling (like Emacs/EXWM where there is no rigid "tiling model"), since we no not need to keep moving windows, we do not need icons covered by any windows, overlapping windows and so on. Most of the time we work on a single maximized application, otherwise we have some windows side-by-side to see both and so on. Use case for floating tend to be zero. Similar use case for most launchers and menus tend to be zero, most of the UIs have choose search&narrow over time, from "dashes" to Android preference passing though desktop quick-launchers witch are in the end a specialized CLI. The widget model, the floating windows model is failed and proved to be even if too many still use it. The DocUIs are the past (SUNWs anyone? Postscript UIs?) and the present and the foreseeable future... The DE as a tool proved to be next to useless, we use applications and need integration non desktop prove to been able to offer beyond very basic cut&paste and some protocols supported only by few apps and essentially irrelevant.
- oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
  > Most of the time we work on a single maximized application, otherwise we have some windows side-by-side to see both and so on. Use case for floating tend to be zero. Try telling [John Siracusa](https://atp.fm/96 https://atp.fm/96) that. Seriously, I'm with you, but I think there's a significant set of users who are not.
  - kkfx 2y ago
    Well, I'm listening it now (so far no anti-tiling, so I can't directly answer for now) but I can share my personal journey, as nearly all I've started with floating windows, at a certain point in time I've realize that's not a nice thing, there was a path: - first, no more icons - then a quick launcher - most of the time living in a CLI - then a first test of tiling with i3 used just in mere tab-mode and I've felt the sense of being a bit lost for a moment BUT after anything seems smooth enough - finally the enlightenment switching to Emacs/EXWM I've experienced a similar path when I ditch my decades-old hyper-curated home taxonomy to org-attaching all my files accessing them via org-mode, org-roam managed, notes. I've hesitate MUCH, I've tried for very long time with limited set of low importance files and so on. Evolution is scaring when it's a kind of revolution and you know it's not a game, it can be painful as well, but it's the reason we are not in caves anymore, so it's a thing humanity have embraced. Not all, of course, I bet a very small minority, but that minority is the one who steer the evolution, others follow. Long story short if we advertise our findings, the reasons behind a specific move, and a little bit at a time we spread the idea, things will happen. Even if today many say we are at the end of the history the history never end. Those who think the contrary can talk about themselves, meaning they count not to change themselves, and generally are wrong even at that, we do change, we like it or not anyway...
vouaobrasil 2y ago
Awesome. I've not tried this one. I've tried almost all the other ones though like Gnome, XFCE, Plasma, Fluxbox, the one that doesn't use a mouse much, Unity, FWVM/Crystal, and a bunch more that I can't even remember. Have to admit that even though I liked XFCE the best from the Linux world, I still like MacOS the best because it is the most stable, the most consistent, and has almost no bugs, even if it has less features. Microsoft is too ugly to use at all.
greggsy 2y ago
As someone who reads and writes documents all day, I just want a desktop that helps me visualise a stack of messy pages, books and things like calculators or clocks on a desktop. Doesn’t need to be VR, a top-down view would do. There have been a few cheap looking, janky and slow demos in the ‘oughts and late 90’s, but I’m confident that personal computing is able to do this without significant performance loss, and it’s not such a massive leap from tiled window managers today. I firmly believe that our current way of managing and interacting with information could benefit from an extra dimension: ragged corners, thickness, persistent placement on a desk, and other attributes that make a paper object much easier to identify, locate and differentiate in real life, compared to a bunch of documents named something something.pdf/docx
- postmodest 2y ago
  That model of visual-memory-centered skeumorphism died in the 90's. Because for a majority of people, they get no benefit from persistent visual placement of content, or visual differentiation of documents, and can't cope with the "desktop" in REAL life, much less the metaphor that was "every desktop UX between the Mother of All Demoes and the death of even trying that was the iPhone" now people interact with the world through vertically siloed apps which all have different management models for content, and make it easier to charge you feudal rent on what would otherwise be your own possessions. And what especially galls me is that if you suggest this "skeumorphic" model to OSS devs, they act like you're crazy. Even if it's something simple like "the Indigo Magic Desktop's scalable line art icons that had animated states". Suggesting visual interfaces seems to grossly offend people who develop software.
  - underlipton 2y ago
    >Because for a majority of people, they get no benefit from persistent visual placement of content, or visual differentiation of documents You say that, but I don't think it's true. (I think you even argue against it later in the comment but I'm not sure??)
    - m463 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

131 points by smartmic 2y ago

drivingmenuts 2y ago

What differentiates this from other desktop environments?

BirAdam 2y ago
From what I saw in their video, there’s a top bar that on mouse-over expands and becomes a virtual desktop switcher with an arbitrary number of virtual desktops. Otherwise it appears to be a somewhat standard floating window setup. I didn’t see a menu, but my guess is that there is one or there’s some sort of rofi/dmenu work-alike or that it makes use of one of those.
- Gualdrapo 2y ago
  Kinda made me dizzy - animating the whole panel with all that stuff (clock, etc) can't be any good for accessibility, but no easy task to do a whole DE regardless.
  - vundercind 2y ago
    Oh man, you’re not kidding, watching those gifs made me reflexively long for the “reduce motion” settings toggle.
    - BirAdam 2y ago
      I really don’t like to put down the creative work of others, but yeah. The motion stuff made me realize just how great UIs like Win95 and early Mac System were. I love creativity and experimentation, but I dislike lots of motion, lots of animation, and especially stuff that moves under my cursor without me moving it.
rajishx 2y ago
It's a new one? I guess you are not the target audience of this Windows manager if you are not willing to give it a try and explore the features and the experience before rationalizing it's usefulness
- bruce511 2y ago
  While I'm sure -I'm- not the target market for a new Windows manager, it really is helpful to understand up front why a project exists. Sometimes it's a different feature set. Sometimes it's the same (or reduced) feature set or an emphasis on performance. Sometimes it's the side effect of using a new language. Sometimes it's just an exercise in learning. While these things are all completely valid (and more besides) the underlying reason is usually helpful when deciding if I am "willing to give it a try". Context matters, and it's helpful to understand if the developer's context is compatible with my context.
- lelanthran 2y ago
  > It's a new one? I guess you are not the target audience of this Windows manager if you are not willing to give it a try and explore the features and the experience before rationalizing it's usefulness To add some perspective, I am the target audience for a new Window Manager, but I'm still gonna need a goal or mission statement before I try it out. No need to be fancy, just use one of the following stock phrases: For people who like eye candy... A clutter-free, spartan environment Smart(er) tiling/stacking/workspace management Lean and fast Big with tons of value-added features Highly customisable "It Just Works(tm)" A (simpler|more complex) alternative to (Gnome|Plasma|Windowmaker|Xfce)[1] A (new|old|ancient) way to manage workflows Designed for (programmer|designer|gamer|salesman) productivity After all, creating a minimal Window Manager is about 2kLoC (in C). Someone who went to the effort to write maybe 20kLoC a) Ain't stupid or incompetent in the least and b) Must have had a good reason for doing so! Telling the world that reason can only help - the majority of us support new projects, we don't diss them for no reason (for that, we go to reddit :-)) [1] Yes, I know that some of those are desktop environments and some are window managers. No, I don't want to argue about the difference.
  - 2y ago
smartmic 2y ago
Found more about it here: https://vicr123.com/projects/thedesk/ https://vicr123.com/projects/thedesk/

pipeline_peak 2y ago

Don’t Linux people realize there are a limited number of people to work on these things in their spare time for free?

elcritch 2y ago
Perhaps the folks working on the project in what is presumably their spare time for free do know this?
- bitwize 2y ago
  The idea is that it's irresponsible to diffuse the limited amount of effort by launching your own desktop environment project rather than contributing your talents to one of KDE or GNOME. I don't ever see myself using this DE, but the fact that it seems to be one guy's labor of love kind of makes me happy.
  - DiggyJohnson 2y ago
    But presumably they aren’t interested in working on a part of a larger project that they have less creative and admin control over. This is a huge deal and precisely the answer to your question.
    - pipeline_peak 2y ago
      Something in the scale of a modern DE could become decrepit, outdated, and difficult to use real quick without major support. There’s more DE’s than I could shake a stick at and like 5 of them are usable for a an average user.
      - rad_gruchalski 2y ago
        Well, like it’s just your opinion, man… Opinions are like asses, everyone has their own.
      - DiggyJohnson 2y ago

aprilnya 2y ago

Anyone else remember seeing this on OSFT years ago? Kinda nostalgic

kkfx 2y ago

Not to be polemic but... Another floating windows manager ? It's about time to came back to free tiling (like Emacs/EXWM where there is no rigid "tiling model"), since we no not need to keep moving windows, we do not need icons covered by any windows, overlapping windows and so on. Most of the time we work on a single maximized application, otherwise we have some windows side-by-side to see both and so on. Use case for floating tend to be zero. Similar use case for most launchers and menus tend to be zero, most of the UIs have choose search&narrow over time, from "dashes" to Android preference passing though desktop quick-launchers witch are in the end a specialized CLI. The widget model, the floating windows model is failed and proved to be even if too many still use it. The DocUIs are the past (SUNWs anyone? Postscript UIs?) and the present and the foreseeable future... The DE as a tool proved to be next to useless, we use applications and need integration non desktop prove to been able to offer beyond very basic cut&paste and some protocols supported only by few apps and essentially irrelevant.

oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
> Most of the time we work on a single maximized application, otherwise we have some windows side-by-side to see both and so on. Use case for floating tend to be zero. Try telling [John Siracusa](https://atp.fm/96 https://atp.fm/96) that. Seriously, I'm with you, but I think there's a significant set of users who are not.
- kkfx 2y ago
  Well, I'm listening it now (so far no anti-tiling, so I can't directly answer for now) but I can share my personal journey, as nearly all I've started with floating windows, at a certain point in time I've realize that's not a nice thing, there was a path: - first, no more icons - then a quick launcher - most of the time living in a CLI - then a first test of tiling with i3 used just in mere tab-mode and I've felt the sense of being a bit lost for a moment BUT after anything seems smooth enough - finally the enlightenment switching to Emacs/EXWM I've experienced a similar path when I ditch my decades-old hyper-curated home taxonomy to org-attaching all my files accessing them via org-mode, org-roam managed, notes. I've hesitate MUCH, I've tried for very long time with limited set of low importance files and so on. Evolution is scaring when it's a kind of revolution and you know it's not a game, it can be painful as well, but it's the reason we are not in caves anymore, so it's a thing humanity have embraced. Not all, of course, I bet a very small minority, but that minority is the one who steer the evolution, others follow. Long story short if we advertise our findings, the reasons behind a specific move, and a little bit at a time we spread the idea, things will happen. Even if today many say we are at the end of the history the history never end. Those who think the contrary can talk about themselves, meaning they count not to change themselves, and generally are wrong even at that, we do change, we like it or not anyway...

vouaobrasil 2y ago

Awesome. I've not tried this one. I've tried almost all the other ones though like Gnome, XFCE, Plasma, Fluxbox, the one that doesn't use a mouse much, Unity, FWVM/Crystal, and a bunch more that I can't even remember. Have to admit that even though I liked XFCE the best from the Linux world, I still like MacOS the best because it is the most stable, the most consistent, and has almost no bugs, even if it has less features. Microsoft is too ugly to use at all.

greggsy 2y ago

As someone who reads and writes documents all day, I just want a desktop that helps me visualise a stack of messy pages, books and things like calculators or clocks on a desktop. Doesn’t need to be VR, a top-down view would do. There have been a few cheap looking, janky and slow demos in the ‘oughts and late 90’s, but I’m confident that personal computing is able to do this without significant performance loss, and it’s not such a massive leap from tiled window managers today. I firmly believe that our current way of managing and interacting with information could benefit from an extra dimension: ragged corners, thickness, persistent placement on a desk, and other attributes that make a paper object much easier to identify, locate and differentiate in real life, compared to a bunch of documents named something something.pdf/docx

postmodest 2y ago
That model of visual-memory-centered skeumorphism died in the 90's. Because for a majority of people, they get no benefit from persistent visual placement of content, or visual differentiation of documents, and can't cope with the "desktop" in REAL life, much less the metaphor that was "every desktop UX between the Mother of All Demoes and the death of even trying that was the iPhone" now people interact with the world through vertically siloed apps which all have different management models for content, and make it easier to charge you feudal rent on what would otherwise be your own possessions. And what especially galls me is that if you suggest this "skeumorphic" model to OSS devs, they act like you're crazy. Even if it's something simple like "the Indigo Magic Desktop's scalable line art icons that had animated states". Suggesting visual interfaces seems to grossly offend people who develop software.
- underlipton 2y ago
  >Because for a majority of people, they get no benefit from persistent visual placement of content, or visual differentiation of documents You say that, but I don't think it's true. (I think you even argue against it later in the comment but I'm not sure??)
  - m463 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]