Various thoughts on a desktop environment concept.
While apps can still exist, there would be a new tool layer that would sort of bypass the application paradigm altogether.
These tools would be standardized into a cross-platform format, while different desktop environments would be about helping the user select the right set and arrangement of tools for any given task.
Instead of developing entire applications, developers would focus most of their effort around improving or designing better tools for specific tasks.
A desktop environment could use tight graphical drilldown stage menus as well as search options, and even AI, to narrow in on what types of tools are needed for a given task. Much of this work is done by selecting a file or a stream that has a type. Its type narrows the possible actions that can be performed on it.
