Free GUI: Application "Ecosystem"

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The aforementioned application "ecosystem" is the most moving-est of the moving targets in this ideation of Free GUI. It is kind of a blind list of disconnected wants that likely overlap with each other, and are very hard to express in words (as UX design already is, let alone when it's a venture into new territory.)

The point is to hone in on the purpose that these ideas intend to collectively accomplish - a beating heart that ties them together to make them jive and click to produce something special. A killer whale is big, but a beached whale is too big and too slow, not to mention pretty morbid boys.

Free GUI: Window Manager Capabilities

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This post here mentioned some things about a window position API. This post is about describing some more API specifics and window manager capabilities.

I make a low key distinction between "capabilities" and "features" here, because capabilities could emerge into various custom features, or they could be prevented from becoming available to a use-case or workflow. It would all depend on any given system's configuration and scripting.

Free GUI: Containerized Apps (Plus Segues)

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A desktop and application menu should be able to recognize and handle designations of containerized GUI applications to maintain a UX that makes sense with their usage context and priority.

Containers in this context might be used for handling favored application versions, or alternating versioning, or handling applications with multiple different configurations. This might also be useful in a development context. It might apply to making something like Docker or Podman more convenient on the desktop

Free GUI: Browser Engine

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Free GUI needs a browser engine that can work with a system-wide customizable toolbar system, and whatever other system-wide features that get incorporated into the application ecosystem infrastructure. (spoken with a mockingly nerdy lisp while pushing your over-sized glasses back up your nose.)

More on Free GUI

Some additional random thoughts and ideas around Free GUI.

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Staying Grounded on Free GUI

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Best way to sum up grounding my last post is that it is a lot more hyperbole than I usually engage in on this blog. Still, I am very tempted to continue and to go full-on hard-sell and branding with this idea.

Free GUI is a reference to an idea for a new way of doing GUI for an OS desktop environment, as well as an application ecosystem. It is a series of standards, and an implementation of a user-facing GUI toolkit - as opposed to a graphical toolkit like GTK, Iced, or QT.

It is such an intense idea that by comparison to other desktops, it is emotionally closer to the idea of something like the RedoxOS project, although RedoxOS is an OS. The comparison is that it is a long term project that probably does not get truly seen for a proportionally long period across the time span of its development. This is different than a project like Hyprland has been for instance, where many people are using it early on, while it is still being very actively developed and changed.

(As a sidenote, RedoxOS is just about to get seen a lot more, if/when it gets general Linux VM support.)

For GUI to Be Free for Non-Developers

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(Non-Developers AND Developers)

There is no great way to get UX right in a concise way. (It is possible to do better yes) Also very relevant is that really good UX requires too much specific attention, and then it gets locked in every time you think you have it just perfect. 

• Good UX is expensive and difficult in the short term and confining in the longterm.
• Good UX typically requires strange means of gathering user data
• After the fact, there're too few or too many biased deciders to go through for UX changes.
• improvements are not objective. Too many people that will be heartbroken, even if the UX wasn't well thought out in the first place. Misguided familiarity even with flaws. Results in group choice paralysis
• disconnected purposes of software influence what constitutes good design without examination

Thus, if you want to get a single, concise UX, you will be handicapping Linux.

UX for Linux does not only bare the typical problem of pleasing all people, all the time. It caries an additional challenge of there being more options of what to do on Linux, given its very many purposes and user types, and a desired propensity towards freedom and options. Thus, if you want to get a single, concise UX, you are effectively handicapping Linux.

The solution is for there to be at least one or two options (For a DE, and compatible Toolkit) that are about being more-or-less Windows replacements, but then to have a new advanced toolkit for a DE and application ecosystem that is built on the idea of applications that share a common method for making customizations to the UX, small and large. (Obviously still compatible with old application ecosystems.)

Yet Another Next Level Desktop Environment

Various thoughts on a desktop environment concept.

More on Next-Level Desktop Environment

Various thoughts on a desktop environment concept.

Next-Level Desktop Environment

Various thoughts on a desktop environment concept.

Distro 2: ASCII Curses Panelling GUI

Old DOS applications went through a phase of having amazing ascii GUIs and games. Somehow Linux seemed to skip that, straight from server cli to desktop environment.

Why not create a native ascii keyboard-only paneled environment similar to i3 in operation?

• Mod4 can be used for switching panels.
• Ctrl and Alt can be used for switching application functions and menus.
• VIM controls can be used for other operations.
• Panel Arrangement saves on exit

It will be blazing fast and be usable on server systems.  

Box Drawing Characters


This is a replacement for the kernel console

Distro 2: The GUI has a GUI-Component Construction Kit

The Settings and Features Problem:

The OS can only facilitate so many options and settings

     ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ              possible function availability

So they select a lot they think will be used by most people

      W Q U P R X M H T A Z S K              standard function availability

But users inevitably want a whole different set at their fingertips

    E       C      T      I       Z       J                     preferred functions