Scott Jenson — How the (Linux) Desktop UX Needs to Evolve to Keep Up with Local-First

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IOLRcFC6OY

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Can someone please provide a TL;DW? Much appreciated!

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I had to watch it it because the other summary made it sound so bad to me.

The author is offering some ideas about how make the desktop be more helpful to your working memory.

It gives various ideas:

  • Organizing wide screens in a sort of perspective plane zoom.
  • Having a sort of note manager combining clipboard and windows.
  • Having a history of apps used, weighting the importance of the window by some actions and time spent so that it can be presented back to you to remember what you where doing.
  • Some of these have potential to be integrated with AI although it was not the main idea.
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Having a sort of note manager combining clipboard and windows.

Looking Glass WM had this way back in 06-07. You could flip a window over and write notes about it on the back. It’s a shame it never took off, but that’s what it gets for being written in Java, I guess.

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That’s such a neat idea

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Yeah there were a lot of cool ideas in that WM that were way ahead of their time. The keynote from 2006 goes over most of them. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXv8VlpoK_g

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Thanks! Much appreciated 🙂!

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From notegpt:

The speaker shares early prototype ideas to illustrate possibilities:

  • Ultra-wide Monitor Window Management:
    • Reduce cursor travel by repositioning menu bars closer to workspaces.
    • Add a background pattern causing a perspective warp, improving visual ergonomics.
    • Blend temporary window overview (Exposé) with persistent window management.
    • Enable windows to be parked off to the sides and dynamically resized or reformatted (small interactive buttons).
    • Reduce reliance on virtual desktops for moderately organized multitasking.
  • Clipboard-as-File Cache:
    • Convert clipboard history into an editable, persistent file cache associated with documents.
    • Enables dragging text snippets or web content to a “side panel” for later retrieval, improving work-in-progress management.
    • Combines features of clipboard managers, file managers, and window management.
  • Local AI Context Integration:
    • Leverage local document context (similar to Claude Code’s AI using file systems) to group and suggest actions on related content (e.g., mapping multiple hotel references).
    • This creates a playground for local AI to assist without ignoring desktop UX.
  • Privacy-Conscious Telemetry:
    • Collect weak signals (time on page, scrolling, clipboard events) to identify important browser history items without invasive data collection.
    • Compress and visualize history as an interactive timeline summarizing user activity flow, aiding memory and navigation.

These prototypes emphasize user control, privacy, and organic integration, avoiding high-complexity or opaque AI.`

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Got around to watching the video. It’s not something that can be easily summarized as everything he’s talking about is very visual and needs to be seen to be understood.

Got a lot of niri vibes when he was talking about the desktop stuff.

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Enables dragging text snippets or web content to a “side panel” for later retrieval, improving work-in-progress management.

I’ve been hoping this could be a thing for a long time

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Copyq you can have screenshots and text etc in searchable clipboard. If you dont have a searchable clipboard you’re missing out.

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Comments in Linux@lemmy.ml

Niri

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Niri + QuickShell (e.g. DMS) is already better than what you can get on Windows and Mac. Manual window dragging should die off already (GNOME and KDE; looking at y’all. Linux needs to leave it behind too)

Even tools like PaperWM.spoon can only mimic a fraction of the grace of Niri (no offense to the PaperWM.spoon team; macOS is holding them back)

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