A list of software and hardware that could (at least nominally) exist in our current socioeconomic reality, but somehow just don't.
"for fuck’s sake can our software carpenters finally insist that everyone should learn to use a god damn hammer"
- zzt at mas.to, about LLM users who casually reveal that they don't know how to use text editors
https://mas.to/@zzt/116810816016522694
I'm not really a programmer: but ever since I started dabbling in ZDoom modding I've staunchly believed that every computer user should know the basics of scripting and software development.
I think that a desktop environments that includes "view source code" and "open in disassembler"-buttons on every application window and launcher icon could be incredibly helpful to this end: if nothing else as a navigation aid.
This would clearly be most practical on systems where most of the applications are written in interpreted languages, but could easily be brought to systems where compiling software from source is a first-class feature (i.e Gentoo, Guix, BSD).
"you can only have an interest in finding out if the resources are there, to tell you that there's something to find out"
- munin at infosec exchange, in the thread that put me on track to writing this article
https://infosec.exchange/@munin/116771889195720188
A command line shell with a context menu where you can find and paste every available command or application, featuring icons and descriptions for all of them.
Not sure if this should be implemented by the terminal emulator or the shell itself.
This would make the command line tools more discoverable, bringing the terminal to par with the searchable program launchers that bascially every respectable desktop environment ships with.
tusharhero at mathstodon.xyz mentioned Shell Mode from Emacs, a feature that I still haven't looked into (I currently use Featherpad as my text editor).
Considering that the Pentium M was the first laptop CPU to become kinda popular as a desktop/Home Theatre PC chip and released at the dawn of the mini-ITX formfactor, I’m surprised that the DIY PC industry didn’t make components for DIY laptops.
Would’ve spared us the reign of Framework’s flaky expensive tat and MNT's NLnet-financed luxury laptops (no offense to Lucie Hartmann but if I were taking public money in exchange for making a better laptop I'd make something more affordable, even if it was just a new case for some thin client).
It'd also be interesting if someone designed a smartphone or 7 inch tablet that used a SATA/mSATA SSD as its primary form of storage.
These drives seem to be a fair bit cheaper and more reliable than high-speed high-capacity SD cards, so I can see certain types of indie filmmakers absolutely falling in love with them.
If it had a physical keyboard that can be swapped for a gamepad it’d probably be the greatest phone of all time.
As for mobile operating systems: I think Firefox OS could've found a niche foothold if it was aimed at people who wish to make their own websites or develop programs on the move, and was geared towards phones with physical keyboards (or tablets, for that matter).
A desktop or laptop version could be interesting for people who like the idea of running the same OS on all of their devices: even if sticking with the decision to exclusively support HTML5 apps would still have hampered it’s adoption.
It'd be neat to have a source-based package manager for Windoze and MacOS: to promote the advantages of building software from source.
(this one probably already exists in some form)
It'd be interesting to have a clone of Itch.io that only serves FOSS videogames, as a way of encouraging indie developers to care about moddability.
On that note, I also think it'd be incredible if more FOSS videogames shipped level editors.
It's kinda perverse that Trackmania (a series where the first four games shipped with the notorious StarForce DRM) is more liberal in this regard than the freely-licensed SuperTuxKart (whose perspective is more "just use Blender lol")
Windows people have had GUI programs for making customized, automated/unattended install media since the XP days: yet Linux still has whole distributions that are just Debian, Arch or Fedora with cushier defaults and the Gentoo distro is still commonly percieved as "the neckbeard one where you install everything by hand" because it doesn't ship any kind of installation wizard (not even on the GUI images).
I'd gladly take a Linux equivalent: even if it only built ISOs around oddball distros like Buildroot, Yocto or TinyCore.
(moved this section to it's own page, because it's a real project being worked on and not a fantasy)
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email:
moses_izumi[at]disroot[dot]org