a single fucking screenshot would go a long way to convincing me this is real. considering I lost an hour yesterday trying to use an open source library that turned out to be vibe coded non-functional slop, I have to ask for evidence that the project is real and functional be presented front and center

I like the idea of a distraction-free writing environment.

However, when I'm writing, I find I sometimes need to do research. I suppose for the best writing flow I should block time for research and time for pure writing. However, if I discover I need to look something up, a hard block on internet access would be a problem. Of course it's a slippery slope from researching something on Wikipedia to navigating to related articles. Timed access per hour?

Closing your laptop can also provide a clean, portable writing platform.

This is my first time hearing of the "WriterDeck" concept, so it's very possible that I am missing some context, but... While booting to text requires less work and less packages, it seems like it has a lot of caveats. Firstly, it will likely be unreadable on any laptop that has a high resolution screen, and frankly even some old cheap laptops have one at this point, at least 1.5x~ish-scale DPI. Secondly, obviously better typography can be done in a graphical user interface, which seems like something you'd want if you're going to be writing on something. Thirdly, while the utter lack of distractions is admirable, this will also lack even the most crucial features and information. For example, I don't think you will even realize if your battery is about to die, which seems like it is a good way to accidentally lose a bunch of work. Battery state is probably the only thing that I really think it must show you.

It would definitely take a bit more work but a tiny dedicated graphical environment that functions as a basic text editor seems like it could go further. No particular need for Wayland or X11 here, either; you could get away with a simple Qt application directly on KMS/DRM.

For those who prefer Emacs over tilde:

  startx emacs --maximized --funcall=darkroom-mode

I had a good laugh. Why does anyone want this? Put Linux on your laptop and nuke the network stack. Done.

The idea of a low-distraction laptop OS is a good one, but I'm not sure that this is necessarily the best approach.

If I mentally model such a thing myself, I end up with something that looks a lot like Classic (pre-OS-X) Mac OS. It's simplified and has just enough presence to properly host graphical applications. No taskbar, no notifications (or associated drawer), no self-populated launcher menu. File manager is spatial so it doesn't need a sidebar or navigation chrome. Multitasking is technically possible, but high-friction since the only way to switch between running apps is the little app switcher menu in the top right corner and becomes more cumbersome the more apps/windows you open. Included browser does not support tabs, only windows. Shortcuts to frequently used apps must be added intentionally (to your desktop as aliases/shortcuts or to the launcher menu).

This design strongly encourages singular focus without forcing it. If you want to have music playing in the background or need to open a browser window for research you can, but gravity is constantly pulling you back towards your task since the machine isn't pleasant to use for goofing off.

Some of these options would have been way cooler than Tilde; perhaps it could provide alternate options too?

https://terminaltrove.com/categories/text-editors/

No autosaving. That's the wrong way to try to be minimalist.

Nice idea, however, here is a satire piece about writing and writers which I find relevant in this context: https://medium.com/@Justwritet/you-are-not-a-real-writer-if-...

While I don't have a use for this, I do like the idea of purposeful modes in computing. Obviously there is a lot you can do with shortcuts and preferences, but its nice to have a limited to base to start with.

I think this is even more important with a mobile platform since for one, battery and processing power is at a premium, and two anything with notifications could take you out of your desired "mode" if you don't wrangle them properly.

Something I've always wanted in a smartphone is to be able to boot into a "camera only" mode. There have been many times where all I need my phone for is as a camera, and I don't want it wasting resources/battery doing anything else. If this mode were light enough, it could boot up in the same amount of time as a normal digital camera, allowing your the phone to be truly off while you're not taking pictures. I do often take a digital camera with me, but sometimes I don't want the bulk or maybe I didn't initially plan to take a lot of pictures.

This really should be a live-USB image instead of something you have to install

Kind of a sidenote, but I really hate these page transitions. They're way too slow. Especially because the site has a 114-kilobyte 908-rule inline CSS stylesheet. If you're going to make me download this much CSS, at least make sure it doesn't render your site unusable for nearly a full second even after the page loads.