tilde web desktop

After seeing web desktop environments—e.g. windows93.net, windows96.net, and win32.run—we had the idea: what if there was a collaborative web desktop environment, that facilitated connection and cooaperation therein?

The vision we have in our mind is that the tilde (or pubnix) would still be running on a server that users can shell into, but the primary way of interacting with the tilde is through the web desktop environment. Users should be able to interact with the tilde and its members through the web desktop. After authenticating-through e.g. kerberos, ldap, freeipa, keycloak, etc-the user could:

• launch a terminal which is just a shell into the server
• launch chat, which is just connecting to the tilde irc
• use apps (made by tilde members) that can connect to/with other tilde
  • either synchronously (e.g. a game), or
  • asynchronously (e.g. a bbs)

There could also be “public apps” available to anonymous users (i.e. internet strangers not signed in), but these apps would not be able to make changes on the tilde server (e.g. no terminal) or invade safe spaces (e.g. no chat).

We think this style of a tilde could be fun: collaboratively building the desktop environment, building the apps, playing with tilde members. We also think this will make joining a tilde more accessible for non-*nix-techie folks. There wouldn’t be a need to know how to generate an SSH key and learning SSH and *nix commands, until they were ready to do so.

Wha’d’ya’ll think? Would you join such a tilde? Would you wanna help build such a tilde? We certainly couldn’t do this project alone, so co-consperators would be needed/welcome <3

Wanna discuss this? You can enage on this mastodon thread or email me at: hello at kindrobot dot ca.