IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Make Tmux the OS

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Theme 1: Persistent session state across reboots

"I think a modern computer should be able to update its software, kernel included, in a way that the state of the userland could be kept, even with an actual reboot." – jwrallie

Theme 2: Preference for tiling window managers and vertical tab layouts

"The best two examples of this are the Arc browser and Chrome OS. But I think Arc is actually the more interesting of the two experiments. Their first innovation was to break the idea of tabs at the top and instead move it to be a sidebar model." – serbuvlad

Theme 3: Desire to move beyond traditional filesystems toward a unified, app‑agnostic activity view (often aided by LLMs/AI)

"Filesystems as a weak abstraction. Is a concept the author needs to get over. > The ideal would be 'across my entire computer and applications, what are the recent files I have interacted with' and expand that out to include emails and Teams/Slacks and everything. I should be able to see everything going on with my machine, search through it and not care if its stored inside of Slack or iCloud or whatever. Single pane of glass." – noodletheworld

🚀 Project Ideas

SessionPersistence Daemon

Summary

  • A background service that checkpoints the entire userland state (processes, open files, window positions) using CRIU and restores it after a reboot or kernel update, eliminating the need to manually recreate tmux/sessions.
  • Core value proposition: seamless, OS‑level persistence of work sessions across reboots, giving the feel of a never‑ending desktop.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Linux developers, sysadmins, and power users who rely on long‑running terminal sessions and complex desktop layouts
Core Feature Live snapshot/restore of user session (process state, file descriptors, window manager layout) via integrated CRIU + DBus hooks
Tech Stack Rust (daemon), CRIU for checkpointing, libnotify/DBus for WM integration, systemd service unit
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Subscription $5/user/mo (enterprise tier with audit logging)

Notes

  • HN users lamented: “I think a modern computer should be able to update its software, kernel included, in a way that the state of the userland could be kept, even with an actual reboot.” – jwrallie
  • Provides a concrete solution to the session‑loss pain point discussed throughout the thread, enabling discussion on OS‑level checkpointing vs. app‑specific tools like tmux‑continuum.

ConfigGen – LLM‑assisted WM Configurator

Summary

  • Generates tiling window manager config files (i3, sway, niri, awesome) from natural‑language descriptions of desired layouts, keybindings, and rules.
  • Core value proposition: lowers the barrier to entry for tiling WMs by turning a simple English prompt into a ready‑to‑use config, eliminating manual .ini tweaking.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Users interested in tiling WMs but deterred by config file complexity (including newcomers and occasional tinkerers)
Core Feature Prompt → LLM → validated config output (with linting and preview) for multiple WM backends
Tech Stack Python, llama.cpp or Phi‑3 quantized model, Jinja2 templating, optional GUI with Tauri/Rust front‑end
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Commenters expressed config fatigue: “Most of the non developers I know don't want to write prose, let alone a .ini file” – e‑top; “Give it a try, maybe it won't be that bad.” – StrLght
  • Would spark discussion on the role of local LLMs for desktop customization and could be extended to other dotfiles (shell, editor).

Unified Activity Tree (UAT)

Summary

  • A desktop sidebar that aggregates recent files, emails, chat messages, and app documents into a searchable tree view grouped by project or context, inspired by Tree Style Tabs but for all user data.
  • Core value proposition: gives a “single pane of glass” for recent activity across siloed apps, reducing context‑switching friction.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Knowledge workers, researchers, and anyone juggling many apps (browser, IDE, mail, chat)
Core Feature Plug‑in driven activity feed showing items as tree nodes (project → file/email/message) with fuzzy search and drag‑to‑open
Tech Stack Tauri (Rust backend) + Svelte/Vue frontend, plug‑in SDK (Rust or NodeJS), DBus/Native APIs for app integration
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Freemium (free core, $8/mo for premium plug‑ins and cloud sync)

Notes

  • Users complained about app silos: “My notes in Apple Notes belong to Apple Notes, not my filesystem… File systems are universal and files are portable.” – dreamcompiler
  • The idea directly addresses the “single pane of glass” desire and the frustration with fragmented recent‑item views, likely to generate enthusiasm and practical adoption discussions.

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