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Ask HN: What desktop applications would you most like to see “Firefoxed”?

7 points by webmaven ↗ HN
Firefox (originally named Phoenix, then Firebird) was, in 2002, a reaction against the Netscape Suite™'s kitchen-sink approach of piling on features in order to tick marketing checkboxes, and an increasingly complex user interface that wasn't serving users very well.

What desktop software do you wish would (or could) be reborn today as a leaner, simpler alternative?

17 comments

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znpy
Firefox itself.

FF'S, I love Firefox but stop dumping crap like pockets and containers on me, I just want a lightning fast browser with multicore/multithread performance.

F--k containers, profiles are way better.

Oh and I want tab groups back.

tleb_
Wait, you complain about feature creep then list two non trivial features you want in Firefox?
znpy
Yes and both are core features.

Tab groups were already present in Firefox and have been removed.

Multicore/multithread is about performance.

zufallsheld
Containers are an addon.
znpy
I wouldn't know. I know FOR SURE I din't install the containers addon, yet I find them in my firefox.

If it's an addon but comes preinstalled, is it still an add-on ?

zufallsheld
It does not come pre-installed by default. I don't know where you got your copy from, but it is kit the default.
curryst
Fwiw, I also have Containers on my Firefox, and I'm 99% sure I didn't install it. I've never used them, but I suppose it's not out of the realm of possibility that I installed them while hacking on a side project at 4am and forgot about it.
uberman
For simple image manipulation, I still use a very old copy of paint shop pro (pre corel)

It starts instantly without the irritating delay of even great utilities like gimp.

I wish there was a modern gimp light that reduced the features and start times.

garmaine
Are you aware of Paint.NET? To name one of many.
[dead] rotterdamdev
Gimp starts in 2 seconds on my r5 3600 from an SSD. Try Linux if you are on Windows.
scott31
GNOME Shell
webmaven
Interesting... what exactly is the bloat and complexity that a simpler version of Gnome Shell would avoid?
rotterdamdev
It's single threaded to this day. A widget hanging on a webserver can lock up the whole desktop. It needed a rewrite years ago, and things have only become worse regarding tech debt.
qppo
I don't want desktop apps to be leaner nearly as much as I want web apps to be leaner. Today it took me two minutes to load a link to a meme on Facebook that a friend sent me via messenger on a 2016 MacBook Air.

Two minutes to load a page with a meme and some comments.

dastx
Sounds to me like you need uBlock Origin in case you don't have it.
qppo
I do... that was not the problem.
zzo38computer
I may want to see command-line alternatives to some GUI software. What I want is software that is less stupid. Allow use together with other software. Some things may be split into separate programs which can then be piped together, e.g. if you have a NSF music player then they might be:

- Execute the 6502 code in the NSF file and write the register writes and delays to stdout.

- Read the register writes and delays from stdin and use that to generate an audio signal to stdout.

- Play the audio on the speaker, or else encoding it as Opus or recording it on a CD or whatever, can be the third one, which would also be able to apply filters and global volume control and stuff if you want to do.