Comment by marginalia_nu
1 day ago
The bookmark interface on modern browsers is pretty awkward to access. It's a bigger upfront effort to set up an SSB, but they significantly streamline the user experience once they're set up in a way that aligns with what you want to do.
Web Browsers have a sort of inner platform tendency where they roll their own window management, and it just gets very messy and integrates incredibly poorly with the window management of the operating system.
You can open CI in your browser to see how your build is progressing, and in the same window, with a few keypresses, check your private email and then go buy new tires for your car, file your taxes, and after that go watch some porn.
Web browsers are streamlining an undesirable type of context switching: These are all tasks from separate domains, and I don't understand why it would be desirable that all of these things are easily accessible from the same window at the same time.
Having dedicated launchers opening specialized windows allows for a sort of workspace mise-en-place that makes interacting with the computer much more focused and deliberate. Each tool has its place and function.
While I understand the utility of separating contexts and making “distractions” from the current context harder to access. Doesn’t better integration into your system window management kinda defeat this separation again? Is there a significant difference in having a porn tab open or a porn windows open?
It’s great if this separation works for you and your current setup, but what does prevent future you from building muscle memory to quickly switch back to porn when you want to procrastinate your taxes?
You can add friction when switching contexts using the desktop environment. This is largely impossible with browsers since they largely aren't meaningfully customizable. Opening a tab and navigating to a website is generally speaking something like 4-6 keypresses. On a desktop you can for example add more clicks by put all your launchers in a folder structure grouped by task.
Though I actually set up different user accounts for different tasks, then only add shortcuts for the tools that are in any way relevant for the given context. This creates deliberate friction when context switching, and requires upfront intent when selecting what I do. It's not that anything is off limits per se, but all undesirable state changes are made awkward. I simply can't check my email from my programming account, or check the build status on my social media account.
If I want to go from monitoring a build on CI to e.g. paying the bills, I'd have to log out from the work account and shut everything down, then log into the business account, and open the bank SSB. This makes doing these particular tasks as easy as ever, but directionless task switching a serious pain in the ass.