How we got here

How did we get from “Gentoo, Apparently” to “Adwaita Nothing”? The answer, counterintuitively, is Nextcloud. The range of things Nextcloud can do significantly altered what I expect from my computing model. Before, I expected YouTube. Perhaps YouTube Music. Some podcasts, if I bother to sync them. Notes synced via git. And a plain text calendar because my work schedule is too complex to describe sometimes. All of this is handled nicely by the old model of computing on Linux: cli apps where appropriate and a web browser for everything else.

Nextcloud taught me to expect internet radio, local music, podcasts, to-do items, synchronized notes, and a decent calendar. But I only thought to deploy Nextcloud because of Iotas, an Adwaita notes app that can leverage nextcloud. I came to Nextcloud through a native-first experience.

The Native-First Model

When I started using computers, back in the late 90s, native-first computing was the norm, to the extent that even web search could be handled by a native application called Copernic Agent. Mostly you had offline apps - like Encarta - that played roles of reference, productivity, and so on. Gradually these were replaced with web apps, in a movement called “Web 2.0”. And in recent years, certain circles have begun to openly rebel against Web 2.0.

The decline of the web

Certain companies spearheading the Web 2.0 push established themselves as indispensable. Once everyone was on board, it became difficult to find alternatives. And with a captive audience, the companies pivoted to become extractive. The users became the product, and their attention became an asset to be sold. Hopefully I’m not the first to tell you this.

Focus

What the native-first computing model restores is focus. In my Adwaita Nothing environment, I never receive more than I ask for. In a browser, the most distracting thing is YouTube. On Adwaita Nothing, it’s internet radio. But radio never distracted anyone from a task. In fact, there are even YouTube channels dedicated to lo-fi beats as a study aid.

What’s interesting is that I still have access to videos - it’s just that I have to know what I’m looking for. Pipeline is never going to tell me.

The overall result is a much more focused platform that facilitates intentional recreation and distraction-free productivity.

What about Gentoo?

I need to fundamentally change the computing model of my Gentoo system to reflect what I’ve learned from Adwaita Nothing. Right now I’m underutilizing Sway and I’ve fallen back in love with GNOME. Installing GNOME might not be a bad first step. Perhaps once I’ve got an idea of how I want to use my Gentoo system with GNOME, I can decide how I want to use it with Sway, but I am not the same computer user that I was in December, and it’s beginning to show.