Johannes Buchner

The idea of Task-focused environments is that your attention is concentrated on the current task you want to do: The computer presents you the tools you need, in the way you need them, so you can work efficiently, while hiding or graying out the unrelated things that might distract you.

A very useful implementation for software development IDEs was made with Mylyn. Now can we have the same for the whole desktop? Tasktop implements it, but in my opinion they make the mistake of trying to replace, reimplement and reinvent the existing desktop. The desktop should be preserved, as that is what the user is used to, much of the development has gone into it, and its features are not replaceable. Also, the user will want to be able to turn the thing off.

I can see a desktop app that allows you to associate applications and folders to certain tasks, e.g. “email&im”, “draw”, “write”. When in a certain task, it hides the unrelated windows and sets the bookmarks / favorite folders.

This can be done for existing desktops, and perhaps even cross-platform (Windows, KDE, GNOME): A Java application with different backends that handle window placement, favorite places, etc.