alt Hacker NewsA lot of us do the vast majority of our non-browser work on remote systems. GUIs are objectively bad for this
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X Windows was invented on the 1980's and isn't the only way to graphically access remote systems.
Modern cloud systems shouldn't even have shell access, immutable containers with telemetry data.
Well in plan 9 they work fine remotely so I wouldn't say they're objectively bad.
The article anticipates and responds to this: https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2026/08/20/stop-making-tuis/#:~:...
You can run Wayland that renders into a terminal. https://github.com/cyber-wojtek/waytermirror
I use an xrdp quite a lot. It works fine.
Terminal programs are GUIs. So you are using a GUI to access those remote systems. Thus, there's no reason why another GUI couldn't do the same.
Everyone always acts like GUIs couldn't possibly make HTTP requests, interact over TCP or WebSockets, or do other remote communication. But they're actually, more often than not, more well suited for that than browsers for specific use cases, which are the use cases where you'd desire a devoted GUI.
That's an indictment of ssh workflows not GUIs.
RDP works fine but it's based on a full desktop experience. Despite having the technology, we don't have the ability to remote in and run a single graphical program in a single window with the same ease.
We need something as seamless as Parallels for remote remote apps. But I guess we just settled on web apps.
No. When the communication side is actually done thoughtfully, GUIs deliver superior experiences even in remote environments.
VSCode SSH extension is one of the most widely developer-used proof against this. Windows' RDP is the other one where many engineers and POS personnel have experince using them. Many electrical and mechanical engineers still use Windows RDP at my work to run simulations. The connection is responsive enough to survive their home-to-office VPN connection. I set up complex chemical simulation software that is accessed by clients of a HPC cluster over 1000s of kms away.
VScode has a really efficient protocol that communicates only that's required, Windows RDP can declaratively send UI component changes as long as one uses Win32 or WPF. It can also reasonably compress the data to even survive dial-up levels of bad data.
We use multi-attendant video conferencing day to day with whiteboarding extensions. If there is will, efficient and amazing remote-GUIs are easy.