Why

Windows were right for 1973.

Windows were the right answer. In 1973 a computer could do nothing by itself. So the people at Xerox, and later at Apple and Microsoft, drew a desk on the screen: windows, folders, a bin. The machine showed you everything, because you had to do everything.

Then the desk filled up. Fifty years later the desk is still there, and it is crowded. Tabs, badges, feeds, updates. Much of what is on the screen is there to be looked at, not to help you.

The computer can do the work now. A computer can take a sentence and carry it out. It can find the file, change the setting, write the draft. It no longer needs you to do every step by hand.

So start from empty. Kūhaku proposes a different default. The screen is blank until you ask. The computer does the work and answers in one sentence. You can always look, and always stop.

Windows are not the enemy. You still need to see a photograph, read a page, check a number. Kūhaku keeps windows. They appear when you need them and leave when you are done.

What is not solved. This is a proposal, and parts of it are open.

• When should the computer ask before it acts?
• How should a long answer, a table or an error look on an empty page?
• What should happen with no connection?
• Does an empty screen calm people, or does it only look calm?

Take part. Use it and say where it fails. Build your own version. Disagree in public. The code is not public yet; it will be, with a place to respond, when the first version can be downloaded.

The manifesto · Who made it · Back to Kūhaku