Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | wltr's commentslogin

I noticed that too, but for me there’s no point in basic model. As usually used Pros are better at their value at the same price point. Perhaps they decided to focus on premium tier, while everyone else would manage somehow. Or they would introduce regular models quietly later.

My bet is that is heavily vibe coded abandonware.

I’m super excited about any open source OS there is, but in all honesty, I see very little value for a desktop system like that. Linux is plenty good and apps ecosystem is slowly coming into a really great state. I’d love to see FreeBSD being there too, and basically you need nothing different from that.


Just to clarify, did you mean ‘exciting’ by

> Is Darwin really all the exiting?

I’ve tried to reread your question, and couldn’t get the sense, before I thought maybe that’s an autocorrection / misprint.


I'm pretty sure it's "Is Darwin really all that exciting?"

And mine is as fast as I need, with Sway as my main DE. (With Arch Linux, but I bet Fedora wouldn’t be any worse.) The only reason to switch to M{1,2,3} is battery life. So, as soon as the external Thunderbolt display is going to work, I think I’m making the switch.


Why not TigerVNC?

https://tigervnc.org/

> TigerVNC was originally based on the (never-released) VNC 4 branch of TightVNC.

It seems to be popular, that’s why I’m asking.


Thanks, I never tried it. Will try.

Funny thing is that the document where they'd explain their reasoning to fork TightVNC returns 404.


Sounds like a Linux architecture, innit?


Many of the libraries and executables in Linux are cross-compilable with other ecosystems. It's the difference between opening the door to an existing ecosystem and birthing one.


yep, it's a handy architecture. Tho I don't know many people who prefer to run without coreutils.


If that’s an Electron app, what’s the difference with running it in the browser?


Access to your computer


That's why I won't download that tool.


Access to your computer is the entire point of the app. Codex computer use can script and control any application on your computer.

You can give it any task on your computer and it can automate it. Such as creating a photo on Photoshop, creating 3D models, editing videos, or browsing any website without scripting.


What about running it in a virtual machine?


Honestly, you're missing out. The productivity gains I've had with these tools is unbelievable. I understand the risk though, so if you've got government sensitive data on your computer, or no backups, don't use the "full access" option. Babysit what it does instead.


Isn't it expensive, though? If you let it perform gui or web tasks for you using vision, I'd think it consumes lots of tokens.


Depends how much you are using it - for a casual user the $20 tier gives you just about enough use for hobby projects etc.

Or if you are doing full time development then you just need to pony up for the 20x tier if you want to use it.

Running Codex locally removes so much friction and is so fast compared to either running it on the web (where it has to build environments online etc which consumes time) or compared to copy-pasting chatgpt that it's just a no-brainer.


I don't know about Chatgpt but I used Kimi (they have a Chinese-only plugin that does desktop control - works fine if you enable it even if you don't know Chinese). Observing how it works, it's mostly using the accessibility features of the user interfaces - it fetches a sort of DOM for the desktop applications. Only rarely it has to take a screenshot.


Can you give some examples? I'm evaluating where/how I could use stuff like this.


Literally everything from generic coding agent to shopping.

I run it in a MacOS vm, fwiw, for certain tasks. I usually hand it a repo and say “install all build dependencies” and it’ll click through installation GUIs where necessary. I wonder if the TOS of an application is enforceable if a bot agreed and a human never saw it.

It can UI test web apps if that’s part of your job, but it can also just use the browser for tasks. I’ve had it research flights by checking different dates automatically and compiling the results for me. I’ve heard others use it to handle building a shopping cart for instacart/grocery delivery.

Probably the hero usecase for most people would be app/web development. It can control either a browser or a device simulator and can iteratively build and test the application, by clicking real buttons.


> Literally everything from generic coding agent to shopping.

People need help with shopping now?


I can probably live most of my life without the transistor being invented, but it’s certainly better with new technology.

“Needs help” is an unnecessary and negative framing, don’t be a hater. We can basically always do what AI does (if not computers at large!), but either it’ll take longer or be boring.

With AI you can automate checking way more price comparisons than manually, with way less effort. With AI you can automate routine shopping tasks like converting a shopping list into an online shopping cart. I can search for specific products across dozens of sites manually, or I can ask AI to find it for me.


ooh, chatGPT is really good in filtering bullshit and recommending the products that really fit.

For serious stuff, is part of the shopping flow.


I upgraded my workflow a few months ago from "copy-paste things in and out of ChatGPT" to "use an agent that edits my project files and runs tests on its own" and the ergonomics are just so much better and enables automating bigger tasks. I still monitor everything it does and do manual adjustments so I feel ownership of the code.


But isn't that use-case solved a harness like OpenCode or Codex? OpenClaw and Hermes are a bit different beast although they can also be used for development in a more holistic manner (e.g. automated GUI testing).

I'm just wondering about other uses where such a system would be useful aside from asking it via Signal or WA for the weather.


Right. I'm also curious about those use cases. I don't want an AI clicking through my mailbox.


None that I can see - I already have it installed as a chrome app on my Mint desktop, and it seems identical.


Does the Chrome app have access to your local files, like when you're working on a code project?


Or running local commands or talking to an MCP server at a random domain unrestricted by content policy


Why do you need nodejs if you can run javascript in the browser?


I can't answer that question, but I think you can do more with node than with default javascript, such as access to local files. This is something I wanted javascript to do for local use and people always said "you may not do this, your computer will be destroyed". So I just use ruby instead and am still annoyed that javascript is so crippled by default at all times.


Been doing bash scripting for years. Tried Go recently, on my, it’s so much better for everything OS scripting. I regret I haven’t started with Go years ago. All my scripts are rewritten to Go. I kept only a handful, those that are just a few lines and no logic.


I regret not going with bash or even sh when I had the chance. Nothing beats that for ubiquity and getting shit done.

Go is behind, specifically, you have no guarantees that a given machine has Go installed, and doing stuff like gluing commands together, inspecting some files, pipe output around, or automate the boring thing in 30 seconds.

Sure Go beats bash or sh when the thing you are doing starts to become real software, but that is a problem that sits between the chair and the keyboard.


That kept me away from the rewrite, but actually you can just throw a bin onto your server. At least for all my servers, I can do that. Migrating to Go helped me clean like hundreds of scripts into just a handful (tens) of slightly more complex, but unified programs with shared logic. I kept sticking to bash, not realising the complexity grew up already, and having a pile of simple scripts isn’t as simple as I thought. Go solved this beautifully, all the scripts were rewritten within just a month (with Claude assistance, but I’ve been checking on the code, it was OK), and now I can maintain them with less mental overhead.


Are you using 'go run' or compiling these scripts? Just curious about what you are up to as I was considering moving my scripts from bash to go.


Most of the time I use go build, or precisely make install with custom Makefile. For the one-time ad-hoc tools (vibe coded, by the way), I may use go run. My point is use the simplest tool, if it’s a little bit more complex than a few lines, it’s better in Go than bash. Here, I rather mean it’s better in any real programming language. Just… well, Go is really simple and with some GPT assistance you may be just one prompt and a minute away from automating some routine tasks. I try to automate as much as I can notice. E.g. I have a special script (now program) which moves files and directories from one location (synced documents) to another (archive on a disk). This is just a very simple operation, but doing it automatically feels very different. I’d highly recommend on trying something similar. Previously, I thought bash is good enough for this (and it is!), but Go is just better for me personally. And bonus thing, it works much faster.


Not sure if it's obvious, but "go run" is just a thin wrapper around "go build" which compiles your Go code to a temporary location and then runs it in a single step.


Having explicit and unavoidable error handling (which Go of course has in spades) is a particular improvement when writing/replacing Bash scripts.


In other words, would you like to have your physical card to be lost or stolen and someone paying with it? As small amounts don’t ask for a pin confirmation. Having my phone stolen is pretty much another level of attack.


> would you like to have your physical card to be lost or stolen and someone paying with it?

I don't really care, as I'm protected from fraud by the card issuer and regulations in my country.

> Having my phone stolen is pretty much another level of attack.

Stealing a wallet or a phone seems just about the same level of difficulty.

And you can trick an iPhone into believing you're a transit terminal and charge arbitrary amounts to real credit cards, without unlocking the phone. (And Apple thinks this is a feature.) The attack requires specialized hardware and physical access, but if you've stolen the phone, that's fine.

(Yes, I know, this article is about Android. But most people where I live have iPhones, even if I don't.)


Yes... that $25 if they manage to get even that before it is blocked I can live with. Loosing my phone, even if they can't do anything with it is a whole other scenario. Now I can't even get home.


Your bank will refund any stolen money if your card is stolen.


No it’s not, all of my and my extended family cards (for… like a decade!) are never even leave the envelope they come in. I’m not sure I personally know people who use physical cards over Google or Apple Pay. I have seen the cards being used in the wild, of course. But I’m having hard time remembering anyone I personally know who does that.


How strange that culture is so different in different places. You can just start using them, though. Literally just swipe your card whenever you would swipe your phone.

Do you guys not have wallets with card slots?


I've never had a physical wallet period. I'm not some Gen alpha baby either, I'm almost 30. I have like 4 bank accounts too.


Go buy one and put your cards in it


You need them in some scenarios. For example, lots of car rental companies refuse to take anything but a physical card.


So, the argument is that it is popular? I'm not arguing against that...

That people trade anything for even just perceived convenience? That isn't news either, but it does explain a lot of the sad state of affairs we are struggling with today.


> I’m not sure I personally know people who use physical cards over Google or Apple Pay.

You live in a pretty weird bubble. (And I live in San Francisco, so I know about weird bubbles.)


Like half of the UK adult population use them: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2ejvld0ypyo

That's from a year ago, I'm sure it's only grown since.

I think it's you who's in a bubble, my friend.


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: