Can you not install Linux, or enable airplane mode or mute notifications on Windows?
> or a smartphone
You wouldn't want to write long-form on a soft-keyboard with a tiny screen anyway - even though, ironically, I know that you can silence notifications for sure (as opposed to a question mark for Windows 10/11).
I don't think that the problem is the technology - at least, not that technology - because it already has the ability to silence distractions. The problem seems to be with us - we're more distractable and less able to focus. Although, you can probably blame the internet and commercial social media for that!
Gotta say though, Dune was a disappointment to me, having grown up with Dune 2 on MSDOS. The old Dune had, you know, deeper characters. There's nothing like eating boys and bathing in blood to set off a character. The new Harkonnen are positively placid. We are in a new "PC" age...
This is one of those things you notice in a jarring way as a Linux user coming to other platforms, but people kinda look at you sideways and don't believe you when you tell them.
What I tend to notice, especially as someone who prefers to use a full screen terminal tiled with tmux, is (1) poor availability of Quake-style dropdown terminals on macOS and Windows and (2) extremely slow rendering on most terminal emulators for those platforms. On the other hand, I think I've heard some Mac users say they detect some input lag on Linux terminals.
This is a feature available in both iTerm [1] as well as Windows Terminal [2].
[1] https://blog.mestwin.net/drop-down-terminal-in-macos-with-it... [2] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/windows-terminal-...
I'm glad that Windows Terminal added that feature this year. It's better than most terminal emulators on Windows in most other ways, too. I'll try it the next time I'm on Windows.
Don't know about PDFs, but for Chinese IBus works just fine with XTerm.
Open iTerm, login into a Linux VM, run vim. It will be snappier than native on the host.
Go figure.
This will prevent notifications from popping up and also not remove any existing notifiation from the notification bar.
(I'm using Samsung; YMMV).
There's really no reason to sacrifice all those additional capabilities at the alter of focus or productivity. Just find ways to use modern technology more effectively.
I get used to things. I have spent hundreds of hours using modern laptop computers to develop software, read articles, mindlessly consume social media content, watch porn. Because of these hundreds of hours, when I come to interact with my laptop computer, a set of pre-established affordances, feelings, and thought patterns immediately present themselves.
This goes away if I write in my notebook or type on my alphasmart, where a whole other host of feelings and thought patterns immediately appear. Usually, these are feelings and thought patterns that are localized to what I'm writing about, which makes writing (and thinking) much easier.
It could be that the screenwriter used to use that MS-DOS program back in the day, and already knew and liked it, had a well-developed workflow around it, etc. Then running it on DOSBox or an old machine you happen to have lying around makes perfect sense imo.
Absolutely!
But I wasn't responding to the article. I was responding to the original comment, which stated:
> There's something to be said for the focused nature of older technology.
My response and point was that this isn't somehow precluded with newer technology. That is, if what you're getting out of older technology is "focus", you can get that with newer tech without having to sacrifice other capabilities.
If what you're getting out of older technology is "familiarity" or "nostalgia" or "joy" or something similarly aesthetic, then obviously, keep on keeping on. :)
The problem for me was that distraction was still one alt+tab away. Ultimately, what worked for me best was writing in very boring and rather inconvenient conditions. Waiting at a car wash, or in a car shop worked best.
There basically aren't pre-Windows office suites.
There are pre-Windows standalone productivity software products, but agglomeration of this into office suites is mostly a post-Windows phenomenon.
I've never used old office software, but I could imagine that each office application being distinct allowed them to focus user interfaces on the exact use cases of each product, instead of trying to build on least-common-denominator metaphors that can be shared between office products of different kinds.
I think (and there were some productivity studies I remember seeing when DOS w/o Windows, Win 3.x, and MacOS were all popular that seemed to support this, IIRC) that WYSIWYG is the problem, distracting from substance with presentation continuously.
For one, it is unlikely that it'll rise up and try to enslave humans.
I guess the writer took the lessons of the Butlerian Jihad to heart.
There's a big overlap between 'making creative connections between seemingly unrelated ideas' and 'easily distracted'. There's a ton of literature out there about how to keep to the craft and not get stuck. Simplified electronic devices seem like a good tool for that toolbox.
The ones I've seen look like a sawed off typewriter with an eInk display above the keys. But there are also tablet tablets that are just a screen with an erase button, not unlike those wax and plastic boards they sold for kids prior to iPads.