taskset

I agree, that's kind of my point - the COMPANIES are chasing profit and trying to interest us in the latest and greatest. Meanwhile there's an old Windows XP laptop in the closet that'd thrive with a Linux OS for programming, bare-metal tasks, etc.

Right - but I'm talking about 'optimizing' for the millions of devices already extant, not abandoning innovation for cutting edge hardware entirely. Prices keep rising, memory is becoming more expensive and even scarce - just advocating for throwing a Linux OS on those old machines in the closet and seeing what they're capable of.

I have to agree - Legacy support (WinTel’s 2008-era compatibility) preserves access for millions but limits innovation and wastes hardware gains. Dropping old hardware allows for faster, leaner, more secure software yet excludes low-income users, schools, and developing regions. If people are keeping and using their old devices, fine. I'd just like to see people NOT throw 5 year old PC's in our landfills because of Microsoft's e-waste by design marketing strategy - ie - dropping support of Win 10. These machines can fly with a Linux OS on them. But, yeah - you make a good point.

Source is now on the site: [bensantora.com/downloads/fftool-source.tar.gz] and .zip. Build instructions are in the article.

Source is now on the site: [bensantora.com/downloads/fftool-source.tar.gz] and .zip. Build instructions are in the article.

Source is now on the site: [bensantora.com/downloads/fftool-source.tar.gz] and .zip. Build instructions are in the article.

Source code is now on the site: [bensantora.com/downloads/fftool-source.tar.gz] and .zip.

Build instructions are in the article.

Right - the confirm screen isn't just a safety check — it's the feature. Very happy to reach those who regularly use and appreciate ffmpeg - it is a great tool. Glad fftool is of use to you.

Right, I missed that — the Go module path in go.mod references GitHub by convention even though the repo isn't there (it's embedded in the binary's debug info). I'll change the module path to something on my own domain. Thanks for spotting that.

Thanks.

Just pushed a screenshot - fftool.png

I no longer use GitHub for original projects. Source for fftool isn't public yet but I understand the concern — running an unaudited binary is a real ask. My site leans toward educational, so that people consider building the tool from the instructions in the article. I may host the source on the site as a zip or tarball at some point so people can more easily build it.

As for Linux API - TIOCGWINSZ via syscall.IOCTL to get terminal dimensions.

Why Linux and Go - Linux is the only OS I use. I like Go because it produces a single static binary with no runtime dependencies. Thanks for your interest.

I no longer use GitHub for original projects. Source for fftool isn't public yet but I understand the concern — running an unaudited binary is a real ask. My site leans toward educational, so that people might consider building the tool from the instructions in the article. I'll probably post the source on the site as a zip or tarball at some point so people can more easily build it. The asciinema suggestion is a good one — I'll look into it.

Eric puts it well: LLMs already speak CLI fluently. MCP just adds transport, auth, and new failure modes on top of something that will work fine without it.

Claude Code is a CLI. That's the point. It's the same thing I see in so many Claude Code YouTube tutorials - the instructor running Claude Code inside VS Code — Electron wrapping Chromium wrapping Node.js just to reach a terminal. Three abstraction layers for zero benefit.

Same pattern at the protocol level.

Text in, text out, composable, inspectable. The Unix design approach is fifty years old and still relevant - it's the simplest and most direct method.