The joy of simple computing - Andreas’ web space

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The joy of simple computing

August 10th, 2026 - Written by Andreas

Progress, these days, seems to be equivalent to ever-more polished interfaces; more whitespace around buttons, glow, glassy, or frosty effects; smooth animations even on websites. For a long time, I appreciated this: using a sleek, pretty (in modern terms) application gave me a sense of appreciation for it. However, this sleekness started to nag me a bit: I could notice a slowdown here, an oversimplification of the UI there. Although I used to be rather happy to be on the new side of things software-speaking, I thought it was time for something else. Of course, recently I had already switched to Debian, but now I also switched to a more stable desktop environment: Xfce.

Coming from the world of fancy UIs such as GNOME or KDE offer, this was a bit of a change, but a very welcome one. I appreciated the lack of wasted space, the functionality residing in each program, and the immediacy with which everything opened. Running Xfce made my computer feel really snappy again, which (in my opinion) is what a modern computer should feel like. I’ve converted my workstation into a productive setup for me—probably the best setup I’ve had in a long while—making use of Xfce and its suite of programs as well as Cortile, a tiling manager for Xfwm.

Using this setup has made me yearn for a simpler ‘computing experience’; one without massive delays and floating animations when you press a button; without space wasted; with the freedom to configure things as I like using simple files. I like applications made with native toolkits, not some browser wrap (e.g. Electron applications). On the Internet, please serve me web sites made with simple HTML and CSS, not crammed with JavaScript.

Usually, such experiences are also less disruptive and distracting. It’s almost refreshing to use an application or website that has a simple purpose and actually aids the user in accomplishing that. So many websites (and even software) nowadays bombards the user with promotions, offers, or functionality they didn’t ask for (looking at all the integrations of generative AI recently). It feels like ‘good old software’ helps me to be more mindful of my technology use.

Is this something you can appreciate as well? Do you actively seek out simpler software and services? Please let me know—I’d love to be inspired!

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