Some consider Windows-like or MATE systems highly productive.
Compose.sh recreates a Windows-like experience for macOS.
It’s difficult to summarize how frustrating Windows became.
Users no longer have control of their system.
It’s either difficult or impossible to disable features I don’t want. Even spam! I don’t need ads about OneDrive, and please stop trying to trick me to create a Microsoft account for my login.
Somehow, at some point, Windows became an ad platform. Preinstalled apps like Candy Crush, ads in the Start Menu, sponsored search results.
Windows is now a platform driven by marketers and profit. Not one built for a good user experience.
Users are opt-in by default to features which sell their data to advertisers (or worse).
Windows 11 simplified user interaction design of predecessors.
It accomplished this without power users in mind. They are now unable to customize their machine as they previously could, or do everyday tasks, without more steps involved.
Some find joy in Linux Mint or other distributions. I do too.
For one reason or another, I found distributions great for development, but poor for general everyday computing.
macOS enforces multiple design paradigms I personally find unproductive.
The always-there Dock can be configured to be more minimalist. And it has settings that can make it workable.
Yet still, users familiar with the Windows taskbar may find the Dock a poor replacement.
Fast context switching is a staple in productivity.
Windows users may find windows management in macOS frustrating. Being unable to quickly manage windows, organize them, or switch between them with the same speed as before.
The Windows Start Menu is a wonderful, customizable, tool that gives quick access to common workflows.
macOS doesn’t have a native, direct, counterpart.
macOS introduced a system tray that is similar to the Windows counterpart.
It’s not easily customizable to the end user. Instead, app developers dictate how the tray behavior functions.
System tray customization, as all system features, should be a user-customizable feature.
Compose.sh proposes a Windows-like experience in macOS.
It’s driven by core principles.
It is open source. It has discovery for community-created plugins to extend core behavior.
All build tools are simple. They do not require domain knowledge of systems like Swift.
Developers may choose any JavaScript, CSS, and HTML technology to create and publish plugins.
Developer-friendly systems often come at the cost of power.
This is true for Webkit-based systems like Electron. Such systems do not go far enough to support powerful macOS APIs.
Compose instead has first-class support for macOS APIs by way of code bridging.
Compose has full system access to a machine by way of its nature. That cannot be avoided.
Plugins are sandboxed by default. Plugins distributed through first-party channels must provide full source to users. They cannot use privileged APIs without explicit end-user permission.
Compose will never take on any incentive that compromises integrity, the focus on the user experience, or the ability for the end-user to retain full control of their system.
Compose will always be free and open source, without paywalls.
Currently a single person that wants a no-nonsense work platform to get things done in.
Compose.sh will be open source. Join the Discord I made if you want to be a part of it.
The MVP of core features is done (core app, plugin system with JS bridge).
There’s still a lot of testing and polish to do. I’m in no rush. This blog will update on all progress.
The code isn’t on GitHub yet. It’ll pop up there once I feel it’s ready for a v1 stable release.