FyneDesk: A full desktop environment for Linux written in Go

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Performance, Multithreading, and Responsiveness

  • Some expect FyneDesk to outperform GNOME due to Go’s concurrency model and lightweight design; others argue desktop environments don’t necessarily need heavy multithreading if the main loop is lean.
  • Multiple comments stress that the compositor must be fast to avoid input latency and frame drops, especially for gaming and high‑resolution (5K–6K) displays; a purely single‑threaded, software compositor is seen as risky.
  • There’s nostalgia that older, tightly coupled 1980s systems felt more “immediate” than today’s layered stacks.
  • One thread notes that multithreading improves throughput but can worsen latency if misused.
  • Java’s Project Looking Glass is cited as an example of a visually ambitious but slow DE; in contrast, FyneDesk claims to target lightweight‑WM performance with full‑DE features, with major gains expected in the upcoming Fyne 2.7 release.

Fyne/FyneDesk Quality and UX

  • Past experiences with Fyne range from “not great” or “meh on mobile” (slow, unnative feel, missing Android features) to enthusiasm about its rapid progress and upcoming mobile optimizations.
  • Maintainers assert Fyne is platform‑agnostic, not “mobile‑first,” and highlight recent performance and CPU‑usage fixes, inviting users to retry newer versions.
  • Some users complain that raising issues can trigger defensive responses; others praise the responsiveness and ambition of the project.

X11 vs Wayland

  • Many potential users now consider Wayland support a hard requirement and are unwilling to adopt an X11‑only DE, especially on modern GPU stacks.
  • FyneDesk currently targets X11 with a built‑in compositor (replacing an earlier Compton dependency); Wayland support is planned after the next major release, contingent on upstream library fixes. Exact timelines are described as uncertain.
  • Some argue Wayland is essential for tear‑free rendering and fractional scaling; others counter that both are achievable on X11 and already implemented in FyneDesk.
  • One commenter claims Wayland is a “dead end” with architectural and input‑method problems; others dispute the general premise that GUIs should only be written in low‑level languages.

Go, Toolkit Design, and Extensibility

  • There’s debate over Go for a DE: critics prefer lower‑level languages for core system components; supporters argue Go offers faster development with adequate performance and simpler tooling.
  • Fyne is intentionally Go‑only (no official language bindings) to keep the API idiomatic and development focused.
  • FyneDesk is pitched as an easy‑to‑hack DE for developers and learners: panel/desktop modules are just Go functions returning Fyne widgets.

Project Status, Governance, and Side Tangents

  • Some worry about infrequent commits on master; others point out an active develop branch and a reasonable release cadence.
  • The project is a volunteer effort with a small core team seeking sponsorship; motivation is to create a modern, approachable DE beyond the pain of existing codebases.
  • The thread digresses into broader debates on git branching strategies, per‑environment branches vs tags, and process discipline, triggered by branch naming observations.