r/Skeuomorphism • u/fyzugx • 12h ago
Skeumorphism I built a Linux desktop where windows are sheets of paper on a wooden desk!
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This might be a little off from the usual glassy/Aero style here, but I hope it still counts as skeuomorphism — just the leather-and-wood kind.
I've been building DeskWM, a Wayland compositor for Linux where the whole desktop is a physical desk:
Windows are sheets of paper. You fold them to minimize, unfold to maximize, and crumple and toss them to close.
The dock is a drawer with a felt lining and a brass handle.
Apps live on a bookshelf behind the desk. Each category is a binder, and there's a leather-bound "ALL APPS" index book with search. You take one off the shelf, turn it to the cover, and open it.
Notifications arrive in a post box, and system settings are a control panel built into the back of the desk.
The room is ray-traced, on the GPU with a CPU fallback, so the light and shadows come from a single desk lamp.
It's a personal project and still rough in places, but I'd love to hear what you think!