On the Supremacy of Rio over Modern Toolkits
In the Plan 9 operating system, rio isn’t just a window manager; it is a filesystem service. It represents the logical conclusion of “everything is a file.” Modern desktops like GNOME or KDE have become bloated monoliths that treat the user as a consumer of widgets rather than a manipulator of data.
The Threefold Path
- Isolation: Each window is its own namespace.
- Plumbing: Data moves between applications without complex APIs.
- Textual Control: Everything can be driven by simple strings.
Consider the simplicity of opening a window in a script compared to the nightmare of DBus or X11 protocols:
# Plan 9 Shell: Opening a window is just writing to a file mount /srv/rio /n/rio echo 'window 100 100 500 500' > /n/rio/new
The Political Parallel
Just as we advocate for the reduction of state interference in the economy, we must advocate for the reduction of "middleware" interference in computing. A computer should be a tool of absolute sovereignty. Every layer of abstraction you don't understand is a tax on your productivity and freedom.
When you use software that adheres to the suckless philosophy, you are performing an act of intellectual secession. You are saying "No" to the planned obsolescence of modern software ecosystems.
"Programs should do one thing and do it well. But more importantly, they should get out of the way when they are done."
— Uriel (cat-v.org)