A developer argues the real problem isn't GUIs versus terminals, it's that most GUIs quietly gave up on the keyboard.
What the article says
- The author pushes back on the idea that terminal apps beat graphical ones just because they're keyboard friendly.
- Nothing stops a graphical app from being fully keyboard driven too, and design guidelines from groups like GNOME already say every action should work without a mouse.
- The real gap is that developers rarely bother, not that the technology can't do it.
- The author built keyboard shortcuts into their own app and says it just takes effort, not some special framework.
What HN is saying
- Commenters connect this straight to accessibility. People who build for screen readers say a broken tab order isn't a minor bug, it locks users out entirely.
- Several argue keyboard support should stay optional rather than mandatory, since forcing everyone to learn shortcuts just to use an app pushes away casual users.
- One popular reply says commercial software is the real power user case. People use the same tool eight hours a day for years, yet most modern apps are slower to navigate than software from decades ago.
- Old Windows and Office get praised for letting you reach anything in a handful of keypresses, while Electron based apps take the most criticism for abandoning keyboard navigation entirely.
- A few people note that discoverability is the hard part. Shortcuts only help if users can actually find out they exist.
A campaign is telling you how to actually claim back the Windows fee baked into your new laptop's price.
What the article says
- A joint campaign from the Italian Linux Society and Free Software Foundation Europe argues you shouldn't have to pay for an operating system you never wanted.
- Most laptops only come with Windows preinstalled, and its cost is folded into the sticker price whether you use it or not.
- The site pushes three demands. Manufacturers shouldn't force an operating system on buyers, pricing should be transparent about what you're paying for, and refunds should be simple, not a chore that involves shipping your whole machine back.
- It points out that consumers can already ask for a refund on unwanted software in many places. Most people just don't know it or find the process too painful to bother.
What HN is saying
- People swap stories of actually getting Windows refunds, from a nice chunk of change off a Dell in 2011 to a much smaller payout from Asus more recently.
- Several commenters say the real fix is simpler than fighting for a refund. Just buy from Dell, Lenovo, or Framework, which already sell machines without Windows.
- The sharpest disagreement is over whether this is even a real problem. Some call it a reasonable consumer right, others say declining to buy the laptop already is your opt out and compare mandated software choice to demanding free ice cream.
- A few ask why Apple gets a pass, and others explain Apple doesn't pay a license fee for its own operating system, so there's nothing to refund.
- Multiple people say they've since switched to Linux Mint and been surprised by how good hardware support has gotten, driven partly by fatigue with Microsoft account requirements and Copilot.
A blogger's rant about Google's broken calendar app turns into a huge thread on why apps get worse while websites get shut out.
What the article says
- A writer tried to subscribe to a calendar link on his Android phone and the Google Calendar app simply couldn't do it, no button, no option, nothing.
- He had to open the desktop version of the site in his phone's browser to get it working, then it showed up fine in the app.
- His bigger point is that companies push people toward apps not because apps work better but because apps keep people locked in and easier to track.
- He argues most of what apps do could just be a website, and the real reason apps exist is control and engagement, not user benefit.
What HN is saying
- Commenters piled on with their own stories of apps that are worse than the website they're supposedly replacing, from Uhaul to Google Drive's cluttered layout.
- A recurring theme is trust. Many say installing an app now feels like agreeing to be tracked, so they avoid apps whenever a browser will do.
- The sharpest disagreement is over whether Apple or Google is more to blame for the app obsession, with a long back and forth about who really killed the mobile web.
- One user shared a wild story about a VPN purchase leading to an Amazon account freeze that could only be fixed by juggling four different apps and a phone call to their bank.
- Others pushed back, saying native apps genuinely feel smoother on iOS thanks to things like saved logins, and that most users actually prefer them over web apps.
A free, downloadable model just started matching Anthropic's Opus at coding, and people are switching already.
What the article says
- A Chinese lab released GLM 5.3, a free model you can download and run yourself, built on the same base as its predecessor but retrained to be much better at coding and long, multi step tasks.
- The company says it now leads other open models on coding benchmarks and beats its own prior version by a wide margin.
- It also picked up a surprising and unplanned skill at finding security holes in software, getting notably better at both spotting and exploiting vulnerabilities.
- It can be run locally on capable enough hardware, or used through various cloud providers.
What HN is saying
- Plenty of commenters say it feels genuinely close to Claude Opus in daily use, with one calling it their new favorite model to work with.
- There is real debate over whether the smaller Flash version or the full model is the better pick, and over whether it is actually cheaper than rivals like DeepSeek since token usage and speed vary a lot in practice.
- The unexpected jump in security skills worries some, who fear it makes serious hacking tools too easy to get, while others argue the same skills should be used to find and fix bugs before attackers do.
- A side thread debates whether it is worth buying expensive home hardware to run models like this locally at all, given how fast both models and prices are changing.
- A few people question whether Western AI labs are still ahead, and there is a heated aside about whether OpenAI should ever release old models like GPT 3.
Htmx skipped straight to version 4, and the release notes explain why in a very htmx way.
What the article says
- Htmx 4 is out after eight months of work, and it stays close to version 2 on purpose. They promised no version 3, so a breaking change forced a jump straight to 4.
- The internals moved from the old XMLHttpRequest to the modern fetch API. Most users will not notice, but it opens the door to new features.
- The biggest change for existing users is that attributes no longer inherit down to child elements automatically. You now have to say so explicitly, and there is a tool to help find spots that need updating.
- Page history no longer relies on saving snapshots in local storage, which used to cause bugs when other scripts changed the page. It now just refetches the page instead.
- New features include smoother content swapping, a small scripting add on called hx live, and official guidance files aimed at helping AI coding tools work with htmx.
What HN is saying
- The thread is full of people jokingly claiming to be the CEO of htmx, a running bit that even confuses some readers.
- Long time users are genuinely fond of the library, especially paired with Go and SQLite for small, fast projects.
- The sharpest disagreement is whether htmx still matters now that AI tools can write JavaScript on demand. Some say that removes its whole reason for existing, others argue its simplicity still makes AI generated code easier to test and maintain.
- One developer pushing full single page apps says htmx made things harder by mixing presentation and business logic, while others insist that is simply not what htmx is meant for.
- A commenter flagged the site breaking on iPhone Safari, and the release image turned out to be reused from an unrelated project, which the maintainer quickly owned up to and removed.