Scott Jenson has spent decades designing how people interact with computers, and he thinks the open-source desktop has not kept up. At Akademy 2026, KDE’s annual developer conference, the former Apple and Google designer made a pitch: stop borrowing ideas from Microsoft and Apple, and start building something new.
Jenson makes a straightforward case: the desktop has stayed the same for 20 years. It still depends on the “windows, icons, menus, pointer” (WIMP) model that shaped computing in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet people now use their machines for far more tasks, and the software has failed to keep pace.
“There were plenty of new ideas and improvements in the 1980s and 1990s, and then it just stabilized, and not much has really changed.”
The Case Against Stasis
Jenson’s talk drew on his own career. He worked on the Chrome team at Google, where he said the staff were “filled with people who wanted nothing but open-source, open-web” projects. He left Google, “but I’m trying to atone for my sins working for these companies,” he said.
He now focuses on Mastodon and Home Assistant, attempting to “squeeze a little bit more good UX design into open source.”. He described himself as someone with extensive experience in UX, much of it spent at Google, and pointed to a cultural shift since 2005, when he first joined, remarking that “back in 2005 when I joined, we weren’t evil; we were really trying to do the right thing.”.
The complaint is mild in tone. Many open-source projects lack sufficient personnel, which means that user experience design frequently gets little attention. Jenson argues that developers should try new approaches and push the desktop past the standard WIMP model.
What Changed at Ubuntu
Jenson’s ideas have legs. He gave a similar talk at Ubuntu’s conference last year, which drew more than half a million views on YouTube. By YouTube standards that is trivial, he said, but by his own standards it is enormous.
He learned the subject held weight through what it revealed to him, and this time he displayed early versions of his own concepts alongside the lesson.
The Finder Story
Jenson made his case using a tale involving the Macintosh’s Finder, a file manager. The group wished to append ellipses to titles that ran longer than the space allowed. Programmers favored placing the ellipsis at the close of the name, though Jenson felt such a placement cost too much detail.
He suggested putting the ellipsis in the middle of the file name instead. “It’s now considered to be one of those things that’s an exciting little attention-to-detail issue the Macintosh does,” he said.
Drag and Drop on Linux
Jenson also spent time refining how users move files between windows by clicking and dragging on the Mac. When a user presses the mouse button, that’s called mouse down. Releasing it is called mouse up. The Mac handles these actions separately: an item gets selected when the button is pressed, while the window doesn’t raise until the button is released.
If a person drags an icon from one Finder window into another window, the original window stays put and isn’t brought forward. Many other systems don’t work that way. On those systems, when someone clicks and holds down on a file inside a window that’s sitting behind others, that window rises up as soon as the finger touches it.
“That complicates trying to click and drag a file from one window to another,” Jenson said. “That is a fundamental action that means that users can’t move data into applications quite as easily on Linux as they can on the Mac.”
A KDE Developer Responds
Jenson brought up the drag-and-drop problem on Mastodon two years ago. A KDE developer heard about it and thought it would make sense to split apart the mouse-down and mouse-up actions during data transfers between windows. The developer put the fix into place within a few hours.
“I forgot who that was. So if anybody here did that,” Jenson said, before a voice from somewhere in the room responded, “you’re welcome.”
Jenson yelled “thank you! I’ve been wanting to meet you for two years!” That was an example, he said, of how open source can be awesome: someone can just say “that’s a good idea, I’ll just do it” and then rapidly implement and push the feature to the project.
The Problem With Drafting Behind Apple
Much of the UX for Linux systems was originally copied from Windows and the Mac. KDE even says it is for Windows users, that it wants to be similar to Windows for users. There is nothing wrong with that, Jenson said, but he felt that the Linux community “in general” had been leaning on Microsoft and Apple to do all of the UX research and testing, “and frankly, [make] the mistakes.”
It could be argued that GNOME has carried out user research to support certain design shifts, while KDE’s human-interface guidelines (HIG) were likewise shaped by research from its own contributors. Jenson accepted that these cases represent exceptions rather than the standard practice.
There is no organization funding or carrying out routine UX design research and development for the Linux desktop as a whole.
Apple’s Abandoned Desktop
Jenson argued that it makes sense to let Apple and Microsoft take the lead on such initiatives “so we can draft behind them,” but the issue is that “they’ve just kind of given up to an extent.” Apple’s desktop user experience and hardware have been allowed to slip “languish for years and years and years”, since the company moved its attention toward the iPhone and iPad.
“I mean, like, Apple wanted the Mac to die. They wanted the world to move over to the iPad. Guess what? It didn’t.”
Since Apple shifted its focus back to the Mac, the company’s subsequent moves — including the Liquid Glass design language — haven’t found much favor with users. According to Jenson, the features Apple tends to add are “basically about tying it closer to the iPhone, tying you closer into their ecosystem.”.
What Comes Next
At Akademy, Jenson made his case for taking the lead on desktop design, and he wants others to join him rather than being told what to do. His aim is to rally support from the audience, not to argue with them. He believes open source projects need significant assistance when it comes to UX design.
His illustrations demonstrate that minor refinements can be significant. A more intelligent drag-and-drop scheme, a more accurate ellipsis placement — such touches are what give a platform its current feel.
Two years ago, a KDE developer answered Jenson’s Mastodon post, proving what open source can accomplish when someone simply steps up and does the work. Now Jenson hopes for more of the same.
Key Facts Box
- Jenson’s Ubuntu talk drew more than half a million views on YouTube
- A KDE developer thought it was a good idea to separate mouse down and mouse up actions when dragging data between windows, and they implemented it a few hours later
- Jenson worked on the Chrome team at Google
- He now works on Mastodon and Home Assistant
- KDE’s HIG was developed based on research by its contributors
- GNOME has conducted user research for some of its design changes
The Verdict
The desktop has become stable, and those who rely on it deserve something better. Jenson’s address is a summons to action, urging open-source projects to cease waiting for Apple and Microsoft to set the direction and instead begin experimenting on their own.
A funny exchange with a KDE developer who replied mid-sentence shows that some of the best ideas emerge from people who simply choose to create them. Jenson wants to see more of that kind of initiative.
Jenson makes the argument that the desktop is long past due for an update.
Source material: “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop,” lwn.net.
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