Speaker
Description
We're entering an era when free software users need to confidently pass an untrusted file attachment, from an unknown phone number, to a thumbnailer provided by an independent developer on an as-is basis. We built a thriving ecosystem of applications using tools to safely and easily distribute them. Now we need to make easier to leverage what we've built to bridge the gaps.
Some of our favorite applications like terminal emulators aren't associated with anything like a mime-type, so we've all been hard-coding defaults for decades now. Thumbnailing services are being sandboxed (and woe to them that deprive the people of thumbnail previews), while our URL handling has trouble fulfilling the expectations of modern authentication flows.
We need to be able to advertise services and interfaces supported by sandboxed processes and define defaults with security-conscious fallback policies. We also want independent developers to be able to define their own interfaces, so our ecosystem keeps thriving.
The XDG Intents specification has been incubating since David Faure proposed it several years ago and now we think the path forward has revealed itself.
Author(s) Bio
Andy Holmes is a GNOME user, developer and foundation member. Starting as a third-party developer, he has had the good fortune and honor to be a co-mentor, maintainer and occasion helping hand. When not writing code, you can find Andy playing folk instruments for his cats, taking pictures of his cats or thrift-store shopping for cat merchandise.
Twitter and/or Mastodon Handle
andyholmes@floss.social
| Participation | Remote |
|---|---|
| Level of Difficulty | Beginner |
| Pronouns | he/him |
