#retrospective

Posts on X2Q tagged retrospective. Updated as new posts are published.

• Jun 7, 2026

  From Launchy to Raycast: the history of the keystroke launcher (2007 → 2026)

  Back in 2007 I recorded a short demo of Launchy — a keystroke application launcher that replaced the Windows Start menu with a few typed letters. That idea (hit a hotkey, type, fuzzy-match, launch) started on the Mac with Quicksilver and LaunchBar, jumped to Windows via Launchy, spread to Linux, then split in two: it grew into productivity platforms like Alfred and Raycast, and it dissolved into the Cmd+K command palette that now lives inside nearly every app. Here's the 19-year arc.

• Jun 7, 2026

  From Xming on Windows XP to WSLg: 18 years of Linux GUI apps on Windows (2026)

  Years ago I recorded Xming — an X11 server for Windows — displaying a remote Linux gedit window on a Windows XP desktop over SSH. That trick (install an X server, forward X11 over SSH) was how you ran Linux GUI apps on Windows for two decades. In 2026 you barely do it anymore: WSLg ships a Wayland/X server inside Windows, so `apt install` a Linux app and it just opens. Here's the arc from then to now, and what to actually use today.

• Apr 22, 2026

  Hacking Wi-Fi across 25 years — 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2022, 2027

  Twenty-five years of Wi-Fi security in one post: WEP fell in 2001, WPA2 dominated for a decade, KRACK broke it in 2017, WPA3 slowly took over, and by 2027 the attack surface is 6 GHz, management-frame-protection gaps, and social engineering. Defensive guidance included.