ScreenGuard gives Linux app limits that can minimize the window eating your afternoon

The distracting window gets minimized when its time runs out. ScreenGuard gives Linux a version of the app limits familiar from phones, including the small act of negotiating with your own earlier decisions.

The project README describes per-app quotas, a warning at 90 percent and a lockout at the full allowance. The lockout can add fifteen minutes or edit the limit. Self-control has a settings panel (of course it does).

Its Wayland support currently depends on GNOME and a Shell extension. The project describes broad X11 desktop support but also marks active-window tracking and minimization there as being in community testing. A support heading and a qualification note can both be true; the note is the part to read before installing it for someone else.

Focus Mode adds a Pomodoro timer and a selectable list of distracting applications. Blocked apps can be minimized during a session. An optional stricter behavior closes them, which is a much bigger decision when a window might contain work worth keeping.

The useful distinction is between a reminder and a boundary you cannot bypass. ScreenGuard’s visible extension and editing controls make it a tool for the person using the desktop. The described behavior should not be presented as a tamper-proof policy for somebody else’s machine.

Its dashboard breaks usage down by app and day. That could help answer a specific question before applying any limits: which application is taking the time? A browser total alone may still mix work, mail and the video that somehow acquired three sequels.

Storage is local in SQLite. The README also documents optional anonymous diagnostics enabled by default, with a setting to turn them off. Local usage records and an installation ping describe different data paths, so calling the entire application network-free would overstate the claim.

The stated diagnostic payload includes an installation identifier, version and desktop or distribution information. Anyone choosing the app because of its local records should check that setting deliberately. Privacy is easier to evaluate when the footnotes sit beside the attractive promise.

The dashboard can move through weeks and inspect an individual day, with a per-app breakdown. That makes it possible to compare a supposedly productive afternoon with its recorded applications. A weekly total can hide one very enthusiastic detour, especially when the detour arrived inside the same browser used for work.

Data controls include deletion by date range or specific date, as well as a clear-all option. Those controls matter for a tracking utility that might accumulate a long personal history. Keeping the records on the computer gives the owner custody; practical deletion controls let that owner decide how long the history belongs there.

For a first trial, a harmless app can establish whether the chosen desktop records usage and applies the intended action. Minimizing and closing deserve different treatment if work could be lost. The documented testing caveat leaves the central compatibility question open for the particular session being used.

Fifteen more minutes, naturally.