I’m Trying to Work Inside a Meta Quest 2: First Leonardvs OS Experiment
For a while I’ve been doing something very nerdy, slightly uncomfortable, and dangerously promising: I’m trying to work inside a Meta Quest 2.
Not playing VR games every now and then.
Not watching Netflix on a giant virtual screen.
Actually working.
Windows PC running at home, headset on, virtual workspace in front of me, screens everywhere, Wi-Fi, Horizon Link, SideQuest, Tailscale, and my phone hotspot when I’m away.
If everything behaves, I’m technically “at home” even when I’m not at home.
And that is making me think a lot.
Because this is not only about VR. It is about space. It is also one of the first concrete experiments inside what I’m starting to call Leonardvs OS.
What Leonardvs OS is
Leonardvs OS is not an operating system in the classic sense.
It is not Linux, Windows, macOS, or some custom distro I install at 3 a.m. while questioning my life choices.
It is my personal operating system.
The way I’m trying to connect work, content, AI agents, automation, notes, community, live streams, tools and physical setup into one flow.
TheVan.dev is the public lab.
Leonardvs OS is the system I’m building inside that lab.
The Quest 2, in this picture, is not “the VR headset”. It is a possible interface. A way to step into the system instead of only looking at it through a monitor.
Yes, I want a cyberpunk workspace
Let’s start with the less elegant truth: part of me is doing this because it looks cool.
There is something stupidly powerful about putting on a headset and ending up inside a command room. Floating windows, virtual monitors, remote desktop, tools around you.
It is the kind of cyberpunk workspace you see as a kid and think: one day I want to work like that.
Then that day arrives and the virtual keyboard makes you want to throw everything out of the window.
Still, the point remains.
I want to understand whether a mixed reality environment can put me in a more advanced working state. Not by magic. Not because “the metaverse will change everything”, a sentence that makes my eyes bleed a little.
I care because physical space limits work more than we admit.
A desk. One or two monitors. Cables. A room. A laptop to carry around. The usual compromise between mobility and power.
With the Quest, at least in theory, that compromise changes.
The PC stays at home. I wear the office.
The interesting part is not the headset itself.
It is the idea that my PC can stay on at home and become an always available machine.
If I have the Quest with me, I can connect. If the connection is decent, I can work. If I’m outside, I can use the phone hotspot. With Tailscale I carry a VPN back home. With SideQuest I load what I need. With Horizon Link I use the Windows PC inside the virtual environment.
The practical result is a bit absurd: I don’t necessarily need to carry a laptop.
Or at least, that is the direction.
Live streams are a different problem. There are different latency needs, different setup constraints, different moving parts. But for work, writing, research, management, notes, planning, lightweight development or remote control, this starts to make sense.
That is the part that clicked for me.
Having a VR headset is one thing. Having a portable office is another.
Screens everywhere change how you think
The first thing you feel is space.
You are no longer trapped inside the rectangle of a monitor. You can place windows around you. One in front, one on the side, one above, one huge, one small.
It sounds trivial until you try it.
The browser can live there. Notes can stay on the left. Documentation can sit huge in front of you. Chats can stay in a separate zone, close enough to reach, far enough not to control the flow.
This is different from “having many windows open”.
It feels more like a room made of contexts.
Your brain remembers where things are. You move with your head, hands and eyes. It is not just multitasking. It is an expanded mental desk.
And yes, it is cool.
But it is not only cool.
For someone constantly moving between content, code, automation, notes, chats, ideas, experiments, Discord, Telegram, Notion, Obsidian and controlled chaos, more space is not a luxury. It is oxygen.
Physical monitors eventually end.
Here the limit becomes how much setup friction you can tolerate, not how many inches you have on the desk.
Productivity is there, but you have to earn it
I don’t want to sell this as perfect.
It is not.
There are moments where you really do feel more productive. Everything is available, large, separated. The noise of the physical world drops. Work becomes more immersive.
Then one small bit of friction breaks the spell.
A window does not focus properly. Input is slower than expected. The keyboard is awkward. A gesture needs repeating. Text is not perfectly readable. Quest 2 passthrough works, but not well enough to feel natural.
For VR work, possible is not enough.
It has to be fluid.
That is the difference between an interesting experiment and a daily tool.
I can tolerate friction because I’m curious, nerdy and stubborn. But if every micro action costs more energy than normal, you go back to the physical monitor. Not because it is more futuristic, but because it is faster.
The future loses against convenience more often than we like to admit.
The real final boss is the keyboard
The missing physical keyboard is the biggest problem.
Hand tracking feels promising, especially as a mouse replacement. I’m not saying it is perfect, but there I feel habit plays a big role. You need to change gestures, change rhythm, stop looking for the classic pointer like a lost pet.
The keyboard is different.
Writing without physical feedback is hard.
And work means writing. A lot.
Messages. Code. Prompts. Notes. Titles. Commands. URLs. Article paragraphs that you delete because they suck. Then more writing.
A virtual keyboard is fine for survival. Not for living there.
Physical feedback matters. Muscle memory matters. Not having to look at the keys matters. Fixing mistakes quickly matters.
You only notice this when it disappears.
So yes, the virtual environment can be beautiful. But if I don’t solve the keyboard, this stays a lab. It does not become a real workstation yet.
The mouse might die. Maybe.
I’m more open-minded about the mouse.
I miss it, but not in the same way.
Hand tracking already makes sense for many interactions: pointing, selecting, moving windows, clicking large elements, navigating space. It is not the same as a physical mouse, especially when precision matters, but I can imagine getting used to it.
Maybe this is where VR can actually change a habit.
The mouse was born for a 2D plane. Mixed reality is a space.
Expecting everything to behave like a classic desk may be the wrong way to judge it.
Maybe the mouse should not be replaced one to one. Maybe it should be outgrown.
Not today, not always, not for everything. But for some things, yes.
The keyboard, for me, is still sacred.
Quest 2 shows the future, but not comfortably enough
Quest 2 gives me a clear answer: the concept works.
Not perfectly, but it works.
It is already good enough to show me this kind of setup could become a serious part of my workflow. Not something I use once every two weeks to say “wow”. A real working mode.
But Quest 2 also feels like a starting point.
Passthrough is the main limitation. If you want to work in mixed reality, seeing the world around you is not a bonus. It is part of the system.
You need to see a physical keyboard. Grab a glass without starting a side quest. Check the real room without removing the headset every two minutes. Feel that the border between the physical room and the virtual workspace is soft enough.
That is why I’m considering an upgrade.
If I find the budget, around 600 euro, the Quest 3S becomes interesting mainly for better passthrough.
I don’t just want “a newer headset”. I want less friction.
More readability. More comfort. More natural transitions. Less feeling of wearing a prototype of the future. More feeling of using a work tool.
If the headset wants to become an office, it must stop impressing me every five minutes.
It has to disappear.
Quest as a Leonardvs OS interface
The more I think about it, the more it fits what I’m building.
TheVan.dev is not just a website or a container for articles. At least, I don’t want it to be that.
I want it to be a lab.
A place where I test setups, tools, AI agents, automation, creator workflows, software development, content, streaming, weird ideas that may not be mainstream yet but could become useful.
Leonardvs OS is the name I’m giving to the system behind all of this.
The Quest 2 fits perfectly here. I’m not saying everyone should throw away their monitor and live in VR. Absolutely not.
I’m testing whether I can build a personal cockpit.
A space to work, create, code, write, control systems, manage content and maybe one day do all of this without depending on a specific desk.
There is something powerful in that idea.
My computer stays at home. My environment follows me. My office is no longer a room. It is a configuration.
Current verdict
Quest 2 is not my final office yet.
But it is the first time I actually believe in the direction.
The spatial part works. Screens everywhere work. The always available PC idea works. Tailscale plus hotspot plus headset creates an almost ridiculous but very real scenario: I’m outside, I connect, and I re-enter my environment.
The problems are clear:
- physical keyboard is almost mandatory;
- input still needs to feel more natural;
- Quest 2 passthrough is not good enough for truly comfortable mixed reality;
- headset comfort can improve;
- the setup is still a bit too much for tinkerers.
But the direction is right.
And that is what matters to me.
We are not at “from tomorrow I only work like this”.
We are at the more interesting stage: this is not ready, but it is ready enough to make me want to fix the missing pieces.
That is usually where the best experiments begin.
The question I’m left with
The question is no longer “can you work in VR?”.
Yes, you can.
The question is: how much friction am I willing to accept for a portable, expanded, always available workspace?
And how quickly will that friction disappear over the next few years?
If all it takes is better passthrough, comfort and input, the conversation changes.
At that point the future of remote work is not only the thinner laptop, the bigger monitor or the cleaner desk.
It could be a personal space you wear.
An office that does not exist until you put it on.
Yes, that sounds cyberpunk.
But this time it does not feel like just aesthetics.
It feels almost practical.