Re: [Usability] New Paradigm of Computing for GNOME 3.0

[SZABÓ Gergely <szg subogero com>]

Allan Caeg wrote:
> Hello Usability People,
>
> I stumbled upon Matt Asay's article named The application is the new 
> operating system http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10448883-16.html . 
> I love the fact that a guy who think this way Canonical's new COO. 
> This is what open source needs.
>
> His points could be too radical for many Linux people, but we're 
> fortunate to have people who specialize in Usability and User 
> Experience. I encourage you to read the whole article. He preaches 
> focusing on the user and not just the development community. To do 
> that, he suggests treating the application as the new operating system.
>
> I read this idea on the iPad HIG. It doesn't show the filesystem and 
> it's implied that a person can access selected files by opening a 
> certain application. This way, the user flow on the computer would be 
> more similar to the real world. You go to your office suite to open 
> your work-related documents. It's like going to your bedroom to sleep. 
> The user flow of opening a file explorer to locate a file and open it 
> with a certain application isn't as close to people's mental model.
>
> I'm suggesting that we explore ways of implementing this idea to GNOME 
> 3.0. Let's discuss this.
> _______________________________________________
> Usability mailing list
> Usability gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability

Hello,

I've just read the original article. I find it a bit worrying that 
Canonical's Chief Whatever Officer calls the filesystem a remnant of a 
bygone era. On the contrary, I believe the Unix filesystem (and love) 
will still make the world tick when Facebook will be long forgotten.

I simply don't get it. Why would anybody ever want to hide the 
filesystem? The Unix filesystem is one of the brightest inventions of 
human history, besides the wheel, the bicycle and the Porsche 911. I 
agree that all out-of-the-box file managers (Nautilus, Finder, Explorer) 
are evil, but that's why we have the Midnight Commander and the Far 
Manager.

And this New Paradigm of Computing, where the App is the OS. It is 
actually a very old paradigm. It's called procedural programming. It is 
an outdated and bad paradigm. It is the spaghetti code, which is 
organised around what to do instead of concentrating on the data to work on.

It's no coincidence the slogans of the two coolest products of computing 
are these:

   * Everything is a file
   * Everything is an object

But honestly, I have nothing against shiny easy-to-use applications.
Just don't hide the filesystem, OK?

Best regards
Gergely