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

[Allan Caeg <allancaeg gmail com>]

Interesting responses.

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 5:10 PM, Thorsten Wilms <t_w_ freenet de> wrote:

I don't think somehow trying to hide the file-system is a good solution.
I think the solution would be a better file-system, one that stops
trying to be a tree and instead does what we already see in photo and
music library-style applications in an uniform way.

I have the same idea. To be clear, I'm not proposing to implement something like the iPhone OS, where files can be accessed *only* through the applications that can open them. I like how it works on Android. Files that are relevant to an application are very easily accessed, but there's still a freedom to access the filesystem. Right now, the best solution I can think of is a better filesystem (as Thorsten mentioned), or at least, a better way of presenting files on folders on a file manager.

Doing things the iPhone way on the desktop could be very impractical. Even Apple doesn't do it (yet, at least) on their desktop OS. Development wise, it seems too difficult to touch each app to follow this paradigm.

I think, it's possible to come up with something for GNOME 3.0 in this regard. One file manager *could* be the solution for now. I'm thinking of the file manager as a house. I go to the kitchen to prepare my food then I'll have my meal in the dining area. There could also be houses with rooms that are designed for more purposes than one, like a kitchen which could also serve as a dining area. For the file manager, I would go to X where my music files are managed. It could be that X only plays my media. It could also be that X can play media and manipulate media files (change file formats, resize, etc). This is just a quick idea. I encourage others to explore this possibility.