On March 17th, 2009 Anonymous (not verified) says:
I don't really understand the concerns you mention. The average user I see at work hasn't a clue how to get around the file system, and one of my routine tech support calls is helping people find a file when they can't remember where they saved it. For the vast majority of users, the less they see of the file system, the better. Backup could either be handled by a separate application, such as Time Machine or TimeVault; or from the application itself, such as how you backup bookmarks from within Firefox. If you're writing scripts, you're knowledgeable enough to know where the files are located.
I don't see how the arrangement mentioned here would make it any more difficult for a user to move files from one machine to another (though this would typically trip up any less-experienced user, regardless of how you do it), but the best way to do that would be through the backup utilities, whether provided by a separate backup utility or the program itself.
Using another application to access the files was mentioned in the slide deck when he mentioned how you can use F-Spot to access photos and it gives you the option to edit them in the Gimp. I love this feature, and is the most frequent method I use to access the Gimp.
I truly don't know how often the average user group things according to significance, but I don't see this happening very often with the average person. Even if it does, nobody is suggesting we get rid of folders altogether. You could still drag items from their respective handler application to another folder to keep a copy of it, or just make a link to the original file. Also, with people using the Internet so often, I believe it is becoming more natural for people to use search to find related objects than to use folders, so using tags and metadata and exposing that to the operating system's search would be more helpful.
Your paper filing cabinet analogy is specious at best. I don't know of anyone who uses a filing cabinet to store all their music, DVDs, photographs, and books together with their documents. That's why we have CD and DVD cases, photo albums, and book cases. Different types of media benefit from different kinds of storage in the real world, just as they benefit from different programs being used to access them on a computer.
I like his ideas.
I don't really understand the concerns you mention. The average user I see at work hasn't a clue how to get around the file system, and one of my routine tech support calls is helping people find a file when they can't remember where they saved it. For the vast majority of users, the less they see of the file system, the better. Backup could either be handled by a separate application, such as Time Machine or TimeVault; or from the application itself, such as how you backup bookmarks from within Firefox. If you're writing scripts, you're knowledgeable enough to know where the files are located.
I don't see how the arrangement mentioned here would make it any more difficult for a user to move files from one machine to another (though this would typically trip up any less-experienced user, regardless of how you do it), but the best way to do that would be through the backup utilities, whether provided by a separate backup utility or the program itself.
Using another application to access the files was mentioned in the slide deck when he mentioned how you can use F-Spot to access photos and it gives you the option to edit them in the Gimp. I love this feature, and is the most frequent method I use to access the Gimp.
I truly don't know how often the average user group things according to significance, but I don't see this happening very often with the average person. Even if it does, nobody is suggesting we get rid of folders altogether. You could still drag items from their respective handler application to another folder to keep a copy of it, or just make a link to the original file. Also, with people using the Internet so often, I believe it is becoming more natural for people to use search to find related objects than to use folders, so using tags and metadata and exposing that to the operating system's search would be more helpful.
Your paper filing cabinet analogy is specious at best. I don't know of anyone who uses a filing cabinet to store all their music, DVDs, photographs, and books together with their documents. That's why we have CD and DVD cases, photo albums, and book cases. Different types of media benefit from different kinds of storage in the real world, just as they benefit from different programs being used to access them on a computer.