2 ms·

Why did categories instead of folders never take off? Just implementation complexity?

• jodrellblank 16y ago
  In a sense it did - the "open file" dialog in most modern programs is filtered to only show files the program can use - .doc or .bmp or whatever. It's not precisely system wide tags or categories, but it's a closely related solution.
• Zev 16y ago
  Filesystems were never quite ready for it.
• drawkbox 16y ago
  Originally they were trying to do as Curtis mentioned. Files were to match documents, photos etc that might go in a file folder in a file cabinet. I guess the file cabinet was the computer. Categories would work. But they are abstract and folders/files mapped to physical objects that were part of offices at the time. Recycle Bin/Trash, same thing, trying to map to real-world at the time. I think the death of files is overrated though. I mean even on the touch os I can go to search and search for... files. No file browser like Finder or Windows Explorer work when you have a killer Spotlight like search.