It's very interesting how the hierarchical file system was something that users couldn't understand, and today with mobile and web we see an almost complete rej

It's very interesting how the hierarchical file system was something that users couldn't understand, and today with mobile and web we see an almost complete rejection of the file system or hierarchies as a principle of user interaction. I always found the hierarchical start menu a pain to use. Every company insisted on creating a submenu for their company, then another submenu for their program. And it's quite unfortunate that Microsoft didn't take charge until Windows 10. They didn't set a much better example with their software, and they let everyone do whatever they wanted in the Start menu, resulting in a poor user experience. What I have been doing since Windows 2000 was to move the shortcuts to the actual programs into the top level start menu folder, and all these useless folders into a top-level folder named Crap. So conceptually the home screen of today's phones. That's what the Start menu should have been about, exclusively: Start programs. Not a help.chm. Not the uninstall.exe. Not a link to the company home page that nobody ever uses. Just the program. And Microsoft should have enforced that from the beginning. Hierarchies are not needed most of the time. To locate an item, a hierarchy of folders where the items are mostly hidden is probably the worst solution. It's easier for me to locate something in a list sorted alphabetically where every item is visible. And the best solution is spatial consistency: Put the items in a fixed place on the screen (or keyboard). That's how it works in the real world, and that's what the brain is optimized for.