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Users do not know what a filesystem is. They don't want to know. Whilst the improvements enumerated here are undoubtedly improvements it's all lipstick on a pig

Users do not know what a filesystem is. They don't want to know. Whilst the improvements enumerated here are undoubtedly improvements it's all lipstick on a pig. It's time for the hierarchical filesystem to die.

sp332 15y ago
1. Press the "windows" key on your keyboard. 2. Type what you want to find. 3. Profit!
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- ugh 15y ago
  Search is part of the answer but it’s not the whole deal. Some users don’t like to search, it would be disastrous to just replace everything with search. I think that tailor made libraries that leverage metadata are the other part of the answer. All modern music players and photo library apps already do this, they have a tailor made interface specifically for browsing music and photos. It’s not necessary to ever touch a music file or a photo in the file system. The obvious problem are files you want to use in several applications – e.g. that CSS or JavaScript file you are working on. It wouldn’t make sense to give every app a library, that would only confuse and lead to inconsistencies. I do think, though, that this is a problem most casual users will never encounter. Just add a document library to Office and most people would be set.
cabirum 15y ago
They need to know, and if they don't know, they must learn some basics. Just like they must get a driver's license to drive a vehicle. Anything can be built on top of hierarchical filesystem. Windows already has libraries. Some alternative file managers support file tagging and user catalogs.
- benaston 15y ago
  No, they do not need to know about the filesystem. Take the iPad or iPod as examples. They have full-featured applications and the filesystem is invisible.
  - thomaslangston 15y ago
    Having the iPod hide the file system is the number one complaint I hear from people who own one. It works "okay" as long as you stay within Apple's ecosystem and can completely bomb if you venture onto other hardware/software/use cases.
    - benaston 15y ago
      Well, I can't disagree with your anecdote regarding complaints (although I have owned both iPod and iPad since they were released and have never had a problem beyond the iTunes file transfer flow being awful), BUT the constraint to the Apple ecosystem and the iTunes flow are implementation details orthogonal to the actual hiding of the filesystem (i.e. it is easy to see how Apple could make file sharing easier without introducing the concept of a filesystem).
  - sid0 15y ago
    How do you copy a bunch of documents and pictures to a USB drive if you don't have a full filesystem? "USB drives are outdated, use the cloud" is not a valid answer so don't even bother saying it.
    - benaston 15y ago
      Maybe I was unclear in my earlier comment. The best way of implementing file handling is likely some full full-featured filesystem under the hood. My point is that this can be abstracted away to something more user friendly than a tree containing hundreds or thousands of folders and files. Transfer off a device obviously needs to be considered, but exposing a device (e.g a USB drive) as a hierarchical filesystem is usually unneccessary (and, IMO, counter productive from a usability standpoint).

sp332 15y ago

1. Press the "windows" key on your keyboard. 2. Type what you want to find. 3. Profit!

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
ugh 15y ago
Search is part of the answer but it’s not the whole deal. Some users don’t like to search, it would be disastrous to just replace everything with search. I think that tailor made libraries that leverage metadata are the other part of the answer. All modern music players and photo library apps already do this, they have a tailor made interface specifically for browsing music and photos. It’s not necessary to ever touch a music file or a photo in the file system. The obvious problem are files you want to use in several applications – e.g. that CSS or JavaScript file you are working on. It wouldn’t make sense to give every app a library, that would only confuse and lead to inconsistencies. I do think, though, that this is a problem most casual users will never encounter. Just add a document library to Office and most people would be set.

cabirum 15y ago

They need to know, and if they don't know, they must learn some basics. Just like they must get a driver's license to drive a vehicle. Anything can be built on top of hierarchical filesystem. Windows already has libraries. Some alternative file managers support file tagging and user catalogs.

benaston 15y ago
No, they do not need to know about the filesystem. Take the iPad or iPod as examples. They have full-featured applications and the filesystem is invisible.
- thomaslangston 15y ago
  Having the iPod hide the file system is the number one complaint I hear from people who own one. It works "okay" as long as you stay within Apple's ecosystem and can completely bomb if you venture onto other hardware/software/use cases.
  - benaston 15y ago
    Well, I can't disagree with your anecdote regarding complaints (although I have owned both iPod and iPad since they were released and have never had a problem beyond the iTunes file transfer flow being awful), BUT the constraint to the Apple ecosystem and the iTunes flow are implementation details orthogonal to the actual hiding of the filesystem (i.e. it is easy to see how Apple could make file sharing easier without introducing the concept of a filesystem).
- sid0 15y ago
  How do you copy a bunch of documents and pictures to a USB drive if you don't have a full filesystem? "USB drives are outdated, use the cloud" is not a valid answer so don't even bother saying it.
  - benaston 15y ago
    Maybe I was unclear in my earlier comment. The best way of implementing file handling is likely some full full-featured filesystem under the hood. My point is that this can be abstracted away to something more user friendly than a tree containing hundreds or thousands of folders and files. Transfer off a device obviously needs to be considered, but exposing a device (e.g a USB drive) as a hierarchical filesystem is usually unneccessary (and, IMO, counter productive from a usability standpoint).