4 ms·

"8/ we finally got rid of files. dropbox, google drive, soundcloud, spotify, netflix, hbogo, youtube, wattpad, kindle, and a host of other cloud based services

"8/ we finally got rid of files. dropbox, google drive, soundcloud, spotify, netflix, hbogo, youtube, wattpad, kindle, and a host of other cloud based services finally killed off three letter filenames" This is amazing and I guess I'll need to meditate over this fact (as I still like those files on my computer, feels as if I own them). For now I'd still recommend holding on to your important stuff and considering the nature of the relationship between you and your cloud provider.

marcusgarvey 12y ago
This completely ignores the impact of the Snowden revelations which might curtail this trend.
- DanBC 12y ago
  The overwhelming majority of people have made no changes after Snowden. Even on HN most people have only made a few changes. Only a tiny number of HN users have PGP / GPG keys available, for one example.
jordanpg 12y ago
It's interesting to consider this observation in the context of young people who will grow up largely without the abstraction of local file storage at all. Anyone over 30 or so still feels slightly nervous or protective of their files, but that's only because we've internalized the analogy between stored data and physical stuff. I suspect the abstraction of a local filesystem will become more and more quaint and give way to popular abstraction involving a remote, distributed filesystem of some sort.
vezzy-fnord 12y ago
We haven't gotten rid of files, we've just obfuscated their existence. Akin to putting a splash screen, or allegorically sticking our heads in the sand. If we had actually devised an alternative to hierarchical file systems and moved to something like a persistent object store (as with Newton OS, PalmOS and some other platforms), that would have been impressive, though in the long term might not turn out well due to relative novelty and lack of battle testing to the idea. In fact, trying to pretend files don't exist in an environment dominated by them is foolish.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  The goal isn't to get rid of files so much as filing cabinets and folders. I think we are still a long way from that.
mjklin 12y ago
Especially in light of what Bitcasa pulled this year...
forrestthewoods 12y ago
Don't dropbox and google drive simply mirror files in the cloud? The other things eliminate files but I'm not sure what those two contribute to the file genocide.
- jschwartzi 12y ago
  They only do this to the extent that your local mirror is a physical copy of the latest version of the datastore in the cloud. So if someone deletes something in the cloud, it is removed from your local datastore. Additionally, if someone deletes something in their local copy, that local copy is mirrored to the cloud, which subsequently deletes that data from your local copy. They are not mirroring your data, you are mirroring their data.
jasonkostempski 12y ago
I feel like this trend will reverse itself when the current generation becomes nostalgic and realize they have nothing to pass on to their children.
- chime 12y ago
  Maybe passing on files to children is not something most people will even have to worry about because social media stores everything forever. Once we've shared our life's worth of holiday photos with our kids on Facebook or G+, they'll still be able to access them after we're gone. Maybe the things we want to pass on to our kids will be more tactile. Our first iPhone or 3d-printed wrench? Or maybe the same type of heirlooms that have been passed down families for generations - jewelry, watches, paintings. Sure we won't be giving handwritten letters to our progeny but frankly, that's our own fault. I haven't even written a single letter to my wife! And I don't want our banal "where u at" text messages to be memorialized for posterity. Our vacation photos or public blog entries shared online will do just fine.
X-combinator 12y ago
Totally agree, And having your own cloud is another practical choice.
fiatjaf 12y ago
And that is awful, right? We got rid of files by the same way we could get rid of files 20 years ago: by not having them anymore, burning them, storing our information in other people's files.
tim333 12y ago
I just clicked my Dropbox icon and what pops up is a list of files with extensions like .pdf, .txt. They don't seem terribly killed off. Wilson's observation seems to be more that people don't bother storing a lot of stuff like mp3s on their phones which is fair enough it you can stream your music adequately.

marcusgarvey 12y ago

This completely ignores the impact of the Snowden revelations which might curtail this trend.

DanBC 12y ago
The overwhelming majority of people have made no changes after Snowden. Even on HN most people have only made a few changes. Only a tiny number of HN users have PGP / GPG keys available, for one example.

jordanpg 12y ago

It's interesting to consider this observation in the context of young people who will grow up largely without the abstraction of local file storage at all. Anyone over 30 or so still feels slightly nervous or protective of their files, but that's only because we've internalized the analogy between stored data and physical stuff. I suspect the abstraction of a local filesystem will become more and more quaint and give way to popular abstraction involving a remote, distributed filesystem of some sort.

vezzy-fnord 12y ago

We haven't gotten rid of files, we've just obfuscated their existence. Akin to putting a splash screen, or allegorically sticking our heads in the sand. If we had actually devised an alternative to hierarchical file systems and moved to something like a persistent object store (as with Newton OS, PalmOS and some other platforms), that would have been impressive, though in the long term might not turn out well due to relative novelty and lack of battle testing to the idea. In fact, trying to pretend files don't exist in an environment dominated by them is foolish.

seanmcdirmid 12y ago
The goal isn't to get rid of files so much as filing cabinets and folders. I think we are still a long way from that.

mjklin 12y ago

Especially in light of what Bitcasa pulled this year...

forrestthewoods 12y ago

Don't dropbox and google drive simply mirror files in the cloud? The other things eliminate files but I'm not sure what those two contribute to the file genocide.

jschwartzi 12y ago
They only do this to the extent that your local mirror is a physical copy of the latest version of the datastore in the cloud. So if someone deletes something in the cloud, it is removed from your local datastore. Additionally, if someone deletes something in their local copy, that local copy is mirrored to the cloud, which subsequently deletes that data from your local copy. They are not mirroring your data, you are mirroring their data.

jasonkostempski 12y ago

I feel like this trend will reverse itself when the current generation becomes nostalgic and realize they have nothing to pass on to their children.

chime 12y ago
Maybe passing on files to children is not something most people will even have to worry about because social media stores everything forever. Once we've shared our life's worth of holiday photos with our kids on Facebook or G+, they'll still be able to access them after we're gone. Maybe the things we want to pass on to our kids will be more tactile. Our first iPhone or 3d-printed wrench? Or maybe the same type of heirlooms that have been passed down families for generations - jewelry, watches, paintings. Sure we won't be giving handwritten letters to our progeny but frankly, that's our own fault. I haven't even written a single letter to my wife! And I don't want our banal "where u at" text messages to be memorialized for posterity. Our vacation photos or public blog entries shared online will do just fine.

X-combinator 12y ago

Totally agree, And having your own cloud is another practical choice.

fiatjaf 12y ago

And that is awful, right? We got rid of files by the same way we could get rid of files 20 years ago: by not having them anymore, burning them, storing our information in other people's files.

tim333 12y ago

I just clicked my Dropbox icon and what pops up is a list of files with extensions like .pdf, .txt. They don't seem terribly killed off. Wilson's observation seems to be more that people don't bother storing a lot of stuff like mp3s on their phones which is fair enough it you can stream your music adequately.