Rethinking the computer ‘desktop’ as a concept
That's not the only metaphore that doesn't work any more. There are others as well:<p>- files and folders (the article speaks about them). That's so ...50s. We need 'piece of information' to be the basic building block, and abstract away the storage details.<p>- processes (as in programs that run on a computer). Again, a 50s concept. Today we need ...functions. Programs running should be reusable functions put together by anyone, changeable by anyone (within the security context provided by the origin), debugable by anyone.<p>- network. No one cares about the why and how of networks. We just want to get stuff done.<p>- environment variables, the console, the environment etc. Another 70s technology that has survived and nowadays creates as many issues as it solves.<p>- program installations. We should simply press a button and applications would appear running on our machines. How this could be achieved? lazy downloading, local caching, on the fly updating if a resource is updated, etc. We already do this with web applications, but the next step shall be to do this without referring to the 'web'.<p>This doesn't mean the technical details of the above shouldn't exist. They obviously should exist. But not for 'mainstream' use of a computer. This kind of detail should only be available to technicians that troubleshoot technical issues.