Rethinking the computer ‘desktop’ as a concept
That's not the only metaphore that doesn't work any more. There are others as well:- 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.- 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.- network. No one cares about the why and how of networks. We just want to get stuff done.- environment variables, the console, the environment etc. Another 70s technology that has survived and nowadays creates as many issues as it solves.- 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'.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.