"Whenever there is a conversation about the future of computing, is discussion inevitably turns to the notion of a 'File'. After all, most tablets and phones don't show the user anything that resembles a file, only Apps that contain their own content, tucked away inside their own opaque storage structure. This is wrong. Files are abstraction layers around content that are necessary for interoperability. Without the notion of a File or other similar shared content abstraction, the ability to use different applications with the same information grinds to a halt, which hampers innovation and user experience." Aside from the fact that a file manager for Android is just a click away, and aside from the fact that Android's share menu addresses many of these concerns, his point still stands: files are not an outdated, archaic concept. One of my biggest gripes with iOS is just how user-hostile the operating system it when it comes to getting stuff - whatever stuff - to and from the device.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Well, many (most?) people in some countries are presumably lost without automatic gearbox...
Anyway, you know, the whole point of computers is to act as sort of prostheses of our minds, to free them for really important stuff - if that means largely moving away from files and folders (especially considering immense increases each year in the amounts of data we generate), so be it.
BTW, how much time do you spend making that shit organised in the first place? Also, "I can find most anything I want in there under 30 seconds" self-reporting really won't do ...reporting such things like that, by the very same thing which does them in "obviously" better way, doesn't really work (our brains are very powerful, self-deception of such kind is a trivial trick for them; for example: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/Mouse_vs._keyboard/index.html or the need for ABX tests in audio, or http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2008/pr-wine-011608.html ).
I'm fairly certain you still use Google, despite large decently categorised repositories of information (there's Wiki with all its categories you can go through manually, and still some quite extensive web directories)
And I guess some were saying similar things about being familiar with actual logical (~sectors and such) structure of mass storage, not too long ago...
PS. But, "Why files exist" ...to suffer? (get deleted and/or forgotten, I guess 
)
Edited 2012-07-06 23:48 UTC
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Member since:
2006-01-08
I have ~3TB worth of drives in my destkop PC. I can find most anything I want in there under 30 seconds and I never use any kind of search function. How? I make it a point to keep my shit organized. Like I was taught when I started using computers 20 years ago.
Files and folders are an excellent way to do this which is why I hope the traditional file system sticks around and doesn't morph into something like the dumbed-down mobile OSs where you are at the mercy of the operating system and apps to kindly give you access to your data.
I don't get the argument that "users don't care about files". Can you drive a car and say "i don't care about the gearbox or the break pedal i just want to go"? If you don't care enough to learn the basics you have no business using the device anyway.