I think lots of people are trying to say that the "Desktop Is Dead" based on the fact that there are just SCADS of people who can't figure it out, don't have any sense of organizational skills, wouldn't know how to group or file something if it came with complete step-by-step illustrated instructions (and often, this is the case), and generally misuse and underuse the capabilities of the computers they shell out good money for.
I will propose this: it doesn't matter what "metaphor" if any if used in computing. It doesn't matter if we try to arrange our computers like a desktop, an apartment, or, in the case of M$ WinDoze, and endless whorehouse of pandering and marketing. Some people just won't get it, just like some people will never get foreign films, sushi, or Jim Carrey. Not to say that Jim Carrey is necessarily talented, or that the desktop metaphor is necessarly the best way to represent and work with a computer. It just underscores the fact that no matter WHAT the metaphor, there will be users with no clue how to organize their work - and chances are, these are the same people who can't organize their lives, their bills, their personal relationships... I think I read somehwere that the average IQ is around 90. That means that a whole chunk of people reside below that line. Are you telling me that we'll EVER be able to definitively and easily explain the complex systems involved with computing to everyone using one particular method?
When comptuers were more simplistic, the desktop metaphor made a lot more sense. Now that computers are used for a multitude of different types of activities, often simultaneously, the desktop metaphor loses its all-enclosive grasp. But it still makes a lot of sense today - most people keep their desktop computers on their, well, desktops. If you plan on running your Win2K box or BeBox or NeXTStation or Mac OS box or Linux box as a server, does the desktop metaphor hold? The answer is a resounding hell no. But if you are using your new P4 1.5 GZ to surf AOL and download porn and MP3s, the desktop metaphor really does hold true, assuming the user has a decent sense of organizational skills. And if they don't, that's something they should learn WAAAAAAAY before they sit down and try to use a computer.
Maybe a licensing system is in order. "I'm sorry sir, you have 12 points on your Computing License for orgazational infractions. You're being restricted to using a Commodore 64."
This is interesting - Steve Jobs tried to kill the desktop metaphore and the HD icons with Mac OS X - anyone who used the Public Beta can tell u that it was quite a surprise to see that the HD icon DIDN'T appear on the "Desktop" and that the "Desktop" wasn't even called the "Desktop" anymore, but simply the "Finder."
In the current release of Mac OS X, Apple has sort of stepped backwards by putting the HD icons back on the "Desktop," mostly in response to a terrible uproar from the Mac faithful who couldn't imagine using their Macs WITHOUT that metaphor - let's be honest, Apple's implementation made a lot more sense than anyone else's, simply because with the classic Mac OS, you didn't even necessarily need to stick to their folder structure for your machine to work. You could bury your system folder 30 levels deep and still boot your machine.
But also worth noting is the fact that in the current Mac OS X, the user is given the option of whether or not to use HD icons on the desktop, and NOTHING is placed on the "desktop" by default. Its essentially a blank canvas when you boot into it, and it lets the user decide whether or not to use the metaphor.
Personally, I choose NOT to display my internal HDs on the desktop, instead I place a link to my data storing partition on the desktop, essentially hiding the rest of my HDs, which contain mainly just my Systems and Apps, and I also have the option to have REMOVABLE media appear on the desktop. This is another area where the Mac OS shines - you don't have a floppy icon or Zip icon or Jaz icon or whatever until you actually insert a disk into the computer. Having them appear on the desktop is instant visual feedback that YES, there IS a removable disk in the drive and it offers quick access to it.
So if you want to see an implementation of this scenario in action, get a sweet deal on a used beige or B&W G3, max out the RAM, and toss a copy of X onto it.
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I think lots of people are trying to say that the "Desktop Is Dead" based on the fact that there are just SCADS of people who can't figure it out, don't have any sense of organizational skills, wouldn't know how to group or file something if it came with complete step-by-step illustrated instructions (and often, this is the case), and generally misuse and underuse the capabilities of the computers they shell out good money for.
... I think I read somehwere that the average IQ is around 90. That means that a whole chunk of people reside below that line. Are you telling me that we'll EVER be able to definitively and easily explain the complex systems involved with computing to everyone using one particular method?
I will propose this: it doesn't matter what "metaphor" if any if used in computing. It doesn't matter if we try to arrange our computers like a desktop, an apartment, or, in the case of M$ WinDoze, and endless whorehouse of pandering and marketing. Some people just won't get it, just like some people will never get foreign films, sushi, or Jim Carrey. Not to say that Jim Carrey is necessarily talented, or that the desktop metaphor is necessarly the best way to represent and work with a computer. It just underscores the fact that no matter WHAT the metaphor, there will be users with no clue how to organize their work - and chances are, these are the same people who can't organize their lives, their bills, their personal relationships
When comptuers were more simplistic, the desktop metaphor made a lot more sense. Now that computers are used for a multitude of different types of activities, often simultaneously, the desktop metaphor loses its all-enclosive grasp. But it still makes a lot of sense today - most people keep their desktop computers on their, well, desktops. If you plan on running your Win2K box or BeBox or NeXTStation or Mac OS box or Linux box as a server, does the desktop metaphor hold? The answer is a resounding hell no. But if you are using your new P4 1.5 GZ to surf AOL and download porn and MP3s, the desktop metaphor really does hold true, assuming the user has a decent sense of organizational skills. And if they don't, that's something they should learn WAAAAAAAY before they sit down and try to use a computer.
Maybe a licensing system is in order. "I'm sorry sir, you have 12 points on your Computing License for orgazational infractions. You're being restricted to using a Commodore 64."
This is interesting - Steve Jobs tried to kill the desktop metaphore and the HD icons with Mac OS X - anyone who used the Public Beta can tell u that it was quite a surprise to see that the HD icon DIDN'T appear on the "Desktop" and that the "Desktop" wasn't even called the "Desktop" anymore, but simply the "Finder."
In the current release of Mac OS X, Apple has sort of stepped backwards by putting the HD icons back on the "Desktop," mostly in response to a terrible uproar from the Mac faithful who couldn't imagine using their Macs WITHOUT that metaphor - let's be honest, Apple's implementation made a lot more sense than anyone else's, simply because with the classic Mac OS, you didn't even necessarily need to stick to their folder structure for your machine to work. You could bury your system folder 30 levels deep and still boot your machine.
But also worth noting is the fact that in the current Mac OS X, the user is given the option of whether or not to use HD icons on the desktop, and NOTHING is placed on the "desktop" by default. Its essentially a blank canvas when you boot into it, and it lets the user decide whether or not to use the metaphor.
Personally, I choose NOT to display my internal HDs on the desktop, instead I place a link to my data storing partition on the desktop, essentially hiding the rest of my HDs, which contain mainly just my Systems and Apps, and I also have the option to have REMOVABLE media appear on the desktop. This is another area where the Mac OS shines - you don't have a floppy icon or Zip icon or Jaz icon or whatever until you actually insert a disk into the computer. Having them appear on the desktop is instant visual feedback that YES, there IS a removable disk in the drive and it offers quick access to it.
So if you want to see an implementation of this scenario in action, get a sweet deal on a used beige or B&W G3, max out the RAM, and toss a copy of X onto it.
You'll LOVE it.