Note that even the 'browse system' mentioned above isn't really like browsing with ls. Articles are all referenced by an article id... I assume that they, or at least information on where to find them, are drawn from a database.
How would you browse that database if the search function broke?
The real problem here is a limited understanding of 'search'. In the same way that iTunes/Tiger/etc. can organize things into 'smart folders' based on stored searches, there's no reason that the end user even needs to know how data is stored or accessed on the media.
Of course, shipping an 850GB DVD with no folder-style organization and assuming that people have an OS that can read its metadata and provide that sort of virtual folder organization wouldn't work at the moment, but there's no reason to think that it won't become the norm by the time we start carrying around 1TB flash drives or whatever.
Imagine trying to look through ALL of your files manually because for whatever reason browsing by folders won't do the job. Imagine how slow the 'old' tools (checking the bits one by one) will work with all of the excess data associated with these so-called 'folders' getting in the way!
Slashdot Mirror
Note that even the 'browse system' mentioned above isn't really like browsing with ls. Articles are all referenced by an article id... I assume that they, or at least information on where to find them, are drawn from a database.
How would you browse that database if the search function broke?
The real problem here is a limited understanding of 'search'. In the same way that iTunes/Tiger/etc. can organize things into 'smart folders' based on stored searches, there's no reason that the end user even needs to know how data is stored or accessed on the media.
Of course, shipping an 850GB DVD with no folder-style organization and assuming that people have an OS that can read its metadata and provide that sort of virtual folder organization wouldn't work at the moment, but there's no reason to think that it won't become the norm by the time we start carrying around 1TB flash drives or whatever.
Imagine trying to look through ALL of your files manually because for whatever reason browsing by folders won't do the job. Imagine how slow the 'old' tools (checking the bits one by one) will work with all of the excess data associated with these so-called 'folders' getting in the way!
I don't see any reason why having good metadata in the filesystem would be any more problematic than the current system.
Then again, that BeOS didn't get very far.