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Of applications and documents
From: |
David Adam Bordoley |
Subject: |
Of applications and documents |
Date: |
Sun, 01 Jun 2003 22:43:42 -0400 |
Stefan Urbanek requested that I forward this email from the linux step
general list to you guys.
Greetings,
Let me introduce myself. My name is dave and I have been somewhat active in
gnome over the last year or so, mostly with an interest in usability. I've
lurked on this list for a while with some interest, and thought i might add
some comments following some of the recent discussion about what
applications should be included in linuxstep.
My first instinct is to reply that linux step should include no applications
at all. Of course I mean this figuratively. Instead i think linux step has a
real opportunity to escape the traditional application metaphor and instead
provide a documented oriented view of the user's system.
In general what this means is that the ui will not expose the user to
implementation detail of of applications at all. For instance instead of
having an email client, the user would have a mailbox on there desktop whose
icon relays information to the user about the status of their mail (ie.
whether there are unread emails, new emails etc.) The user need not be aware
that they are using an email program, they are simply manipulating their
mail folder.
This concept can further be expanded to other types of documents. Instead of
managing folders using a file manager, the user directly manipulates the
folder (there is no proxy between the user and the folder. This is very
similar to how the original macintosh finder worked until they broke it in
osx). Of course I should add that ideally linuxstep would abandon or at
least supplement the traditional unix filesystem with a database oriented
search one (reiserfs may provide a solution here, although I'm not too
familiar with the details).
I claim no originality for these ideas (they've been around in some form for
at least the past 15 years, probably longer). I really hope linux step is
able to deliver, it seems like a very promising project.
dave
- Of applications and documents,
David Adam Bordoley <=