I'm 100% with this idea. Managing the file system in a decent way is extra effort and a skill in itself. One that is just adjacent to the concept of using a computer for work.
In fact I'd dare to say having the filesystem as first and foremost UI, is bad UX. We just grew with it, so now it feels like the most natural way to work because we've spent decades getting used to it.
This became apparent to me when trying to teach computers to some people who were like a "blank slate" so they brought a fresh perspective to everything. The concept of applications seemed about right for them. But opening the dreaded File Explorer and swim through drive letters, virtual and real folders, having to be well organized, having to worry about backups of specific folders, etc... was (and still is) a daunting task for them. And one that is just tangential to the work they wanted to do in the first place.
> The concept of applications seemed about right for them. But opening the dreaded File Explorer and swim through drive letters, virtual and real folders, having to be well organized, having to worry about backups of specific folders, etc... was (and still is) a daunting task for them.
Dude, I grew up with computers in the mid-90s and that's all a daunting task for me, too. In fact, it may be WORSE for me than for a "blank slate".
I had switched to Linux on my personal machines for a number of years and then tried to help someone with a computer issue they were having with their Windows computer- I had NO IDEA where their "Pictures" folder was, or why I kept seeing the same file in multiple places as I clicked around the file explorer. I also feel like I was confused about something to do with "Desktop", but I don't quite recall what it was. It was honestly pretty disorienting- I thought I was in a weird carnival house of mirrors.
I don't honestly know --right now-- if you can save a file to one of these virtual "Pictures" places or not. Or, if you do, where it would actually go.
To be honest, I don't know either because I avoided them since the first time they got introduced.
Those folders is precisely Microsoft acknowledging there is something wrong about the files-first approach, but as usual, in trying to make it more approachable, they ended up with an even more confusing solution, virtual folders that try to abstract the actual filesystem hierarchy with some virtual collection folders based on file types.
> Those folders is precisely Microsoft acknowledging there is something wrong about the files-first approach, but as usual, in trying to make it more approachable, they ended up with an even more confusing solution, virtual folders that try to abstract the actual filesystem hierarchy with some virtual collection folders based on file types.
I don't think those are "virtual collection folders based on file types"; they're just virtual folders (=directories) that point to two (or more?) actual folders (=directories). AFAICR you can save .JPG or .PNG files in other folders, and they won't show up in any magic "Pictures" folder; you need to save into one of the actual "Pictures" folders -- your personal one, or the shared/public/all users (WETF it's called) one -- for that to happen.
But yeah, it feels like the "solution" is at least as confusing as the problem was to begin with.
> ...tried to help someone with a computer issue they were having with their Windows computer- I had NO IDEA where their "Pictures" folder was, or why I kept seeing the same file in multiple places as I clicked around the file explorer. I also feel like I was confused about something to do with "Desktop", but I don't quite recall what it was. It was honestly pretty disorienting- I thought I was in a weird carnival house of mirrors.
As I understand it, there are actually N+1 of all these categories of "semi-magical" directories on-disk -- where N is the number of different users registered on the machine -- but each user only sees (and has to care about) two of each category. And the confusing bit is that Windows tries to make it look, to each user, as if there is only one of each.
That is: There is a "Pictures" directory for each user, stored in something like C:\Users\<<TheirUserID>>\Pictures. Then there is also a shared C:\Users\All Users\Pictures directory (though see further below at [1]!) for, well, pictures that you want all users to be able to see... And finally, to top it off, there's the "virtual Pictures directory", kind of an alias (or Shortcut, in Windows lingo) to two directories at once: the users own, and the shared one. Just to make it look all un-confusing and user friendly, "here's the Pictures folder, where you keep your pictures". Road, paved, etc...
So, N+1 Pictures directories where each user interacts with their own + the shared one -- and likewise for the other "magical" per-user-plus-a-shared-one directories: Desktop, Start Menu, Music, etc.
> I don't honestly know --right now-- if you can save a file to one of these virtual "Pictures" places or not.
Oh yes, sure you can.
> Or, if you do, where it would actually go.
AFAIK, the default is the user's own directory; if they want to make it shared for all users on their machine, they have to jump through the hoop of explicitly digging out the "All Users\Pictures" directory to save to.
.
[1] Now, that said, this is apparently based on out-of-date information: As I looked through my Windows 10 box to check on the directory names right now, I noticed that "C:\Users\All Users\" is apparently also, in turn a "shortcut" (=alias) nowadays, pointing to somewhere in C:\ProgramData... So the above is as of now an oversimplification. But AFAICR that was actually how it worked, with the shared all-users directory being an actual physical directory on disk, in Windows NT, 2000, and I think XP. Dunno when it changed; maybe with Vista, 7, or 8.
In fact I'd dare to say having the filesystem as first and foremost UI, is bad UX. We just grew with it, so now it feels like the most natural way to work because we've spent decades getting used to it.
This became apparent to me when trying to teach computers to some people who were like a "blank slate" so they brought a fresh perspective to everything. The concept of applications seemed about right for them. But opening the dreaded File Explorer and swim through drive letters, virtual and real folders, having to be well organized, having to worry about backups of specific folders, etc... was (and still is) a daunting task for them. And one that is just tangential to the work they wanted to do in the first place.