I feel that, in the Desktop OS development progression, at some point the providers (MSFT, Apple, Lunix distros) simply exhausted the list of features that users actually need. I think for Microsoft it happened at around Windows XP (and some people think it was Win 95). At least for me, past Win XP, the OS simply gotten worse though the infinite bloat and making UI "cool and looking like Facebook page (the so called Facebook envy at the time)".
Desktop Mac OS, which I currently use, has 99% features that I don't need and don't like. I don't need to spend every second of my life checking latest social media posts, "cool" videos or "wonderful" songs. Luckily the UI is still good and kernel is still POSIX compliant, although I would strongly prefer straight Linux and none of the Apple's command line, storage and memory compression "innovations".
Desktop Ubuntu Unity -> everything is a search. Why do I need this? What wrong with the straight windowing system coming from XEROX PARC? It was designed to be just like the pieces of paper on your actual desk. Why would you not want this? It feels like innovation for the sake of innovation.
The way they try to "intelligently" organize everything and make "searching" the default way to access things really breaks the mental model. This disconnect also makes it hard to utilize muscle memory and procedural memory to find things. I remember when I was younger and using Windows 2000, I could flick my mouse like I was in CS:GO grand finals, and use keyboard shortcuts like I was hackerman. That speed came from a procedural familiarity, not from my young age at the time. I know that because kids of the current generation don't have the same abilities, because modern OSes, in their strive to simplify everything, have in fact created more friction for the user.
Desktop Mac OS, which I currently use, has 99% features that I don't need and don't like. I don't need to spend every second of my life checking latest social media posts, "cool" videos or "wonderful" songs. Luckily the UI is still good and kernel is still POSIX compliant, although I would strongly prefer straight Linux and none of the Apple's command line, storage and memory compression "innovations".
Desktop Ubuntu Unity -> everything is a search. Why do I need this? What wrong with the straight windowing system coming from XEROX PARC? It was designed to be just like the pieces of paper on your actual desk. Why would you not want this? It feels like innovation for the sake of innovation.