Skip to content

Top Best Ask Show New Jobs

Ask HN: What's the future of the file browser?

4 pointsMatthewRayfield15y ago12 comments

If desktop applications go the way of web and mobile apps, will we be using a file browser in the future?

With web apps it becomes difficult to pull a user's cross-app data together with such varied APIs and data formats. But do we even need our data in one place or will we just open the program that has our data "in it"?

What do you think?

12 comments

5 comments · 1 top-level

spooneybarger15y ago· 4 in thread

Hopefully the file browser and the hierarchical file systems die. I've never liked them. It is a single limited view on how to organize your information. Severely limiting. Within a year of using a hierarchical file system, I've been waiting for something better to come along and get traction. Can't wait for it to happen, I just hope I like everything else that comes along with it ( and the privacy and security implications of the cloud give me pause ).

i still hope that something like lifestreams ( http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/freeman/lifestreams.html ) takes off or a file system w/ the database like aspects that the BeOS had ( WebOS has a decent amount of that ).

chipsy15y ago

I think an ideal persistent-data system would let you mix and match your methods. Sometimes you want a stream, and other times you want a hash, tree or graph type of structure, or a full relational database. A file system that included all of these would give you the essential data structures of programming in a from-the-ground-up persistently stored form.

But the biggest issue is really a standardization one. Hierarchical is everywhere and it's hard to pull away from.

MatthewRayfieldOP15y ago

Don't you think that having so many ways of organizing data might just lead to confusion? For you or me it might seem great to have so many options, but for the average computer user I feel like it could be pretty overwhelming.

MatthewRayfieldOP15y ago

I certainly agree with that.

But do you think that in the future people will use one central application to organize their data, or will we organize it inside of the apps we use?

spooneybarger15y ago

I find the inside the app to be easy for an intro but fundamentally limiting. I've always been excited by technology that features common, expandable data stores...

OpenDoc from Apple years ago featured some of this. BeOs's file system had some as well but it still gave you a hierarchical file system. WebOS has it some. The Newton had it. And I'm sure there are tons more examples that I never came across or don't come to mind now.

The problem w/ standard shared data storage for applications is that everyone has to agree on what a contact is or you need to be able to add additional data to it that other applications could tap into. Getting everyone to agree on formats, having them hold up over time etc is... problematic. Still, I hold out hope that pooled data storage will come into being.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse