Distributed Mind

Classic... I guess the new version of the Nautilus, the file manager for the Gnome desktop, implements what is called the "spatial metaphor." What does this mean? Well, according to an Ars Technica article, and if I understand it correctly, it means that instead of all folders opening in the same window, when someone opens a folder it will open in its own window; these windows will each have unique positions on the screen and will feature window memory so that their position and even the position of the scrollbars in the window will be remembered for the next time the window is opened. So why is this funny? Well, anyone who has ever used a GUI besides the ones to show up in Windows or any of the X window managers will probably remember this ground breaking feature. I am, of course, an old Amiga user which did basically precisely all of this and did it quite well. The Mac worked basically the same way too. Actually, I find it odd that this seems to be getting such a surprised reception, as you could even do something sort of like this in Windows, if you went through My Computer instead of using Windows Explorer, and I am pretty sure there were some popular file managers under X that did this. So what am I missing? Anyway, I am not complaining, I think this is an okay way to handle file management, and I don't think anyone is claiming this is new (although it seems to be getting that kind of reception). I do however think it is funny that we are going back to what we had in the mid-1980's. (And especially considering that while I liked the way the Amiga GUI handled windows, I thought Windows Explorer was a slight improvement and it was pretty much the only interface feature of Windows I ever liked....)