How to Improve Computing In 8000 Words or Less
A Basic Roadmap for Improving OSS, UI Design, and Network Security;
As Well as Bringing Better Technology to the True Masses.
May 31, 2005
Author: Will McClendon
Editor: Alexander Luthor
Update, 06/19/06: This paper is also available for reading here, the new site where the Gnu-HALO Project is located. This Linux distro’s goals are based loosely off of this paper.
Preface: How to Butter Up the Reader Before Sounding Like an Ass
I do not see the ideas outlined herein as radical or unique. It is nothing more than a simple progression of logic; ideas built upon by others, but left unimplemented, or rather, a collection of ideas and projects that should be brought together. The computer industry, since the beginning, has been entrenched in a very damaging philosophy of “more is more” while designing mostly for itself. The reality of this has led to Cray-2s of two decades ago on our desktops that cannot seem to do more than an Amiga A3000 of nearly the same era. The multimedia revolution has only happened recently because the progression of Moore’s Law has just recently finally allowed the technology to outpace the bloat of the software that runs it. Additionally, despite the progression, the same level of confusion remains on how to use most of it. It’s time to change that.
Over the years there has been much work done on how to improve and streamline the overall interaction between the computer and the user with the modern GUI. Tragically, most of these ideas have been left to the wayside in favor of staying rooted in moderately functional design choices to keep the core users happy. I understand the need to do this. From a financial standpoint, keeping the core users happy is the top priority. This is not to say that there have not been a lot of advances over the years. There have been significant advances in software design, however the majority of these advances were applied to a select family of applications with only marginal end-user benefits.
Today, we stand on the verge of a major shift. The next generation of Windows has been bogged down and delayed, and the security structure has been blown wide open over the past two years. Longhorn will likely be too little too late for most security minded individuals, and the remaining core of end users will only be confused by LUA (Limited User Account). Avalon and the new Aero UI are only proving to be an exercise in a wasteful use of technological advances and unnecessary higher end hardware.
Apple has done many things right with OS X, but is falling into the same trap of being interested more in pushing higher end hardware through whiz-bang eye candy features, Tiger 10.4 being the most hardware alienating release of the platform yet. I don’t blame them for doing this either; money is the bottom line. Since Jobs refuses to let go of the hardware market, he has to do something to encourage profitable upgrades.
X Windows is quickly coming to the forefront of graphics technology. Its use is growing daily with products like TiVo, and through the use of many window managers like Gnome, KDE, and its optional bundling with OS X for running software designed for the various *nix environments. With the introduction of the advancements made to the server by X.org, X Windows has finally started catching up to current technologies and is quickly becoming very powerful. However, one of its biggest setbacks is also its greatest asset: the open source community. The community, for the most part, is a double-edged sword. On one hand you have many people doing what seems to be impossible, organizing efforts between programmers to create free software that does amazing things. The downside however, is that nobody is at the helm steering projects, so we have several hundred applications all doing very similar things due to lack of direction.
