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Comment by ary | Hacker News Reader

Two things. One is a possibility, and one is a dream.

1. The Finder is going to change. What is becomes I don't know, but I think the filesystem will be further downplayed as Apple tries to take its vision of user friendliness even further. This is the possibility.

2. Window management goes away. Imagine software that didn't need its UI sorted and resized. Personally I hate even thinking about where something should rest on a screen. Given that there are tons of legacy applications out there that use windows in a variety of ways I don't see this happening. This is the dream.

-- Edit:

Graphics drivers that are on par with Windows should probably be added to the "dream" category.

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How would window management go away in a desktop OS? By having only fullscreen apps à la iOS/Android?

I don't see that feasible or desirable. In a small format it works, but on a desktop I very often want to see multiple windows at the same time. (say, reading documentation with code, or multiple files open at once)

A 10/GUI style horizontal window scroll is quite feasible with the new touch mouse and trackpad.

Sure, but the 10/GUI is managing the windows though. It's a different way of doing window management, but that's still what is it. I'm curious to know if ary had something else in mind.

I do. No window management.

The recent praise full-screen applications got at the 10.7 sneak peek doesn't resonate with me, but perhaps it will with others. What I want are applications that intelligently manage screen real estate themselves. My thoughts on this are still somewhat unpolished, but what I'd really like to see is automatic management based on need and importance. Clear, standard notifications (and as few as possible), cooperation between apps when two or more run on the screen, and a clear way to navigate between them. All the while there would be no title bars or min/max/close buttons to be found.

This isn't a call for more iOS in OS X (although it seems to be going that way) so much as it is a call to acknowledge the limitations of user ability and patience. It's something I think about a lot.

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