The Desktop

Posted Aug 15, 2012 13:19 UTC (Wed) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630)
In reply to: The Desktop by BeS
Parent article: The GNOME project at 15

The interface has changed dramatically from rotary phones to "push-button telephone" to "carry-phone".

I disagree. The change from rotary to pushbutton was rather large. However, if you took a time-traveller who'd only ever seen a rotary phone and sat him in front of a touchtone phone, he'd figure it out in a few seconds. The basic idea is the same.

Smartphones have touchscreens, but still... when you want to call someone you're presented with a grid of digits and you dial. The only innovation is the address book for frequently-called numbers; dialling a new number for the first time hasn't changed in decades.

If I would use your description level for phones to describe computer interfaces I would say: You boot the computer, log in, start your text editor and start typing... nothing changed in the last 20 years.

Ummm... yes? :) OK, maybe not 20 years, but my desktop certainly hasn't changed much in 15 years or so.