Motivation
Well, I like Unix...
I was introduced to Unix 10 years ago. I admit I found it difficult to learn
(indeed, I am still learning!), but I soon began to appreciate the tremendous
power it placed at my fingertips. I strongly feel that if people only had the
patience to learn Unix, they would respect and use it far more. I would like
to do something for Unix that will encourage more people to use it.
...and Microsoft strikes terror into me
I am dismayed to see Microsoft carrying the world away with their operating
systems, interfaces, and way of doing things. This virtual monopoly is soon
going to run our lives. And it's not as if
they're adding any real value, either. I don't believe Microsoft are offering
any really new technology. All that they offer through their products could have
been easily added on to Unix. So why can't we just do that?
Ever wonder why Unix hasn't won significant mindshare in 25 years?
Even its strongest supporters must admit that Unix is not easy to learn and
use. Unix "gurus" have perversely been proud of the fact, because that's what
gives them their power. Being cryptic makes for an OS that's very quick to
operate once learned, but very difficult to learn. It doesn't facilitate the
acceptance that's required for a mainstream OS. Unix today is unfortunately
not a mainstream OS. It will soon be marginalised by Windows NT.
And I say this must not happen.
Existing GUIs for Unix actually stifle its power
Look at any X Window-based file manager for Unix. Most of those I've seen
are tacky and crudely done. They normally give you nothing more than
mouse-based directory navigation, drag-and-drop copying/moving,
and file deletion. Where are the equivalents to find, grep,
chmod, chown, chgrp, and all the other command-line
tools? Even when some of these are present, they don't go as far as they
could (see my proposed File Ownership and Access
Manager and File Selector). In what way
are X-based file managers better than the Windows 95 Explorer? In fact,
Explorer is far better!
Not only are Unix graphical tools cheap imitations of MS-Windows tools, using
them deprives a user of the power he would have by using the command line!
No wonder many Unix users don't use a GUI at all! Unix has been resting on
its laurels for 25 years.
We need graphical equivalents for command-line operations
We cannot just tack on Windows-style graphical tools and hope Unix will look
better. We need to engineer the graphical interface, paying attention
to the features of Unix and devising graphical representations for all of
them.
Let me illustrate.
What, for instance, would be a good graphical equivalent of a command-line
option (like -a in ls -a)?
A checkbox, probably:
What is the graphical equivalent of a Unix file? Not so simple, eh? It's not
just a file icon. It needs to incorporate the concepts of piping and
redirection, wildcards and other regular expressions, hardware devices, hard
and symbolic links, and many others. It needs to interoperate with other
commands, just like on the command line. Clearly, a GUI that incorporates
these basic Unix concepts will not only be easier to use, but will not have
to sacrifice any of its command-line power for the sake of an appealing
appearance.
If we can have such an interface on good freeware Unices like Linux, we
don't have to fear Microsoft anymore.
That's the motivation for this project.
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