I've read that today's monitors make screensavers unnecessary. Now, they don't have any practical value and they waste energy.
That means that the only use for screensavers nowadays is decorative, but even so they are not very functional because most of the times they are on, nobody is looking at them.
Too bad...I do like screensavers...
But then, there have been other computer features under fire: the use of windows, the desktop metaphor, and eye candy itself.
With the popularity of mobile computing, some thought that windows would not be necessary anymore. The guys at Redmond, for example, made an atrocity of an OS and trumpeted it as the latest-greatest. It dismissed the idea of windows because all apps ran full screen. Way to go! Especially if one uses a big monitor...what a waste of screen real estate!
The desktop metaphor altogether is also been questioned. "Who needs the good ol' desktop? What about desktop wallpapers? Nobody looks at them, anyway. In fact, before Windows 95, there was no desktop nor wallpapers and nobody complained back then..." seem to say those who favor this viewpoint.
That made me think of eye candy. It seems that the current trend goes against anything beautiful to favor only the functional. It's very ironic that with today's powerful video cards, OSes prefer to forget about 3-D and go flat instead. Then, why would anyone need such powerful machines?
And, if voice-commanded systems become the norm, then there won't be any need for icons, either. Who would waste time trying to look for the pretty picture when all you have to do is issuing a voice command to open any app?
Then, following this trend of favoring the functional over the beautiful, I guess the whole concept of GUI will go to the trash basket as well. You can use your computer with your voice; no need to tire your eyes with visually-polished applications.
With a console, everybody will have more than enough to use a computer. Anything beyond a prompt screen will be "a waste of resources."
Games seemed to have undergone the same trip backwards in time thanks to cellphones. Maybe software developers should take a look at car makers. There is a reason why the automobile industry neither gives us a safe on four wheels (functional only concept) nor presents us with models that resemble Fzero racing vehicles (futuristic aesthetics concept). Instead, car makers continue improving and polishing the design that we all recognize as a car...
ResponderEliminarThat's right. That applies to hardware in general. But software developers seem to have a different approach: destroy the old and start from scratch.
Eliminar