I can’t stop thinking about this, mainly because I’m convinced it’s a key turning point in how mankind interacts with computers. Yeah, it’s joints after midnight stuff, and it’s only six pm on a Tuesday night, but what the hell. I’ll put a place holder here and get back to it…
Readers of this site and others like it are already well versed in the ongoing conversation around the “Google OS.” While that’s a fascinating topic, it’s one layer below what is presenting itself to us on an almost daily basis now – the interface level. The Web is the OS. Fine. So what does the UI look like?
One point of departure for me has been Firefox and its endless flexibility. A good thing, no? We can add all sorts of cool shit to it, and new stuff keeps coming out, from mainstream stuff like Google Notebook to custom Greasemonkey scripts.
Well, I’m sorry, but none of that is going to matter. It’s all way too hard, way too kludgy, and way too complicated. I can’t figure out Greasemonkey, and I don’t want to (nor do I know why I should). And even when you do get it to work, it’s pretty lame, as interfaces go. It’s kind of like the early releases of Windows – based on DOS, and not very elegant. I want something that blows all this away. I want the Mac OS for the Web. A sea change.
Don’t you all?
For the next couple of years, your best bet is called the “Facebook Platform.”
well my (surfing) has been immensely improved by Adlock Plus :}
oh, those late night tuesdays ..
the thing with ‘the interface’ is that ATMs are forty years old and still there’s different types and they’re still improving.
I try and stick to the ‘mom test’ and meet-the-customers to stay grounded on the interface score. I don’t think this is the case everywhere else though …
Hi John, thanks for all the writing you share.
I too am kept up by this ‘new computer’ and it’s our core project at Human-Oriented.
What’s really going to cook your noodle is that this new ‘thing’ is what is going to help build the semantic web… and eventually provide a key building block to creating AI.
Late night smoking indeed.
Yes, indeed that’s what we need. I’ve been tinkering with Greasemonkey, after I finally figured it out and it doesn’t impress me that much. Another wish is for the Camino browser to get more attention by Mozilla and allow plug-ins like Firefox. That would make it a blow out.
If you want Mac OS for the web, check out Google.vc … sometimes I’d rather use that than have everything always appear in the main SERP. In fact, if Google’s homepage was designed like that, there would be less need for the main SERP to be a Swiss-army knife …
As someone who uses Greasemonkey all the time, it’s never been a bother. But then, one of the reasons I like OSX is the fact that I can open up an xterm 🙂