What amaze me is how this same problem was solved years ago by programmers.. Hell, even dropbox used svn behind the scene. I remember when Dropbox was just starting, some friends and me were talking about useless it was. "Duh, if I want to host a svn server, I'll just host mine." ;)
It's also important to look at all the competitors dropbox had and currently have.. and still, they're extremely successful. So, basically, they found a nice problem to solve and solve it. The goal there wasn't to be able to sync all possible folders.. just one little folder where anyone would put their stuff inside and that'd just work.
And, more importantly, it makes me thing about what tools we use every day that the no-techy don't know about.
In my opinion, there's really something to do with the terminal. It's such a crazy productivity boost and, if implemented correctly, might be way more intuitive. For instance, everyone knows people that are scared by all the buttons/windows/popup dialog/etc. For us, geeks, it's so easy.. we see the screen and automatically abstract everything and focus on right part; but for them, it's impossible to abstract so many new things at once.
A terminal, IA based, could make it so easy for no-geek to use a computer. Obviously, I'm not talking about BASH but something that could pretty much understand beginners commands. I.e send a email to bob.. which could guide the user through various questions.
Yeah, it's probably stupid. But hell, I'm sure they're hundreds of product as useful as Dropbox.. we just have to think about it.
I am widely regarded by friends & colleagues as an obsessive command-line junkie (often to a fault). I still love and use Dropbox regularly. I think you are incorrect that the problem was solved years ago!
Dropbox takes 5 minutes to install and start using. To start using subversion, you have to learn how to use subversion! God forbid you need a server.
Dropbox's ease of use is so spectacular that it benefits me doubly: I use it when I don't want to think about working copies and committing and svn upping (which is often), and I use it to collaborate with non-programmer friends. "Just install this and accept my shared folder invite" is kosher to any computer- and web-literate person.
Having started my computer career in the 1980s, I strongly disagree. If the command line were all that, GUIs wouldn't have have taken off like a rocket in the first place.
WHen you say you strongly disagree; I'd assume you mean about the command line example. My point was more about how simple tools used every day by geeks might be useful to no-techny if made simpler and more accessible.
And when I say terminal, I don't mean it in "bash" or unix prompt.. A total new way to design it with a strong focus on simplicity and AI.
It's been attempted, many many times. We ended up with some really good text adventure parsers, but none that developed into productivity tools. If you do want to pursue this line of thought, do some searching on Magnetic Scrolls' approach to command parsing, I think a lot of that eventually got open-sourced.
It's also important to look at all the competitors dropbox had and currently have.. and still, they're extremely successful. So, basically, they found a nice problem to solve and solve it. The goal there wasn't to be able to sync all possible folders.. just one little folder where anyone would put their stuff inside and that'd just work.
And, more importantly, it makes me thing about what tools we use every day that the no-techy don't know about.
In my opinion, there's really something to do with the terminal. It's such a crazy productivity boost and, if implemented correctly, might be way more intuitive. For instance, everyone knows people that are scared by all the buttons/windows/popup dialog/etc. For us, geeks, it's so easy.. we see the screen and automatically abstract everything and focus on right part; but for them, it's impossible to abstract so many new things at once.
A terminal, IA based, could make it so easy for no-geek to use a computer. Obviously, I'm not talking about BASH but something that could pretty much understand beginners commands. I.e send a email to bob.. which could guide the user through various questions.
Yeah, it's probably stupid. But hell, I'm sure they're hundreds of product as useful as Dropbox.. we just have to think about it.