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by tacker2000 1777 days ago
Maybe the future will be 90% of normal users using dumbed down touch devices, and the rest of us “power” users who need to develop stuff will be using a normal OS.

Maybe the normal OSes that we all grew up with are actually overkill for these other users and they dont even want it. Why would they need a shell? Or the ability to install some arbitrary programs? They only need email and word and thats it.

Maybe this is not a bad thing in the end? Who knows.
2 comments
zozbot234 1777 days ago
It's sad that we can only think of touch screen interfaces as "dumbed down". The affordances of a touch-centric interface have yet to be fully explored; at least in principle, there's no reason why they could not be made just as capable as a keyboard+mouse.
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canuckintime 1777 days ago
It all comes down to text input. Steve Jobs launched the iPhone with only a touch screen but he launched the iPad with a hardware keyboard accessory (discontinued after a year but then reintroduced with the iPad Pro). So with iPadOS it’s always really been touch+keyboard and frankly mouse+keyboard is better.

If Apple managed to offer a revolutionary input for the iPad (perhaps subvocalised speech input or a a redesigned touch/pen input) it would be the first step to a touch-centric interface as capable as keyboard+mouse

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zozbot234 1777 days ago
Gestural text input is very much a possibility. It was available on palmtop devices some 20 years ago, and these had far worse touch sensitivity than any modern tablet or even a modern phone.
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lisper 1777 days ago
It depends on whether you think computers should be tools for empowering people or subjugating them.
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tacker2000 1777 days ago
But isnt that too far fetched? Most people dont care about anything else than checking emails and playing candy crush. They dont think about empowerment or subjugation or changing the world.
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_ph_ 1777 days ago
Even if it is not done daily, not being able to tinker with your system is fundamental. You don't have to be an expert yourself, but most computer users know someone with in-depth knowledge or just follow step-by-step instructions from the web or, imagine the concept, a computer book :) This allows a lot of control of your computing environment, you just don't get on an iPad.
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lisper 1777 days ago
Beware of self-fulfilling prophecies, especially this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness

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