655973 - Unifying the file system

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, enhancement)

Description

[Henri de Solages]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1

Every user has a file system. Moreover there are many hidden files such as, in Linux, the very important .thunderbird containing the mails of a user of Thunderbird, and .mozilla, containing his bookmarks. I don't mind very much where automatically created technical files are stored, but, as far as files for humans are concerned, I don't like at all the idea of having in one place all the the mails, in an other place all the bookmarks, in a 3rd place all the remaining information I need etc.. This reminds me the 19th century books main classification in libraries: high books, medium-sized books, small books. The topic classification was only a secondary criteria (inside the "high books", all high books of maths were together, but small books of maths were elsewhere). In modern libraries, such a technical classification has been replaced by a more functional one, so that all books of algebra are together, whatever be their size. The same way, I don't like having similar parallel hierarchies in my documents, in my e-mails, my bookmarks etc. I'd like to have in a one directory called providers/graphists/Naranbolor/ all the files concerning the graphist called Naranbolor, whether these are pictures, bills, tariff spreadsheets, quotations documents, e-mails or the bookmark to her website, rather than a folder in Thunderbird for her mails, a bookmark called "Naranbolor" in a folder providers/graphists in Firefox, and a third folder Documents/ providers/graphists/Naranbolor/ in my file hierarchy. The same way LibreOffice opens when I double-click on an ODF document, Inkscape opens when I double-click on a SVG document, gedit opens when I double-click a text document etc., Firefox would open when I click on a bookmark.

I think giving priority to functional classification on technical one would be a major improvement in personal computer software design, including in cloud design.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Get the need to classify functionally your information.
2.You have to create similar folders in your bookmarks manager, your file system, your email manager.


Actual Results:  
After you've done this job, you still cannot see together in one place the mails, the bookmarks and the other files regarding a given topic.


Expected Results:  
Getting in one folder (whether a technical folder or a virtual one does matter) all the information concerning any given topic, including bookmarks, no matter the form of the information.

Comment 1

[Henri de Solages]

See similar bug #655976 regarding Thunderbird.

Comment 3

[Shawn Wilsher :sdwilsh]

The profile folder isn't intended to be viewed by humans (that's why it's in a hidden folder on linux).

Comment 4

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

This bug is too general to do anything about it, for sure the filesystem entry will never be merged, it's a technical implementation detail, not really something any user should be interested into.
What moderno OS do is to create views of the underlying information in form of "Libraries of similar data". And the future is mostly based on these views and searching rather than on the actual position of the data (could you argue where your data is in a cloud system?).
Indeed what you want is more a collection of views showing your data per category than to define where that data lives.
From my point of view this is a wontfix, not all data needs filesystem views to be managed and it's not the direction the world is moving.

Comment 5

[Vlad [QA]]

Reporter, do you have anything new about this issue, is it still  reproducible?

Comment 6

[Henri de Solages]

This issue is not a bug, but an enhancement proposal, so there is no notion of "reproduction" about it.
  Of course, bug people find it "too general" and prophetise that "the filesystem entry will never be merged" because such an enhancement would require a huge rethinking of Firefox and, above all, Thunderbird, and few people are ready to do that. I don't care very much "the direction the world is moving" because I feel free to make it move the direction we want, and I remember the CPU complexity race (the direction the world was moving) up to the day someone invented the concept of RISC CPU, consisting in running the exact opposite of the direction the world was running. In another sector, I remember the world was running in the always-more-fertilisers direction, and now people like bio. The world was running to always more globalisation, and now, after several global epidemics, many prefer the fruits, vegetable and meat of their region. People like clouds, and I bet that after a few losses of diplomatic, business and personal secrets, they will soon be happy to know precisely where their data are.
   Nevertheless, I'm not opposed at all to the idea of "views", the point being that I be able to see in one place the bookmarks, mails and other files regarding any topic, double-click, in such a view, on a bookmark to see it in Firefox, double-click on a mail to see it in Thunderbird, that I not have to choose between having an attached file together with its mails or with the other files by detaching it, but have it together with both the mail AND the other files regarding the same topic, all in one folder (or "view"), that I not have to save any mail as file because a mail would already be a file (or like a file) among other files (or file-looking stuff), that, when I want to attach a file to a mail to send, I not have to select again the folder where that file is in the (most frequent) case where the mail and the file to send, concerning  a same subject, would already be in a one folder, and that I be able to create, move and delete easily these topic-centred folders (or views). In other words, I'd like Firefox+Thunderbird to provide a much more unified and integrated experience, I'd like them to follow human logic rather than humans having to follow the computer logic. I can understand this is too large a picture and a vision for people much accustomed to the present state of the art.

Comment 7

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

we may be too much accustomed to the present, but we won't do this, there's really no interest and it sounds too expensive, though you may create your own software following your vision.