Re: Has there been a paradigm shift and nobody told me?
My personal hate since Windows XP at least and much more to-the-fore on the newer Windows.
I actually went out of my way to disable search on Windows 7. I killed the service, replaced the start menu and DID NOT BOTHER to put search options back on. I find it very annoying to expect me to do the equivalent of "Google" my apps in order to find them, even on a menu designed to do nothing but run apps I have installed. Windows XP's treated documents the same and the "index your disks by default" was also something that was switched off in the first day (and people comment on just how much faster my machines are than their equivalents with their setup).
I actually did need to find a file after doing so. Once so far in, what, three months? And only because I'd put my old hard drive into the new machine and wanted a very ancient file that I knew was on there somewhere (but manually searching 500Gb for a tiny setup file was not productive). So I installed Agent Ransack (at the recommendation of the start menu replacement I was using) and it was fabulous. What Windows search should have been without the all-the-time indexing and the stupid dog, and with so many more options.
Within 1 minute, I had my file. And I haven't needed to use it since, and it had ZERO indexing to help it.
Strangely, on Linux, I actually LIKE slocate - which indexes the whole drive on a schedule - maybe because it does so unobtrusively and (properly) in the background and my Linux machines tend to be on 24/7 so an indexing operation at 4:30 in the morning isn't noticed. But on a desktop or laptop, I don't WANT things indexing, collecting usage patterns, trying to second-guess me, and making me "search" for things. I just don't have a disorganised data storage that makes it necessary. Hell, for years I found having empty "My Music", etc. folders horribly messy and inconvenient and things insist on constantly recreating the damn things.
So my desktop has no search options except Agent Ransack (which is actually linked to Classic Start Menu's, Start... Search... For Files and Folders option), my computer doesn't launch into a disk index because it hasn't done it in a week because I switch it off overnight, my start menu doesn't REQUIRE searches and suggestions because it's well organised, and my desktop has five icons on it. And you know what? I find absolutely everything quicker and easier than everyone else I know, going back further than anyone else has data stored, and my memory is absolutely, 100% ATROCIOUS so it's not like I just rely on my brain to do the work (the exact opposite - I use my computer to be a tool).
And when there is something that I literally haven't needed to use in nearly a decade, which I stored away because I knew it wouldn't be around for ever but would be incredibly useful should the need arise, and which I needed to dig from 500Gb of data, a proper, real, necessary search, for vague keywords over the whole of my data takes minutes for the absolute worst-case scenario.
I don't want to "Google" my files. I know where they are because I foldered them and named them properly and I have the ability to sort by type, name, folder, date modified etc. at the click of a button. I don't need to "Google" my programs, because they are all categorised, organised, and named so that I know what they do (WinDirStat? Serviio? Even Agent Ransack? Please, that's not a helpful product name and it would take forever to remember what the damn thing is called, go through the list of software that *almost* match that name and pick the real one).
Can other people work with my system? Hundreds of kids and staff do every day, because I built the computer images and I organised the desktop and instead of the 400+ icon MESS that was inconsistent across desktops, all the machines now have five-six categories (the sixth is hidden unless you're a teacher!) of software, which have subcategories and relevant icons and identical Start Menu entries (for those who like the keyboard - I just redirect Desktop and Start Menu to be the same, read-only, set of icons). From 5-65, everyone uses it and no-one complains they can't find things. And when a new piece of software goes in, they guess where to go for it 99.9% of the time.
Stop turning my computer into a website. This applies to everything from server-apps (Really? I need to run an IIS instance and load up IE so you can show me the state of the RAID array?) to search bars to fancy desktop effects (Metro etc.). It didn't work for Active Desktop (which I switched off, again, within the first day and never enabled again).
My computer is a personal tool. Start messing with how it works so that idiots can use it, and all the professionals will run a mile.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
