Comment Articles

Filling the gaps in Windows

Rupert Goodwins ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 25 Mar 2003 17:04 GMT

With the launch of XP now a distant memory and Longhorn playing peek-a-boo from the far future, it's time to think about what we'd like to see in the next generation of desktop operating systems. If you listen to the marketing corps, you'll be told what you want: all sorts of tighter integration, .Net synergies, authentication and replication, XML smarts. But most of the things I'd like to see in Windows are plain and simple, wouldn't require phalanxes of PhDs to implement, and would make my daily life so much nicer.

Journaling filing system
IBM's had this for decades. So had VMS, the operating system that informed so much of NT's internal design. You can do it for Linux in lots of ways, you can do it for OS X. But there's no sign that Windows knows anything about it. It is a lovely idea: every time you modify a file, the old version -- or the information needed to recreate it -- is kept. So after you edit fred.doc, you get fred.doc and fred.doc;1 in your directory. Made a mistake? Go back and grab the last good copy. Want to trace changes? Just as easy. Totally independent of your application, it saves bacon on a daily basis.

Journaling does need a bit more disk space and a little more processing power -- neither of which are in short supply. Done properly, it's a godsend. I was using it 20 years ago on VMS, and I'd swap every dancing paperclip and Smart Display ever to come out of Redmond to have it now. Microsoft says NTFS is journaling, but I'm darned if it's ever let me roll back anything but my eyes.

A save-by-application sound mixing desk
This omission causes me more pain -- genuine, physical, tears-in-my-eyes pain -- than any other lost Windows feature. There I am, working late at night, listening on headphones to some relaxing MP3 set to an atmospheric level when BRRRRRING! An IM has just come in, and I'm six months closer to deafness. Or some brash streaming video makes me whack the volume down, and I don't notice half a dozen alarms have gone off until the end.

How hard would it be for some sound management software to let me associate individual volume levels for known programs? Or have limiting? Not hard at all. Just think of it like an application-level audio firewall.

Location concept
I have broadband at home. I have GPRS. I have a network at work. Let's face it, I'm living the life of the uberconnectoid geek that should bring tears of joy to advertising people worldwide. But does Windows know this? Can I set up all my file shares, permissions, printers, and other environmental considerations so that I can move from one way of working to another without going mad? No. Long promised: never delivered.