For the past few days I’ve been struggling to articulate this from-Old-World-to-New-World shift I’m sensing, but Steven Frank (of Panic) does a terrific job of doing just that in this article about the shift in computer experience. There are so many good statements to quote here, but, just in case you can’t take time to read the whole thing, here are some of my favorites:
For a species so famous for being adaptable to its environment, we certainly abhor change. Especially a change that involves any amount of money being spent.
And:
Is a stick shift better than an automatic? No. Is an automatic better than a stick? No. This misses the point. A better question: Is a road full of drivers not distracted by the arcane inner workings of their vehicle safer? It’s likely. And that has a value.
And:
Fellow Old Worlders, I hate to tell you this: we are a minority. The question is not “will the desktop metaphor go away?” The question is “why has it taken this long for the desktop metaphor to go away?”
Indeed.