[Usability] Medusa questions (was: Re: New way of accessing software)

[Daniel Borgmann <spark-mailinglists web de>]

On Sun, 2003-06-15 at 00:56, Curtis C. Hovey wrote:
> > Well okay, I don't really mind that as long as the desktop is not the
> > primary/best way to access your files. However, it really makes it
> > difficult for a user to keep his desktop (_work_space) clean, especially
> > because new saved/downloaded files are placed automatically, not where
> > the users wants them to be. 
> > You also force the user to think in folders. For example why should the
> > user have to save each document in a Documents folder, when the system
> > could just as well dynamically create a list of all the document?
> > You solve this problem if you make a generic "Files" folder, which leads
> > us back to one giant $HOME folder and in the end, we are arguing about
> > nothing. ;)
> > I understand that $HOME -> Files would be a bit less damaged than $HOME
> > -> Desktop -> $HOME though. 
> > 
> 
> You can do this with Medusa now.  The URL (query) can be saved to a
> .desktop file.  Opening it shows you PDFs, or Music (MP3 and OGG).  The
> folder can show everything tagged with a keyword to represent a project,
> like using 'Ipcrest' to show office docs, PDFs, SVGs, and an ical to
> show everything releated to the Ipcrest project.
> 
> As for opening documents.  Instead of the user always seeing a slice of
> the file system from the context of a directory.  Medusa can show all
> the DOC files on the system, then allow the user to narrow the focus
> using time, keywords, and path information.  My old PocketPC does this
> to a lesser degree.

That sounds really great! :)
While we are at it, may I ask a few questions about Medusa? I'm sure
they were answered already before but I have no idea. :/

Does Medusa update the "index" (if that's the name) in realtime or will
it do incremental updates like updatedb? I assume that the former might
be possible with FAM.

How does Medusa compare to "native" metadata supported by the filesystem
(like BeFS) or a database filesystem? Especially in regard to
performance?

Once filesystems get this functionality (Reiser4?), would it
theoretically be possible for Medusa to transparently make use of those
features if available? And would it make a difference anyway?

And last but not least, do you have any opinion about Microsoft's
"Future Storage" plans? :) Do you know enough about this to somehow tell
how this compares to Medusa and/or filesystems like Reiser4?

TIA
Daniel