Limiting the amount of interaction the end user has with a hierarchical filesystem may well be a Good Thing. Increasing the degree to which each application is a black box containing all associated data is a Bad Thing. Making each application responsible for the mechanism by which data can be transferred, archived and synchronized is also a Bad Thing.
Right. Getting rid of the (constantly visible) filesystem could be a good thing if it's replaced by a metadata-rich database that lets you do interesting queries. But based on Apple's recent history they won't actually expose any of that functionality, and we'll be limited to what the apps are specifically written to do.
Excellent point. As frustrated as I am with the limitations of the "file" and "directory" abstractions. Without them, transfer, archival, and synchronization of data would likely be far more difficult than it is now.
Not that the systems we have now are anything to be proud of.
It seems Apple has evolved the iPad past "application / data - same place". It now looks like a common area with different types of data accessible by apps. This is actually a pretty good solution. People know how to use a search engine and the current hierarchy is not a good solution.
Limiting the amount of interaction the end user has with a hierarchical filesystem may well be a Good Thing. Increasing the degree to which each application is a black box containing all associated data is a Bad Thing. Making each application responsible for the mechanism by which data can be transferred, archived and synchronized is also a Bad Thing.