Progression and Regression of Desktop User Interfaces

Yes it's based on the idea of the general OS search index. I think OSX had this first, but there have also been Windows apps like Launchy in which you could run anything from anywhere with two or three key strokes before the Win7 days. Once you get used to it it really skyrockets productivity. The new concept here is that they use the same principle for any function within an application that has a menu entry. As far as I know, this has never been done before. Which is surprising since it seems so brilliant.

OS X has led the way in “search to do that thing you want”, but other than QuickSilver (which is not a part of OS X, but an app that practically every power user has because it’s a faster app launcher than anything that comes in the box*) it doesn’t feature a whole lot in the way of fuzzy matching. A lot of fairly hardcore Mac users are surprised when I tell them this, but the “Help” menu most of them are too proud to look at has a “search” feature for finding menu items... still, no typos allowed

Fuzzy matching is just plain awesome, and adding it to the menu system is an important step forward in usability (then again, I’m a vim addict, so I’m kind of all about the easily-typed keyboard commands).

* QuickSilver is much, much more than just an app launcher, but that’s what most people use it for.

I really like this idea.  To some extent, Windows 7 does a bit of this, where you can start typing what you want to run, and it shows you the matches.  I use that a lot.

Me too. It is a nice feature. However, I think this kind of feature is best used as a compliment to an existing interface. It looks like it will be used in that manner to start at least. I just wouldn't want to be forced to always use it for my commands. It's only more efficient for those things aren't just a click or two away normally.

Ah, yes. The triumphant return of the command line. :V

Only that instead of "grep farts -vhx | foo << shit.txt" or whatever moonrunes you just tell the computer what you want in natural language and it'll give it to you. A semantic command line if you will. This is of course still two steps beyond of what they are planning there, but it's the direction this will ultimately lead to. At least for once this is desktop evolution again that isn't about touchscreens and tablets. One camp didn't forget that there are people out there who still want to work with their stuff instead of browsing through app stores for fart sound generators.

I really like this idea.  To some extent, Windows 7 does a bit of this, where you can start typing what you want to run, and it shows you the matches.  I use that a lot.

Me too ! In fact I often loads my programs like that, except those who have a desktop icon.