Anti-Mac
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Regarding McDonald's Corporation, see Criticism section and McLibel case.
The Anti-Mac is a hypothetical computer user interface that is not tied to the conventions of the Apple Macintosh graphical user interface. The term comes from an essay by Don Gentner and Jakob Nielsen, who analysed the progress in GUI made from 1984 till 1996.
Gentner and Nielsen argue that the standard interface for personal computers was conceived when most users had no experience with computing, and the computers themselves were limited, stand-alone devices. Now, an entire generation has been raised with computers, and the PC has evolved into a powerful, connected device. The old WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menu, Pointer) interface has not changed to keep up with users or technology, sticking with supposedly clumsy metaphors like the desktop.
Proposed solutions include a command line interface that can understand simple instructions and more metadata on files and objects.
