I think that using a bookcase that can be spatially ordered (in 2 dimensions) would be a really interesting concept for an operating system.
Applications and files alike, filed on the same bookshelf. A very easy metaphor that makes it easy to explain how computers work, but also locate files that you use often (perhaps by size, shape, colour and location) without using the part of your brain that processes language.
Humans are spatial creatures, so I'd like to think that perhaps everything being in lists doesn't make sense and that's why we hate using them to find something.
The traditional notion of the Desktop is a bit like this, but the presentation is messy. There's no nice way to order your desktop, and everything is the same size and shape. Despite this, many people work solely from their Desktop.
Edit: It would be very interesting to have a check in/check out system where you can drag files on the shelf to your "working box", or check them out, or whatever. Basically the equivalent of your desktop. This gives you fast easy access to files from a variety of locations for whatever job you're doing. When you're done working with them, you can check them out, and poof they go back to wherever you got them from. This is an awesome physical metaphor to a library where the clerk does all the work for you in returning the books. This box could also give you a good metaphor for moving files, and cut/copy/paste. Move to box -> put back on the shelf elsewhere. Or, move to box -> duplicate -> put copies back on the shelf and send the originals back.
I will say that the Amazon Fire tablets (used to?) do this, and my non-technical family/friends would often come to me for help because they didn't know how to do or find what they needed.
As a side note, this caused me to throw Ubuntu on a desktop/laptop for a few of the people who needed the most support, and within a month they didn't need any help and were trying to get me to install it on their friend's machines.
Seriously, I was constantly being asked by old ladies to start an underground Ubuntu support network. They just needed a way to browse the web, upload photos to facebook, and play farmville. That was it, that's all they wanted to use it for.
If I were to do it again today I'd use ChromeOS probably.
I think it boils down to what experience a person had before and what they need to do. Anyone who played 3d games has better chances to have spatial and visual investigatory abilities (and benefit from it), and anyone who worked in business knows that your files have to be sorted and hierarchy’ed. When needs do not meet experience, they want a single always-on-screen button to start the part of a system they’re familiar with.
There's been two major attempts to leverage spatiality: spatial file managers (most controversially, 2.6-era GNOME) and zooming interfaces. None have such a checkout by default, but it would fit both quite naturally.
I don't have much experience with the zooming stuff, but I did use Nautilus heavily then (see also Siracusa's Mac-focused discussion here: https://archive.arstechnica.com/paedia/f/finder/finder-1.htm). As soon as you got used to it, it was amazing -- accessing files felt natural in a way it just doesn't in other systems. It was both digital and leveraged our natural understanding that things are at particular places. It's no surprise people still miss it.
A few people, of course. A very large majority of people absolutely hated it, and it's widely considered a huge mistake now. Familiarity and habits win out, users hate changing paradigms and unlearning habits.
Dr. Gelernter and Freedman proposed time as a better metaphor than space almost 25 years ago. It's essentially what every social media app uses now. Although the dissertation proposes better tooling for navigation.
Applications and files alike, filed on the same bookshelf. A very easy metaphor that makes it easy to explain how computers work, but also locate files that you use often (perhaps by size, shape, colour and location) without using the part of your brain that processes language.
Humans are spatial creatures, so I'd like to think that perhaps everything being in lists doesn't make sense and that's why we hate using them to find something.
The traditional notion of the Desktop is a bit like this, but the presentation is messy. There's no nice way to order your desktop, and everything is the same size and shape. Despite this, many people work solely from their Desktop.
Edit: It would be very interesting to have a check in/check out system where you can drag files on the shelf to your "working box", or check them out, or whatever. Basically the equivalent of your desktop. This gives you fast easy access to files from a variety of locations for whatever job you're doing. When you're done working with them, you can check them out, and poof they go back to wherever you got them from. This is an awesome physical metaphor to a library where the clerk does all the work for you in returning the books. This box could also give you a good metaphor for moving files, and cut/copy/paste. Move to box -> put back on the shelf elsewhere. Or, move to box -> duplicate -> put copies back on the shelf and send the originals back.