Shoutbox

Of what I've been seeing and reading about it, it seems that more and more things are getting integrated within eachother. This can be a good thing and a bad thing.

Although it is userfriendly to the _absolute_ beginner, it can (and even is, atm) a real pain in the *beep* for more advanced users. Also the "friendlyness" and "integration" keeps the user in the dark about what really is going on, in their computer. This makes that people will not have the slightest clue anymore of what they are exactly doing.

This happens even now, today. Look at the questions on the net and other helpdesks, IRC-channels, etc. Nowadays, if you say "download that file and open it", many people don't have a clue of what the difference is between downloading, storing something on the HD and opening it. I see this everyday when I look at peoples computers: random files everywhere, and yet they say they don't have something: "I've downloaded it, but can't find it"....

Now you can say: that's something which always has happend, and we all where "noobs" once. Well, no, there is a significant difference. The whole "integration" and "keep the user in the dark" is partially (well, more then partially) to be blamed for that:
There is no learning curve anymore, and that is a bad thing. A PC is a machine; a tool. You need to learn the basics to know how to handle it (what is a folder? what is a file? What is a directory-structure?). But when even the basics are thrown out, the new beginner will not have a clue anymore when something is wrong ("I cant find that downloaded file").

Is Longhorn going to be revolutionary? Yes
Will it be a benefit for the knowledge of people about PC's? No (heck even todays Windows OS's are already slowing down the needed "learning-curve".)