- The Mac software ecosystem faces a plague. A plague of Everything Buckets. Indulge me.
If you search for “productivity” or “organization” software for the Mac, you’ll find variations on a particular type of application. These applications claim to be “your outboard brain” or “your digital filing cabinet” or similar. They go by many names: Yojimbo, Together, ShoveBox, Evernote, DEVONthink. There may be differences in their implementation and appearance, but these applications are all of the same sinister ilk. They are Everything Buckets.
This is great. I've never used these kinds of software even though everyone loves them (no one would ever shut up about Evernote at the jobs I've had). I just never saw the appeal. They're unorganized messes! I've always liked the Unix philosophy when it comes to software, and "Everything Buckets" definitely don't abide by that.
Unix has its own everything bucket, courtesy of the emacs middleman
It's the handy-dandy tool for every purpose. Need to write an essay? latex-mode has your back. A presentation for the boss? org-mode + beamer. Photography? picture-mode. News? rss.el Mail? C-x m Calendar? M-x calendar Fistfight? C-u 20 M-x punch ; M-x haymaker Delivering your kid? M-x towelette-mode ; M-x cut-cord Putting down the dog? M-x load-shotgun Crying yourself to sleep at night? C-u 4 M-x bourbon
The former VP of Development where I work put everything in Microsoft OneNote. I mean everything. OneNote was this guy's brain. And any time he wanted to reference something he'd seen, or thought of, or wanted us to do, he'd tell everyone, "It's in OneNote." Nobody had OneNote except him. Nobody wanted OneNote except him. Besides which, he had hundreds of thousands of pages. I can't imagine finding anything he referenced in there anyway. It was not a good experience.