Originally, computers were controlled by a single program which was responsible for working with all devices and performing all tasks. The emergence of operating systems made it possible to switch between tasks and move shared code (e.g. device drivers) between programs or to a shared storage space. This was undoubtedly a big step forward at the time.
The concepts of multitasking and windows which appeared afterwards improved and developed this approach. At the same time, the concepts of a program, an application, a task and a process are purely technical, i.e. they are used to organize the work of a computer. They have nothing to do with the scope of tasks that the user can solve with them. Nevertheless, the user cannot avoid them.
Moreover, the concept of a program being a standard entity capable of performing certain tasks on a computer has been ingrained in modern digital systems, making developers treat different programs in a similar way. As a result, modern computers tend to execute hundreds of processes and thousands of threads, even if the user is performing a single operation. From the point of view of the end user, there is no such thing as ‘a program in general’, since any program is designed to perform a specific function. However, this difference is only reflected in its behavior rather than the structure.
The file system is another example of a widespread, outdated technology. From the user’s point of view, the origin of the object (image, document) that the user is working with is not important: it can be loaded from a local file, extracted from an archive, downloaded from the network or created by another program. Many modern systems (e. g. browsers, mail clients, messengers) support the ability to work with objects that are not represented by local files, but this is often done either by creating a hidden temporary file or by supporting multiple data sources within the program itself (opening documents from disk or over the network).
Another problem with the concept of a file is that it merges two entities together: the data to work with and the form of its representation (storage). As a result, the program may refuse to process an object (e.g. open an image) just because its file format is not supported.
Giving up outdated technologies can be painful, but it is totally possible when creating a new operating system. Sivelkiria redefines the very concept of an operating system: It turns the computer from an environment for running unrelated applications into a single system, all parts of which are interconnected. As a result, the unnecessary technical details go away: the user does not have to think in terms of applications, processes or files, since these entities no longer exist on their computer.