Dont forget, there were no Digital Cameras, no DV video cameras, no mp3's to download, no iTunes, no internet, no need for more than a couple of gigabytes of storage... Life was simple... Word documents, excel sheets and the occasional game.

Then the digital revolution happened. The notion of multimedia finally became a reality. The introduction of fast and always on internet revolutionised content sharing, the age of Napster came and gone, digital cameras long ago replaced films and the iPod became the Walkman of the present. However, the evolution of software and, less so, operating systems was less evident. It was not until last year that Microsoft came about updating its operating system which hadn't seen any updates since early 2000 with Windows Vista replacing the aged XP. One year later and my company has still not migrated to Vista and is planning to do so in over a year from now.

Looking in the early 90's, each iteration of Microsofts operating system was a true evolutionary step. Look into the transition from Windows 3.11, to Windows 95 that introduced the multimedia concept, to Windows 98 that attempted to integrate the internet on a users desktop, to Windows 2000 and XP.

Looking over the past decade, none of the digital consumer revolutions have filtered down to the operating system layer. How do you archive and handle photos? Still using the photo preview utility in Windows, or the nifty Picassa application? How do you manage your music library? Using windows media or Winamp - iTunes? How do you create CD's and DVD's? Using the CD burning wizzard or Nero? Instead what we see is changing shape of icons, fancy 3D effects and semi-transparent windows... User is bombarded with pop-ups, notifications, flashing icons and fading menus that do not serve him but distract him.

That lead to the era of consumer computer specialists, A.K.A. The Geeks. When your not-so-computer literate aunt wants a new CD for her car, she must come to you and ask as she does not know how to use this little wierd application with a flame burning the Colloseum on it (nero). And why should she? The younger have been gradually trained to accept the inconsistencies in user interface between different applications doing the same thing (see Winamp with Windows Media) and are willing to search the internet and download/buy the application that will fulfill their needs.

But why should they? Why should feature rich equal to better product? We live in a society that having more is considered living better and that has cascaded down to the design of our applications and hardware. Who and why needs a quad-core processor with 4GB of ram and 1TB of storage? Consumers? Will it be a life altering experience to be able to rip a DVD in 10 minutes instead of 20? So what if the computer cannot store 500 movies but "only" 250? Do we actually need 3000 photos from our last 5 day vacation or are we missing the point of actually living it and focusing on clicking on the shutter? 

Just take a step back and think... Why should minimalism be the new trend in internal decor but not in your digital life? There are plenty of alternatives out there if you are willing to change.

Go take a look at an Apple computer with clean lines both outside and inside. Look for the iPhone with an incredibly small but focused number of features. Dont like Apple? Check out the new trend called "NetBooks", like the Asus EEE that expect to fourish over the next years. Ask yourself, do you really need a full blown Photoshop licence to edit a couple of family photos?

Put your digital content into diet. How? Try to fit your digital life in an 80GB hard drive. Why should you keep files that you havent seen or accessed for more than 4-5 years? Archive them and let them die a peacefull death, until your grandchildren find this wierd looking disk called DVD stored in your bookcase, blow the dust of it and slide it in the incredibly thick Macbook Air of yours...