Enso: Humanize Your Computer

16Jan09

I’m in the middle of reading Jef Raskin’s (started a project in the 70s called Apple Macintosh) book, The Humane Interface. It’s a terrific read that tells us all about what’s wrong with software as it stands today. Although Jef died in 2005, his son Aza is carrying on the work because it’s just too good to leave unfinished. Aza formed a company called Humanized.com and their product is called Enso (Windows only for now). It sits between the user and the system and applies the speed, power and efficiency of the command line with the elegance of the GUI. The closest thing I’ve seen to it is Firefox Ubuiquity (Also written by Aza Raskin), only this applies to the entire system.  While it’s not perfectly in line with Jef Raskin’s ideals, it’s a pretty nice step to getting there.  Check out the link to the demo video above to get a peek into what could be possible.   Enso is a command line for the non-technical person.  Computers don’t have to be unfriendly.

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