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Comment by gloob | Hacker News Reader

In order to clarify, I assume when you say "no filesystem", you mean "no user-visible filesystem, but is still muggle-usable (and might well have a filesystem under the hood)", yes? Because we've had computers without filesystems for about as long as we've had computers. Computers with filesystems are a significantly more recent innovation.

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Yes, iOS uses a filesystem under the hood. The applications just never expose it to the user. As an application developer you should be aware of it, but as a user? it doesn't matter one bit.

A computer without a filesystem that predated personal computers can be called a pre-PC device if you like ;-)

If a device has a filesystem for its own use but does not expose the filesystem to users or to applications, that's a post-PC device. If we merely denude the device of the Finder but all the apps use the filesystem, I'm on the fence. It's a post-PC device in all the ways that matter to users, but it feels transitional to me. Future generations of post-PC device won't expose a filesystem to developers or users.

So yes, iOS devices are post-PC devices, but they can become even more so.

A computer without a filesystem that predated personal computers can be called a pre-PC device if you like ;-)

I was pretty sure this was going to be part of the answer, but I laughed out loud when I saw it anyway. Thanks for clarifying your ideas. :)

It's only half a joke. The great PC revolution was that users became their own data processing departments. So pre-PC devices had users that were blind to the question of which Mag tape or removable hard drive platter held the data they needed for a report. PCs put us all to work as data processing minions, just as rotary dial telephones put us all to work as operators.

So if you turn your head sideways and squint, there are some similarities between pre-PC and post-PC devices.

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