<p>From a user perspective, current <strong>file systems are based on three
assumptions</strong>:
</p><ul>
<li>Information is partitioned into coherent and <strong>disjunct
units</strong>, each of which is treated as a separate object (file). Users
typically manipulate information using a file and are restricted to be "in"
one file at a time.
</li><li>Information objects are <strong>classified according to a single
hierarchy</strong>: the subdirectory structure.
</li><li>Each information object is given a single, semiunique
<strong>name</strong>, which is fixed. This file name is the main way users
access information inside the object.
</li></ul>
<p>
Window systems have made these assumptions less intolerable, but they still
exist. Modern computing, particularly the Internet, is further undermining
these assumptions in several ways.</p>
