Words take up too much space, and icons are universal.
I'll give you that
some ideas might be universal, and easier to illustrate with pictures. But for example "save" takes very little real estate and is nearly timeless, but an icon of a floppy disk will mean NOTHING to your grandkids. Much less a 5 1/2 inch or even reel to reel tape...which at one time might have made a lot of sense as an icon.
What will printers look like in 10 years, yet "print" goes back 10's of generations. Print is a small word. What printer to you use for an Icon? An office style whizbang color laser or an inkjet that sits beside your desktop?
Even common icons across various manufacturers are SO different, that your term "universal" doesn't really ring true... at least to me.
You could say my WORDS argument is English-centric and I wouldn't fight you too much. But not too many years ago, English was considered The Universal Language (and still is in some venues like commercial aviation)
The USA invented modern computers. English is OK to require. I don't see a movement to put icons on the ancient Abacus so that I can use it. To play classical music, you might need to know some Latin and German and Spanish or you'll blow right through a ritardando e diminuendo playing your timbales. You just learn it.
We've just got too many icons. Buy a new piece of software and you'll have to "hover" many times to get the meanings of some of those icons.
But like I said...it might just be me. Old, and increasingly crotchity, clinging to my punctuation and capitalization. I hate the overuse of acronyms too, so....
