Last time I checked, Zune was heading towards a footnote in history. Again, clone successes, not failures.
Oh absolutely. The Zune product suite is a failure. The Metro UI, however, is not. Which is what I was talking about, I should have been much more specific, and not mentioned the iPod.
Touch screens aren't practical for most computer applications. If people really wanted a touch screen, they'd buy a tablet PC with Windows Mobile on it. The reason why is quite simple: a 1" gesture on a mouse is 24 times faster than a 1" gesture on a 24" monitor. Computers are all about efficiency of the operator and when you got a mouse, touch screens simply don't make sense.
I also agree that touchscreens are not practical, but take it a step further: what is even more practical than a 1" mouse gesture? The Keyboard. You can hit a boatload of keys in a few seconds. I like keyboard input for AutoCAD, it is a good example. Move the mouse to the line button, click it, move back to model space, click again, etc etc. or type [L] and slam the spacebar in .5 seconds. TLDR; I think UI improvements should be focused on the mouse and keyboard too, but that is not what is up for discussion here. We are talking about a UI's capability to deliver content with the least number of steps in a simple interface. The interface has to look simple in
form, not actually be simple in it's
function.
I put a computer together not too long ago for my sister's mother-in-law (~60 years old). She's never used a computer and, with a little direction, she figured it out pretty quick. If they design computers around "idiots," they're going to alienate the hundreds of millions of users that aren't "idiots" (their most reliable customers).
Again I believe you are right. However, this is exactly what has happened. I believe this is the cause for the large backlash in the tech community (not just this forum) : because the technical user base has been alienated.
Oh, and businesses still very much shape Windows. They make up a huge share of Windows purchasers. I imagine they'll be selling a Windows 8 Business version that has most of the new Windows 8 features disabled/removed.
Most likely. More importantly, it looks like the whole interface is just a new 'start menu' that runs on top of the original desktop. It can be turned off.
If anything, Microsoft should start marketing a tablet specific version of Windows and leave the core Windows product alone. A desktop OS isn't going to be able to compete with mobile-targetted Android and iPad OS and a tablet OS isn't going to be able to compete with Chrome OS, Mac OS X, or *nix.
Correct, but what if people want windows to work like windows phone? You need a center to handle media...almost like windows media center
. Thanks folks, I'll be here all night.
What concerns me the most is Microsoft doesn't like to maintain "legacy" UIs for long. If they make tablet UIs standard for the desktop OS, the legacy desktop UI will be phased out in less than 5 years. I can see that as only spelling disaster for Microsoft.
The only way the desktop UI will be phased out is if this one actually works better for applications. Let's face it, it probably works the same. Allow me to explain. Remember the part of the footage where they showed excel running? It was the same program. Nothing changed. The only difference is that there is not a taskbar on the bottom of the screen, which is technically wasted space.
If there was a way to make it disappear when you were not actively switching between programs, then I would hail that as a godsend. Luckily, that is exactly what this does. Wanna know what TPU would look like in Windows 8? hit [F11].
It looks like the apps where running in full-screen mode. Nothing more, nothing less. There is nothing wrong with that. It does not detract from the functionality of the program. It looks like you can have any kind of shortcut on the new UI. So why not place a shortcut to My Documents on it?
Then the new UI is like your desktop & start menu combined. Instead of switching to your desktop to see rainmeter (1-click step) your make 1 click to see the app space. However, you can now access the start menu too, which ordinarily required a separate click. That last click has been omitted, which from an Aspergers standpoint means the new UI is technically twice as efficient.
This is great, because desktops are wasted space anyways. It isn't the greatest way to launch applications. It's like Microsoft took the icons on your desktop, made them better, and then got rid of the background space that you use to make yourself feel better. Pure functionality. That's it. Nothing else. Attached is what the difference between XP and 8 is (check my mspaint skillz
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