Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[NoelC]

 

Yeah, combining windows under one Taskbar button is a feature I've never cared for

...

Taskbar buttons with text that actually says something. Thumbnails are useful IMX, too.

 

The takeaway from this little sub-conversation is that we differ in the way we combine UI features to reach our goals.  We don't really work the "Windows" way, we have developed over time a "Jorge" way and a "Noel" way.  I imagine either of us, if placed suddenly in front of the other's computer, might struggle for a while to get our bearings - as though it were a completely foreign system.  We would certainly be sorely tempted to reconfigure it.

 

Up until a few years ago, it was considered a Good Thing to be able to customize one's work environment to work the way you like.  There's a certain (recurring) pleasure in having your system set up to be just so.

 

Now the options are systematically being removed, with the clear intent to herd us all into one way, which presumably was the darling of some twisted mind at Microsoft a few years ago.  THIS attempt at "herding" cuts to the heart of why Microsoft is failing!

 

Anyone noticed that if you go to McDonald's you can actually ask them to make whatever you order your way?

 

-Noel

Edited September 18, 2014 by NoelC

[jaclaz]

 

Anyone noticed that if you go to McDonald's you can actually ask them to make whatever you order your way?

 

Yeah, sure, you can have "regular" and "maxi" fries, and Big Mac or QuarterPound, besides "small", "medium" and "large" beverage.

 

Try asking for a well-done hamburger, with added onions, without salad but with some added tomato and cheese.

 

McDonalds is not a good example .

 

The actual "secret" of the success of McDonalds lies in "standardization" which is not, in itself a bad thing, but you have the choice to go one day to McDonalds, another day to a Chinese restaurant, another day to an Italian one, etc., what you can be pretty sure about is that you can get the same "standard" food no matter if you go to a McDonald's in the US or (say) in Germany.

 

Not specifically McDonald's, BUT:

 

 

jaclaz

[NoelC]

You're missing the point - you CAN order special things at McDonalds now.  There was a time they wouldn't be able to handle it.  But they've quietly changed to be more flexible for the few customers who prefer specific changes.  Maybe it's an individual store thing, but I've seen it happen first hand.

 

-Noel

[Tripredacus]

It was always Burger King's tagline, but I suspect most fast food chains would not reject a special order. For example, try ordering a mix-up... such as one of the specialty burger but tell them to use the chicken or fish patties instead. I am not certain what that reaction would be or if they would say they could do it. Or you can just make your own special meal by ordering the plain hamburger and then one of the BBQ sauce they usually sell with the nuggets.

[JorgeA]

 

 

Yeah, combining windows under one Taskbar button is a feature I've never cared for

...

Taskbar buttons with text that actually says something. Thumbnails are useful IMX, too.

 

The takeaway from this little sub-conversation is that we differ in the way we combine UI features to reach our goals.  We don't really work the "Windows" way, we have developed over time a "Jorge" way and a "Noel" way.  I imagine either of us, if placed suddenly in front of the other's computer, might struggle for a while to get our bearings - as though it were a completely foreign system.  We would certainly be sorely tempted to reconfigure it.

 

Up until a few years ago, it was considered a Good Thing to be able to customize one's work environment to work the way you like.  There's a certain (recurring) pleasure in having your system set up to be just so.

 

Now the options are systematically being removed, with the clear intent to herd us all into one way, which presumably was the darling of some twisted mind at Microsoft a few years ago.  THIS attempt at "herding" cuts to the heart of why Microsoft is failing!

 

Anyone noticed that if you go to McDonald's you can actually ask them to make whatever you order your way?

 

-Noel

 

 

Yup, I agree! User choice is one of the things that's made Windows such a fabulous platform over the years, and no doubt contributed to its success. We're not restricted to doing things the one way that some cubicle dweller decided is best for everybody.

 

I'm encouraged by some of the backtracking Microsoft seems to be doing with Windows 9. Time (and experimenting with it, and the feedback MSFT gets) will determine whether it turns out to be as good for users as Windows 7. I would settle for a Win7 relaunch with some of the new features they're talking about for Threshold.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

It was always Burger King's tagline, but I suspect most fast food chains would not reject a special order. For example, try ordering a mix-up... such as one of the specialty burger but tell them to use the chicken or fish patties instead. I am not certain what that reaction would be or if they would say they could do it. Or you can just make your own special meal by ordering the plain hamburger and then one of the BBQ sauce they usually sell with the nuggets.

 

LOL, can I have ketchup and mustard on my salad?

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Microsoft is closing its research lab in Silicon Valley

 

Earlier today, Microsoft confirmed that it had cut an additional 2100 employees and it looks like some of those individuals were based in Silicon Valley at the company's research center. According to Derek Murray, whose tweet is posted below, his office is being shut down and the last day of operation will be tomorrow.

 

The office is located in Mountain View, California and has been around since 2001. According to the office's website, the lab was focused on "distributed computing and includes privacy, security, protocols, fault-tolerance, large-scale systems, concurrency, computer architecture, Internet search and services, and related theory".

 

I wonder if the layoffs include the crack research team that told Julie Larsen-Green that "telemetry" indicated that people didn't need the Start Menu...

 

--JorgeA

 

[NoelC]

Or the Windows Backup facility.

 

-Noel

[jaclaz]

I wonder if the layoffs include the crack research team that told Julie Larsen-Green that "telemetry" indicated that people didn't need the Start Menu...

 

 

JorgeA, don't take it the wrong way , but you clearly have no idea on how things go in a company like MS.

 

Julie Larsen-Green (or any other self-proclaimed UI guru in the high ranks of MS) decided that people didn't need the Start Menu and later used (real or faked) telemetry data to support the theory.

 

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

 

I wonder if the layoffs include the crack research team that told Julie Larsen-Green that "telemetry" indicated that people didn't need the Start Menu...

 

 

JorgeA, don't take it the wrong way , but you clearly have no idea on how things go in a company like MS.

 

Julie Larsen-Green (or any other self-proclaimed UI guru in the high ranks of MS) decided that people didn't need the Start Menu and later used (real or faked) telemetry data to support the theory.

 

jaclaz

 

 

Haha -- you're right, that probably IS the way they did it.

 

Time was when businesses sought to please their customers and provide the goods or services the customers wanted. In fact this still happens in most traditional industries. But in the tech industry, the deveolopers or executives all-too-often take the attitude that THEY know what's best for everybody else and WE, their customers, are the ones who must accept and adapt to THEIR preferences. It even happens in non-profit enterprises, as we've seen with Mozilla Firefox.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Windows 9 (Threshold) will feature a Start menu that embraces the theme of your desktop

 

More tidbits coming out about the new version of Windows.

 

A new leak shows the Start menu changing colors based on the color scheme of the applied wallpaper. It also seems as if the taskbar retains the same color scheme. These minor features lead to a deeper integration of themes in Windows, and guide a more consistent look.

 

[...]

 

One of the problems that is evident in the leak is that not all colors will look good. However, no need to worry yet as there is no reason to believe that Microsoft took out the current functionality to change theme color independent of the wallpaper...

 

 

A First Look at the Windows Technical Preview

 

To be clear: Charms are still present on touch-based systems, as with Windows 8.1, but they can only be accessed with touch. If you try to use the old mouse-based triggers for Charms, nothing happens.

[emphasis in original]

 

Good, definitely an improvement.

 

Microsoft has created a new Windows Insider Preview Program so that users can get more frequent preview builds and provide feedback to the company.

 

This might be an opportunity for us Aero Glass lovers to keep reminding them that we value choice in that regard, too.

 

I'm thinking of installing the Technical Preview so that I can sign up for that program and tell them about Aero and any annoyances that are still left over from the Win8 fiasco. How do you guys feel? Care to join me?

 

Of course this assumes that Microsoft will actually listen this time, but I get the sense that the worst offenders are gone from the company.

 

--JorgeA

 

[JorgeA]

Uh-oh, check out this little passage:

 

Microsoft is looking to 'fundamentally change the way Windows is shipping'

 

Found in a Microsoft job description for a "Mission Control Team":

 

What would it take to modify the Windows start menu on every Windows user machine in less than a week?

 

I don't like the sound of that...

 

--JorgeA

Edited September 21, 2014 by JorgeA

[JorgeA]

 

... How do those of you who might have chosen to remain on an older system feel?  ...

 

Like living the last years of a golden age, 'cause I'm certain by now that Se7en is the last non-retarded not-sucker-bait OS that Microshaft will ever release. It'll had to be Linux or whatever else after 2020.

 

... What would it take to make you a Windows 9 user? ...

 

No chance, thanks.

 

 

Let's assume that the limited previews that we've seen of Windows 9 are representative of what Microsoft is thinking of releasing next year. Based on those previews, what would you like changed in Windows 9 to make it worth using? (A sincere question, I'm curious to find out if my impressions of Win9 are similar to yours.)

 

--JorgeA

[NoelC]

Not sure if you were asking of a specific person, but so far all I've seen is reminiscent of what I'd expect of a Windows 8.2.

 

Doesn't there kind of need to be some serious substance to make a full version release?

 

Where is that substance?  What have Microsoft's tens of thousands of engineers been doing?

 

Why aren't our computers capable of speech recognition and very good synthesis?  Why don't we have spam protection that works any better than in 2003?  Why can't the system remember where every application window was last time we used it?  Why can't we describe an image or music in terms we'd normally use and have the system search for it (and actually find it)?

 

I'm reminded of times past when people all thought we'd surely have flying cars by now.

 

Yet all we have is stagnation.  Brand new ways to play Solitaire and removal of features we really need don't a full version release make.  What's next?  More of the same, or something truly better?

 

Who here doesn't think that just restoring the source code for Windows 7, applying a few choice bugfixes, then working to make it better might be a better approach than making Windows 8.2, er, 9?

 

-Noel

[JorgeA]

Not sure if you were asking of a specific person, but so far all I've seen is reminiscent of what I'd expect of a Windows 8.2.

 

I was intending that for @TELVM since he said he wouldn't be interested in anything past Windows 7 (including Windows 9), but of course everybody can add their own perspective.

 

Who here doesn't think that just restoring the source code for Windows 7, applying a few choice bugfixes, then working to make it better might be a better approach than making Windows 8.2, er, 9?

 

That would be good enough for me!

 

And you're right, Win9 is looking like not much more than Win8.2. There was supposed to be an Update 2 back in August (including the revived Start Menu), but word is that many of the things that were intended to go into it got pushed back to Win9, possibly so as to beef up the "improvements" factor of the new OS relative to Windows 8. And so Update 2 fizzled out to almost nothing.

 

I'll be happy with Windows 9 if:

 

1. I don't have to see anything (in the Start Menu or PC settings) that looks like Metro;
2. I can get native Aero Glass back;
3. I can stay out of the cloud and the cloud stays out of my OS;
4. I don't have to open a Microsoft Account in order to operate or maintain the OS; and
5. I don't have to pay a yearly fee to use the OS.

 

Not necessarily an exhaustive list! What else?

 

--JorgeA