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New Longhorn Screenshots Leaked
Badgerguy writes "The Supersite for Windows has some shiney-blue looking leaked screenshots of LongHorn. The new screenshots of the 'Aero' interface mainly seem to be concerned with Digital Media integration - which has become deeper still. A new 'SyncManager' screenshot is up there (copying of iSync?) as well as some pictures of LongHorn prototype hardware, which looks like a cross between a desktop PC / Notebook / Tablet PC. "
**For the Windows users that are going to inevitably say "Well my XP box never crashed and I don't have to reboot for a week! I play mad gamez and it stays good! So it's stable, you are just a open source zealot!", just shut up. When the big kids talk about "stability", they mean that a server remains stable indefinately while performing multiple critical tasks. If one task fails, the OS is capable of maintaining peak levels of performance despite the failure of one component/application/process/whatever. Not having to reboot your Win2K Server for 20 or so days when all the box was doing was providing file sharing and running a small Active Directory domain for a measly 100-200 users is not "stable". That kind of stability was surpassed by UNIX over 20 years ago (and every other mainstream OS since, as well). This post was first.
Even as Slashdot Subscriber, the site was slow/unresponsive. I'm surprised Slashdot people are that interested in Longhorn. So anyway, here's a mirror.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
I know we've been saying this for years now, but um...
They're not ripping off of Apple at all!
I mean really. The prototype machines look much like an iMac with it's screen pushed down to the desk, and that wallpaper doesn't look ANYTHING like Apple's default.
Okay, so there are only so many form factors to make an LCD/Keyboard desktop-type computer, fine. But the rest is just more innovation taken from Apple. Apologies if any OSS predates anything I've mentioned about Apple in this case.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Doesn't this screenshot look a heck of a lot like the TiVo logo? I thought it actually was the TiVo logo when I saw the thumbnail and worried for a second that TiVo had sold its soul. Microsoft might want to rethink that screen, though, if they don't want a trademark fight.
I know they have really shitty design interface people, but would someone, for the love of god, tell them that pastels are really bad for eys strain over significant time intervals (or with that ugly shit, 10 seconds)? Please, ditch the pastels. I'm NOT a machead, but Apple's done a good job of picking colors with slightly lower saturation levels, with the result being a very pleasing interface. WinXP (and evidently this crap) make me want to slit my wrists.
Also, what's with the 800 pixel menu bars? Were these screenshots taken from a computer for the legally blind or will those using windows really have to look at that shit?
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Nice to see Microsoft jumping on the "we can use those BeOS icons" bandwagon. (Look carefully.)
blog |
It's like somebody at MS looked at OS X and noticed that things were shiny a lot and dialogs were sparse, and decided that the answer resided in making *everything* shiny and sparse.
Hello, you've missed the point!?
What exactly is Microsoft steering the desktop towards? Who wants or needs more digital media integration in the OS? I can see some uses for a home computer, if they're trying to go the Entertainment Center route. My guess is that in 2005 or whenever it will STILL be easier to burn the video you want to watch onto a DVD or video CD and pop it in your DVD player. I have a s-video cable running from my 'puter to the TV now, and it works, but its kind of a pain in the ass, and the solution doesn't lie in tweaking the OS, it's more like a remote control device such as the one that came with my TV capture card which I haven't bothered to program since it's just a lot easier to get up off the couch and double-click the matrix icon in my Kazaa folder.
But what use, if any, does this digital media integration have in Microsoft's largest market, the business world? I can see that maybe PowerPoint presentations will become spiffier, with video footage spliced in and stuff, but that doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the OS. And beyond that, most people are NEVER going to put AV segments in their powerpoint presentations. It's cool at first but the bloom quickly fades. So, my question is: How do any of these digtial media enhancements actually enhance Windows, how do the ADD VALUE to the product, what kind of USEFUL functionality will they provide? Very little if you ask me.
It seems to me that they should be more focused on building a better mousetrap, not adding niche features to a rickety mousetrap. For example, if I'm playing Enemy Territory in 800x600 and my desktop res is at 1024x768, and I ctrl-shirt-esc to jump out to the desktop to queue up more songs in Winamp, I can't see winamp because my screen in still in 800x600 and winamp is in the lower right corner, off the screen. And you can't alt-tab to it either. Now maybe that's winamp's fault, but something like switching between apps is what a OS is supposed to be good at, and I can't do it, so I don't really give a rat's ass about a more integrated digital multimedia experience if I can't even perform a simple act like listening to my MP3s while fragging nubs!
I wonder if providing pictures of your product and logos will become part of the Windows software/hardware certification process. I also wonder if MS is going to make non-partnered products appear with some kind of friendly warning or desparagement, thus making Joe SixPack think that they're unsafe to use or won't work completely. I bet that $15 digital camera's drivers or that $5 mouse's drivers are literally going to look like shit and not just work like shit in the future.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
In your opinion, yes.
In my opinion, I think that Mac is a little too addicted to the mouse for total computer operation. Yes it's possible to operate a Mac off a keyboard, no it's not feasible.
Hmm. First of all, I'm a programmer; I can create software, I work primarily in Windows but I'm at least "adequate" with *nix for basic things, and I'm comfortable with the command line because I'm 27 and while that's not very old, I *have* been using computers since the 8-bit days.
:P
And I don't really like your stance that "simplicity and convenience" is a bad thing. At least not, in and of itself. I think that, ideally, a computer should be easy to use as a toaster, yet it should still allow me to fiddle around "under the hood" if I want and get my hands dirty... or even shocked. I think that OSX and modern Linux distros are a positive sign that such a balance IS achievable.
I mean, isn't the original point of computers to let us get stuff done, by doing the number-crunching for us? Some "hardcore" users like you who decry simplicity and ease-of-use have, I think, begun to view computers as an end, and not a means.
The operating system, software, and hardware should be totally out of the way when I'm trying to draw a picture, write a paper, or play a game. It really should be as easy to use as a toaster for most tasks.
What if our houses, roads, and office buildings were constructed with the same passion as the average geek feels towards computers?
I don't know, man- the average archetect is pretty motivated. At least the ones I know of. The main problem is budgets- most people don't want to pay for more than boring "box" architecture when building a new strip mall or whatever. You can be the most passionate archetect in the world, but if your clients will only pay for boring concrete slabs 99% of the time, what can you do?
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Though frankly, they still dont have a decent competitor for everyday desktop computing, which is a shame.
WRT Linux, I'm inclined to agree. But Mac OS X is way more than a "decent competitor." In fact, I feel it surpasses Windows in every aspect of desktop computing. The *only* thing that Windows has over OS X is games. Other than that it can't hold a candle to the user experience that Mac OS X offers.
Oh, and I thought this even when 10.0 was released, and switched to Mac because of it.
I dunno who it is
but it prolly is fhqwhgads.
Software engineering can't be compared to nuts-and-bolts engineering because it doesn't WANT to be compared to nuts-and-bolts engineering.
It deemed to hard to do true engineering on software. Thats bunk, coders just want to be "artistic" and forget engineering.
You don't see Fords engineers going "but building a car is really complex, cut us some slack."
My example is not void, Microsoft just doesn't want to work on engineering their software enough.
Oh and the remedy should be based on what you pay for the software, therefore your including Linux, FreeBSD and OpenBSD is void.
BTW: the Enterprise version of Linux that are sold for a price should live up to this level.
That's more right than you know. To me, it looks like a super-mutated version of MSN.
And I say this as someone who spent 6 months not too long ago doing freelance design work for that same company... trust me, those aqua-like buttons, all the gradient mayhem, drop shadows on absolutely everything... it's all MSN.
Used to drive me nuts, too. MSN, a web company, chooses nothing short of the entire spectrum of colours in gradient form for all their branding, right down to a logo that incorporates that same spectrum. So much for 'web safe colours'.
(It's like the iMac all over again. The idiots looked at it and thought 'i guess transparent computers are popular now', without pausing to realize how the iMac's transparency was just one facet of the design. You slap a semi-clear enclosure on your old product and it'll just look like the Princess Phone Radio Shack garbage that it really is.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Wow Phillips and Sony are buying out the company that claims patents on TRUSTED SECURE COMPUTING, there is a bigger message here than meets the eye. MS and the hardware partner thing are pulling real shit and they will get away with it because all the user wants is digital video and sound eye and ear candy. Interoperability is not a concern because these shit heads are going to run everything! Users ability to configure and run every single aspect will be controlled from Redmond. Don't believe me just buy a longhorny PC and watch, your copy of every piece of software that you put on it will go through the processor keyed certificate check and you will have no say in what software you can run unless you have got proper keys. You can bet installing freeware and OSS ware will cause all sorts of warning bells and whistles to go off making you think you are going to wreck you computer! These assholes need to be given a lesson by the public just rejecting this shit.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
You realize that by suing Microsoft for shipping a "defective product", you also open up RedHat and any other company that does not ship %100 secure code to a lawsuit.
Basically, there is no such thing as a perfectly written program. Most software is written to what is known and capable at the time - programmers are not omniscient and cannot possibly foresee all potential security holes in code. In addition, what may seem like a good idea or feature at the time, may later turn out to be a mistake, but there is no way of knowing that.
Secondly, you also open your company up to lawsuit. By the same idea that you can sue Microsoft for not being omniscient, you can also be sued for not foreseeing that there were possible security holes and providing appropriate protection. If your company was harmed, you could open yourself to a lawsuit for failure in due diligence.
Thirdly, there is a difference between a physical product such as a Crown Victoria and a software program. A Crown Victoria is the sum of its parts and systems, and as such, when parts or systems fail, it can and has killed people. Unless you can say the the same thing about the software you run, you are making an invalid comparison. Of course, if you can and can prove it, you can be sued for failing to provide physical backups - that is the tack I would take.
Finally, lest you think this is defense of Microsoft, it is not. This is a defense of software programmers everywhere (who are all of varying skill levels and abilities). Your bitter refusal to accept that there is only so much anyone can do will probably bite you in the end.
Enjoy your day, if it is possible.
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.