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Microsoft's New Mantra - It Just Works
bonch writes "Fortune has a story about Microsoft's new philosophy--'It just works.' Jim Allchin details various planned Longhorn features to meet this goal, such as auto-defragmenting in the background, the ability to have files in more than one folder simultaneously, and the new ad campaign Microsoft is running to get people excited about Windows. Mentions are also made of the competition from Linux, OS X Tiger, and Google."
Wow. Cannot Microsoft even come up with their own mantras rather than copy others? Come on now guys, this is pathetic, but I guess nothing is new under the sun. Seriously though, even now, I still own a bit of stock in Microsoft and I've been to the campus a number of times, so from the annual reports I get, along with friends who work there, I know Microsoft can/should be able to do better than this. (Or can they?)
There are absolutely some capable folks there, so what is the problem? Why must you (almost) always use Apple as a source for inspiration? There is a reason that I moved my investments in Microsoft stock to Apple stock three years ago, and you are doing nothing to make me want to reinvest in Microsoft. Is marketing that out of control up there? Jim, come on now, I've met you and you are one smart guy. Finding the above link to Apple took me all of two seconds in Google and this statement from the article: "Jim Allchin, Microsoft's group vice president for platforms, looked at my Apple PowerBook and smugly pointed out that the number of copies of Windows sold this year will be more than all the Macintosh computers used worldwide." really worries me. It shows an arrogance that is not going to serve you or Microsoft well.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
If there was truth in advertising.
If you put in a DVD, the volume will automatically adjust and the video will just start playing full screen. "You shouldn't have to spend a lot of time struggling with things," Allchin said
How long will I have to struggle with it to figure out how to turn that off?
"It mostly kinda sorta works."
or
"Eventually, when Longhorn ships, it may actually work."
So yeah, don't buy anything else until then, cuz that wouldn't make sense!
such as auto-defragmenting in the background
Windows XP auto-defragment as well (if enabled).
"Two things inspire me to awe -- the starry heavens above and the moral universe within." - Albert Einstein
So, they're feeling pressure from MacOS X. Good. Very good.
Oops. I think someone had on Dvorak or something when typing "crashes".
From what I understand, the advertising campaign Microsoft is launching (it's quite large too) has absolutly nothing to do with Longhorn. They are simply addressing XP.
Foxed Design
the ability to have files in more than one folder simultaneously
Finally, a windows eq to ln -sf!
'It works, just' - any others? :D
Or, It Already Works For Someone Else So We'll Pinch It:
auto-defragmenting in the background HFS+
ability to have files in more than one folder simultaneously symlinks, Smart Folders
the new ad campaign Microsoft is running to get people excited about Windows Maybe that does indeed Just Work. No-one ever got fired for choosing a Microsoft (although there are places where that's beginning to change).
waitaminnit... isn't this apple's mantra??? apple = microsoft??? *gasp* bill gates = steve jobs??? OMG! the sky is falling! the sky is falling!!!
and if you can figure out what the h*ll it's done, then you're ahead of the game! If you can undo it, then you'll be ...a god.
--LWM
Reading this article, it does have its moments to consider: Allchin, a wiry-built 54-year-old who has been in charge of Windows for almost a decade, is admirably blunt about his own frustrations using the current operating system. It annoys him, for example, that the adjustments necessary to move a laptop from a work to a home network aren't obvious. Longhorn, he said, will make that process easy, along with many other common tasks. If you want a Longhorn machine to automatically configure itself so you can work in a coffee shop, it will. If you put in a DVD, the volume will automatically adjust and the video will just start playing full screen. "You shouldn't have to spend a lot of time struggling with things," Allchin said, adding that the number one design goal for Longhorn has been: "It just works."
Funny, my Powerbook G4 has been doing this for years. I guess Microsoft will be downplaying that a bit further down...
Much has been made in the computer press recently of the surprising similarities between Longhorn and Apple's upcoming new Macintosh operating system, Tiger. (See Peter Lewis's recent column, Apple's 'Tiger' to Stalk Rivals April 29.) The bottom line is that both will make finding items in our ever-increasing digital stores of information and entertainment much easier. Longhorn doesn't just show you an icon for a document, for example, but rather an itsy-bitsy picture of the first page. If you have a really good monitor--and eyesight--you could even read the numbers in that spreadsheet. You also will be able to put files simultaneously in different folders, and find the one you want with much more ease than you can today. Microsoft's research shows that the average corporate employee spends about 20% of her time on the PC simply looking for items. "We're trying to go beyond search into what we call 'visualization and organization,'" said Allchin
Right. I got Panther to do this with a little tweaking, and from what I read, Tiger may be doing something similar. Talk about innovation...
For all the advances that Microsoft and other computer companies have made in recent years, and despite the fact that PCs are central to many of our lives, it's still hard to use them. So it was reassuring to hear the main guy responsible for making their software predict that the situation will improve soon. I hope that he's right when he says that future systems will "just work."
Great. Fantastic. *Applause* But I don't trust it. I've heard this before. Until I see some increased security before they attempt to make their UI as beautiful as Mac OS X, I'm not even going to bother giving them the time of day.
3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
Or maybe:
I Just Works.
Barely.
...or if you prefer, it just crashes.
I've got too much experience with Windows to consider it for an enterprise environment.
Did anyone bother to ask the customers what they want?
So far we have
Free as in costs money
Advantage as in same later
and open as in closed
We have a new entry
It just works as in windows.
Quite inkeeping with the rest of the publicity statments i belive
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
"It just works as designed." (you poor bastard)
No kidding. I hate automatic stuff. Don't move my frickin' icons, I put them there for a reason. Don't hide those menu commands, I like to know what my options are. Don't hide the programs that are running...
konqueror has done this for a while... I'm not terribly versed in GUI file managers for X, but I'd presume that other programs do it as well... I guess their new mantra is just a reincarnation of their old mantra "Steal other people's ideas and then charge for it!"
Rather than running just on computers that process 32 bits of data at a time, the new version will run on chips that process 64 bits.
To rephrase: "Windows will finally catch up to the rest of the world and be compatible with emerging technology, a practice that Microsoft is loathe to indulge in (see Internet Explorer)."
"If it's got arithmetic logic on it, then I think our software should be targeting it"
Another rephrasing: "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile." - Jim Allchin, addressing my TI-86.
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
>ln /foo/bar/say_it_aint_so ~/say_it_aint_so
For those who don't read beyond the end of TFA... a great quote (with attribution): First, from TFA a quote from Allchin re the current state of affairs in XP vs. what Longhorn "will" deliver: Allchin: Microsoft's research shows that the average corporate employee spends about 20% of her time on the PC simply looking for items. Then, the comment from a reader: Rod Shuffler 04/22 10:55 An interesting article. Does that 20% non-productivity figure that Allchin quotes get factored into TCO arguments?
"the ability to have files in more than one folder simultaneously"
Is it just me.. or do all OSes do this? I have thousands of files, all in different places, all at the same time... right now.
-m
So they realized the just couldn't pull off the security thing, and have decided to move in another direction?
Jim Allchin details various planned Longhorn features to meet this goal, such as auto-defragmenting in the background
Here's something that works: implementing a file system that doesn't require constant defragmentation.
*raises hand*
Gates: "Yes. You there with your hand up."
Me: "Mr. Ballmer? Mr. Gates? What about spyware and virii on the Longhorn platform?"
Bill: "As our slogan says, 'It just works!'"
Me: "Oh."
how about having a filesystem that doesn't suffer from fragmentation in the first place so you don't have to waste processor cycles defragging it!!!!!!!
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
If it will 'just work' in the future, we would see some of the 'just working' in Windows XP.
.NET password in here. Yeah, it has something to do with that "Windows Messenger" that keeps poping up in then system tray. Now click on 'Change my name", and then change your name.
But noo....
But sometime you need to scroll down a list, no... the other list. Yeah, that one. Select 'properties'-- what? No, right click on the icon, and select 'properties'. And then... no wait it's not here. Click 'cancel'. Ok, now click 'cancel' again. Now, hit the 'x' in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Now go to "start: settings: Control Panel", click on "Users Accounts", click on "change account", click on your username. What? No, I don't know why they have a
Sometimes it just works.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
Doesn't this imply that "it" doesn't yet work? That's the same thing as saying it's broken, right?
Because stealing from Apple just works.
From just reading the register a few minutes ago, the slogan, "70 Percent Fewer Reboots" sounded pretty good to me.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Microsoft is a bad buy simply because they have little room left to grow. Buying Apple three years ago was a smart move much along the lines of buying Microsoft shares in the late-80s.
Until it blows up. Or your software contract expires. Or we decide it's time to 'upgrade'.
Then you are on your own.
From TFA: "Which means, for example, Longhorn will automatically clean up, or "defragment," your hard drive, if it is required. You won't even know it's happening."
So you mean Longhorn is going to make the incessant ticking and whirring of my hard drive less annoying? I seriously doubt it.
Well I am hoping all the win 9x/2k/xp software I use now will work on longhorn. Like will IE 7.0 be compatible with all the spyware I have for IE 6?
I think the OS *should* support hard linking though. If I really want to organise my files that way, so be it. Same way I'd rather windows defaulted to symbolic linking rather than shortcuts.
jh
You have a 1D LCD? is it tall or wide? ;)
-David
Need Geek Rock? Try The Franchise!
For Apple.
They have done more to market for Apple in the last few weeks than they realize (or maybe they do realized).
Every comparison of features is with something already released under the current OS X, or is a feature that will be in the next release of OS X (slated soon?).
I guess I don't get what Microsoft's strategy is for this campaign. Is this the Microsoft "Me Too" campaign?
I would love to see the sales numbers for the next OS X release. We could see some increase in sales due to Microsoft owners realizing that there is another OS in the market that works at least as well, if not better, than XP.
Maybe Gates owns a bunch of Apple stock and is hedging his bets.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
In reality, as cute as it may be to point out the 'imitation' going on here, it might be better to look at the renewed (finally!) competition taking place. For years, Microsoft has been relatively reluctant to do any serious innovation in OS development, instead focusing on the issues that were generating the most complaints. Think about it, from Windows 95 through Windows XP, what major innovations have been introduced?
Now, however, that Mac OS has been making big strides and an ever increasing number of people have started to look at it as a viable alternative (even in my small-business workplace!), Microsoft has seemingly started to take the competition seriously. This is a Good Thing!
Competition always benefits the consumer, and prior to the last couple years, there *was no competition* in the desktop OS category.
Exactly. The difference between Microsoft and Apple's interface philosophy (I think):
1. Apple makes it easy for the user to do complicated things.
2. Microsoft tries to automatically do complicated things for the user.
Approach #1 might be somewhat restrictive but gives the user some credit.
Approach #2 is rife with problems, notably ActiveX, email attachments that run themselves, autoscanning HDDs, and myriad other annoyances/outright hazards.
I'll take approach #1. It just works.
No, it's "It's Just Works"!
Remember? MS Works? Nothing new, here. Move along...
Defaults to on, defaults to off... Who cares?
The point is that Microsoft has a long history of adding features to their operating system, and putting all the effort into the feature instead of putting some into the configuration of the feature.
I don't care if the feature is there, or what the default state is, as long as I don't have to go somewhere arcane that I'd never think of without hours of exploring to turn it off... Just like I hated having to figure out that the power settings for my hard drive were in "Display Settings" under screen saver.
Because, as we know "It Just Works" was invented by Apple.
You have to admit, it's better than the old one:
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
So does it "Just work" like IE "Conforms to CSS Spec"? Perhaps Lie will come out with a Acid3 test that shoves the cream pie into Billg's face like the earlier time it happened.
It just works...
<zoom in on fine print...>
The "It just works" slogan is representative that Microsoft products will work for something. Microsoft guarantees that all hardware running Microsoft software will always "Just work" as:
Boat anchors
Target practice
Paper weights
Furniture, including bookends, footstools, and coffee tables
"It just works" may or may not apply to:
File storage
Application development
Application platform
Gaming
Multimedia
Use of the Internet
depending on the availability of service packs, updates, and copious bandwidth, as well as other factors (not exclusively including) ambient temperature, the phase of the moon, the average body mass index of Microsoft programmers, and the parity of your score when you reach the flagpole.
I pity the foo that isn't metasyntactic
Apple: proudly failing to capitalize on good ideas since 1976
The much better solution would be to tag the MP3's with metadata that gets cached into a searchable database, and then completely ignore the folder hierarchy.
You know, kinda like iTunes does.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
... because you have to know that this slogan is going to be ridiculed. It probably took all of a few microseconds before the first parody of ``It Just Works'' was thought up. Here's mine:
Longhorn: It Barely Works
Longhorn: It Just Works In the Lab
Longhorn: It Almost Works
Longhorn: It Worked Just a Minute Ago!
I'll be referring to Longhorn using the first one I listed above. Seems like it'll be a useful slogan until about SP3 or SP4. (That's if it ever makes it to market.)
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Cross-linked directory == same shit, dude, except that it was (1) unintentional, and (2) it meant that you probably lost a file (two files, A and B, with 2 directory entries, but both entries point to A. B is lost).
Evidently, you weren't around in the old DOS days.
When does Windows ever require this? I've personally ignored the instructions of some devices, even when they say install the driver first before plugging it in, and have had no problems installing the driver after I plugged the device in.
I'm pretty sure 1D would be a line, with zero thickness. . .
Building a better backup.
Zettabyte Storage
1. Catchy slogans ending in -ks strangely tend to already be in use by other people. And no, I'm not talking about Apple here. How about Autodesk?
2. Words ending in -ks can easily be altered on billboards. "It just sucks" is going to be just as easy as this one was...
Apparently Microsoft is suppressing its memory of these past events.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Apple is a hardware company that provides software to their own line of computers and other electronic devices exclusively, Microsoft is a software company that supplies software to everyone.
What does this mean?
Apple controls their hardware line. They don't have to worry about someone buying an off brand powerbook and having their software not work on it.
Microsoft has to support all different kinds of hardware, from ancient legacy systems to bleeding edge stuff. It is extremely unlikely that it will "just work," all the time.
They would have been better off stealing the Linux slogan, "Does it run Linux?" which seems to be applied to any random piece of hardware that comes out that might be capable of running an operating system.
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
That's assuming Microsoft stock will be valuable only on the basis of being a growth stock.
If they decided to release dividends periodically, it would still be a decent buy, because they make so much damn money.
When iTunes first came out, WinAmp users were still organizing MP3 files in directories, saving dozens of playlists, and spending hours on tag management and file name synching.
Real had some media management, so did Musicmatch, but they were both messy, confusing, cramped, and slow to search.
Right from the beginning, iTunes changed music from a wild collection of files on the hard-drive that had to be periodically coralled to a single library entity, searchable, playable, with built-in tag editing that put everything else to shame.
It took the effort out of having a music library. A lot of geeks are still frustrated with it because they got all their file directory skills for MP3s down pat and the new way doesn't fit them, but can you honestly see twelve year old girls organizing thousands of songs the old way?
It brought MP3 truly to the masses, not just the college crowd.
Better how? Filenames are nothing if not searchable metadata. As a bonus they're also hierarchal.
They say, "It just works".
I sit with skepticism.
Microsoft go home.
In fact get rid of modal windows in general
If that's not the most ignorant thing I've ever heard. Modal dialogs and windows are an important tool.
I seem to recall that Ballmer had used that exact line ("It Just Works") to describe Windows ME. I can't find the exact reference, but this one might be close.
I remember this because at the time, one of my colleagues kept mocking Ballmer by deliberately misquoting it as "It just broke." To which I usually responded, "...again."
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Wow, files can be in more than one folder. Kind of like, uh, symbolic links? And now I don't have to defrag. Great. I hate all that time I have to spend defragging my linux and solaris disks. Oh, wait...
Depending on the idiom of "just", I think Microsoft is on the right track here.
Consider:
"You get a just a D in this class"
"You earn just $10 of allowance this week"
"There are just 50mg of sodium in diet coke"
Longhorn - It Just Works!
Does it work well? I'm not saying!
perl -e "eval pack(q{H*},join q{},qw{70 72696e74207061636b28717b482a7d2c717b343 637323635363534323533343430617d293b})"
"Plug and play" used to be a phrase used by Mac users to describe the installation of new hardware.
With Windows 95, Microsoft created a "standard" called Plug And Play. Of course, the Microsoft version involved the Add Hardware Wizard, which, in the opinion of many Macintosh users then and now, is entirely contrary to the idea of plug and play. (To be fair, the classic Mac OS wasn't always literally plug and play, either, but OS X almost always is.)
I can only wonder what the It Just Works philosophy will give us.
here is the right one:
It just works. Sometimes.
You can't handle the truth.
From the Article.... "You shouldn't have to spend a lot of time struggling with things," Allchin said, adding that the number one design goal for Longhorn has been: "It just works."
:)
This looks like it is being taken out of context. Notice they split his sentence into two parts. I don't see MS using this term anywhere else in the article or stumping on the "It just works" slogan.
I am a Linux and Mac fan. I also think LongHorn is playing catch up to apple as far as UI goes. However, this article is a little unfair. Definitely anti-MS propoganda. Which is good
Yeah, iTunes does like to re-organize the files. Thing is, I don't care. I haven't given a lick of thought to the file hierarchy since I figured out what was up with the database.
At first, I was seriously annoyed that it whacked my file structure. Then, I understood what it was doing, and the file structure was irrelevant.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
When a file is opened on an HFS+ volume, the following conditions are tested:
If all of the above conditions are satisfied, the file is relocated -- it is defragmented on-the-fly.
English is easier said than done.
Mac OS X:
To turn on sharing, open up System Preferences > Sharing > Turn On File Sharing. Done. If anyone connects to the shared computer, they have to either login with the user name and pass, or access it as a Guest. Guest's only have access to each user's Public folder (which also has a dropbox inside).
Windows:
Right-click a folder > Sharing Tab > Share this folder. Now by default anyone can access this folder. To moderate access you have to open up Windows Explorer > Tools Menu > Folder Options > *View* (wtf??) > scroll down and check a box that says something along the lines of: Then you've got to go back and right click the shared folder, go the sharing tab, and configure the new confusing options. The options make you manually type in the name of the users (or groups) that are allowed to have access to the folder. Finally, you're done setting up sharing on Windows.
Best. Webhost. Ever. Dreamhost.
Zero dimensions = a point
One dimension = a line
Two dimensions = a plane
See also Flatland by Edwin Albott
-David
Need Geek Rock? Try The Franchise!
I have to disagree. I, too, own a Powerbook, as well as a dual 2Ghz G5 tower, a Mac Mini, and an Athlon 64 based PC tower. I use PCs and Windows every day for work, so I'm not one of these stereotypical "graphics arts" Mac using guys or anything....
... so maybe porting to OS X will become easier than porting to Windows in the future?
Microsoft loves to tout "the numbers" because that's really all they have going for them. Quantity does not equate to quality, however. There's something to be said for any company that strives to produce a top-tier product, even when that means not being capable of producing large numbers of it to "dominate the marketplace".
Many of the best musical instruments aren't cranked out by the millions by a manufacturer. Rather, they're painstakingly assembled by hand, in small numbers. If they weren't "niche" products, they wouldn't be worthwhile products at all.
The gaming market, right now, is all about quantity too - so it goes without saying that they're all over the Windows platform. Still, one can argue that many of the best/most entertaining games are only available for game consoles - not for Mac *or* PC. And it's beginning to look like this trend is only going to gain more momentum. (Again, when you're shooting for maximum sales numbers above all else, you start thinking in terms of "Why not write this for one specific hardware configuration we KNOW is in a given console, rather than trying to support all these potential PC software conflicts and gaming peripherals, etc.?")
Meanwhile, game consoles seem to be headed towards using the same processor that's in the Mac, not the PC
I use my PC pretty much only for gaming these days, and my Mac for everything else. If I invest a couple hundred bucks or so in a new generation console (XBox 2 or something), I could probably ditch the Windows PC completely and not really miss it.
Sure, sure, but Windows won't do that. You'll be idleing at your PC when suddenly the disk will go to 100% usage for a few seconds, just long enough to wonder WTF, but not long enough to get to the bottom of it.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Making Windows "Just work" by automating tasks has nothing to do with how Apple has been successful making their Operating System "Just Work".
The reason this phrase is synonimous with Apple is because, since the beginning, when you sat down in front of your Mac and *you* the USER tried to do something, you just did it. Yourself.
That's what "It Just works" means... it's the user coming back and telling their friend,
"Hey I just plugged in my video camera and made a movie in like 5 minutes. I don't really know how I did it, but I did, IT JUST WORKED!"
Apple can accomplish this because of it's control on hardware and OS integration. It works because the software is designed to take care of the basics behind the scenes and let the User take control of the situation.
"It Just Works" does not equal more Wizards that delay and annoy you or "helpful" messages like, "You have unused items on your Desktop, please let me delete them!"
It Just Works means the computer facilitates the process so that the User feels as though they are empowered and able to accomplish a task.
Revised EULA text follows:
16. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. The Limited Warranty that appears above is the only express warranty made to you and is provided in lieu of any other express warranties or similar obligations (if any) created by any advertising, documentation, packaging, or other communications. Specifically, marketing materials containing the phrase "It Just Works" specifically define "works" as the standard operation of the software, information and related content AS AND WITH ALL FAULTS, and does not warrant that the behavior of the software will meet expectations of function or operation. Except for the Limited Warranty and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Microsoft and its suppliers provide the Software and support services (if any) AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS, and hereby disclaim all other warranties and conditions, whether express, implied or statutory, including, but not limited to, any (if any) implied warranties, duties or conditions of merchantability, of fitness for a particular purpose, of reliability or availability, of accuracy or completeness of responses, of results, of workmanlike effort, of lack of viruses, and of lack of negligence, all with regard to the Software, and the provision of or failure to provide support or other services, information, software, and related content through the Software or otherwise arising out of the use of the Software. ALSO, THERE IS NO WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF TITLE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, QUIET POSSESSION, CORRESPONDENCE TO DESCRIPTION OR NON-INFRINGEMENT WITH REGARD TO THE SOFTWARE.
Somebody get that guy an ambulance!
It just works... But to be on the safe side, please upgrade to Intel Pentium Extreme2 7ghz
Longhorn: Insanely Great
I think what people are missing in all this is that when you SAY it, it sounds like this... It "just" works ...
As in 'barely'.
Microsoft hasnt actually decided on the final slogan
the choices are:
Microsoft - It Just Barely Works
Microsoft - It Almost Never Works
Microsoft - At Least We Aren't SCO
Isn't this going to be the version with DRM and all the other copy "protection" crap.
I'm sure it won't work like linux, eg you can copy it, maniuplate it, move it arround from pc to pc, store it on your local servers for quick downloads and access, without a license, with out a phonecall to microsoft.
Linux will work wether I have a CD, DVD, USB, network access, or even bootstrap floppy without much effort.
Linux will work as a terminal or a server right out of the box.
Linux will work on 32mb ram with a 400 mb disk and
a tty text console.
Linux will work on a 2048 node supercomputer parallel cluster.
Linux will work on x86, x86-64, dec, sparc, mips, power-pc, and even ARM.
GNU/Linux will work for editing, spread sheets, graphics, office productivity, mail servers, database servers, web servers, dns servers, smb servers, and development in over 10 different languages right out if the box.
So how is microsift claming "it just works" again?
Up in Ottawa and down in Texas, they're fond of saying "all hat and no cattle."
Our British cousins are fond of saying "all mouth and no trousers."
Of Microsoft's group vice president for platforms, I'm fond of saying "Allchin and no dick."
Smug, annoying and delusional - he's the archetypal marketmonkey.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
Modal dialogs and windows are an important tool.
With little exception, I believe modals are a crutch for lazy programmers who don't want to worry about addressing multiple contexts.
Ok, give me a good reason why I can't highlight text for cut&paste in Firefox while its Preferences window is open. Suppose I wanted to set my Home Page to something I am reading on a page.
Except for situations where the application is really entirely blocked, perhaps like "out of memory, should I crash?", modals have no place.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
They mis-spelled S-U-C-K-S... I'll admit, they both end in "ks", but the reality is completely different than what they're spinning here...
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
You game on linux. Instead of OS X? Because? OS X has 10 times the number of gaming offerings that linux does. You really sound like a troll, but maybe you are just misguided. Here at work I use a powerbook, as does about half the company. We write software to run on the really expensive special purpose servers we sell. What exactly is it that you do on x86 hardware that you can't do from your mac? Umm, there are a lot more games for x86 architechture than for Macs. And alot of games that can run on Macs can run just fine on Linux; take UT2004, for example. And . . . umm, you're accusing grandparent of trolling? He said "I have to game on windows or linux." . . . it's quite understandable if the games he wants to play only run on Windows or Linux; you're the one doing troll-like things, like ignoring part of his statement and pretending he was setting up a dichotomy between Linux and OSX, when in reality he was talking about Windows and Linux, which can of course work in concert, installed even on the same computer. You, dear sir, appear to be the misguided one.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
"It Just Works."
Apple used this phrase against Microsoft. Nobody things that Windows "Just works."
* Files in multiple folders simultaneously
OMG. They have reinvented hard links and symbolic links!
* Autodefragmentation
When was the last time you defragmented an EXT2 or ReiserFS partition?
Besides didn't we hear that this feature was planned for NT4?
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Do not forget the shortlived Apple Newton eMate and the shortlived eWorld e-mail system that predate the iMac. :-)
eMate = 1997
eWorld = 1994
iMac = 1998
About each product...:0 0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Newton#eMate_3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imac
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emate#eMate_300
"The VP of marketing at Ford looked at me smugly: 'Well,' he said, 'just compare the number of Ford Focueses on the market to the number of BMWs, and it's clear that we're in the lead'."
My good looks paid for that pool, and my talent filled it with water.
From the article:
Longhorn doesn't just show you an icon for a document, for example, but rather an itsy-bitsy picture of the first page.
Um, excuse me, but isn't this what KDE has been doing for quite some time now? Why do Windows users have to wait for features I'm already using in Linux?
I don't know whether Linux is just coming of age or if Microsoft is starting to slip behind the times, but it seems like more and more features are showing up in Linux before Windows:
Okay, so I haven't seen a Mac in a while, so the whole file preview thing might not have originated with KDE. But from this, it looks as if Microsoft is starting to lose some momentum.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
...it's the mantra of win32 virus and spyware authors :-)
Microsoft cannot succeed with a strategy built around the idea of "it just works" because, fundamentally, Microsoft doesn't know what it means for something to "just work." Microsoft has, time and again, failed to produce highly usuable software for the same reason: it doesn't understand how the system should behave*.
To make up for this lack of understanding (I doubt MS even realizes it doesn't understand how systems should behave) the company builds scripted interactions (unlovingly known to all of us as those irritating "wizards" that keep you from successfully creating the graph you want in Excel, etc...). In short, MS papers over bad behavior with bad interfaces that obstruct, obfuscate, and harass the poor souls who have to suffer through them. Microsoft has even named this philosophy: recall "Task Based Interfaces."
And may the Lord have mercy if you don't want to perform a task Microsoft hasn't already thought up.
Apple, on the other hand, approaches the problem differently. Rather than asking "how can we make it easy for someone to do XYZ," Apple asks "what should the tool XYZ do," and then if necessary builds an interface that allows people to modify that behavior through understandable, easy-to-find, commands/menus/buttons, etc.**
Apple's strategy, starkly 180 degrees from Microsoft's "task based" strategy, is a human based system. Apple doesn't guess what you're trying to do, but instead makes tools that do what you expect. Thus people, not magical condescending wizards, can apply the tools to whatever variety of tasks may be at hand. So things "just work" because the tools do what we expect from them. Then the computer becomes transparent to the task, rather than the focus of the task itself.
You probably won't encounter a single "wizard" included by Apple in OS X, aside from the intial setup assistant that isn't so much a "wizard" -- there's nothing "guiding" you through the setup screens -- as just a few screens full of fields of information the computer collects to get OS X configured appropriately.
As long as Microsoft doesn't understand that for something to "just work," a tool needs to do what people expect, and that people should be able to directly interact with the tool's interface in a manner that allows even a relatively uninformed person to make the tool do what they want, then Microsoft won't succeed in building highly usable human interfaces.
Since I'm confident that Microsoft hasn't turned a new leaf in this respect, I'm also confident the "it just works" campaign will amount to nothing more than saturation marketing and a lot of grumbling*** about cute animated puppy dogs pissing on our files.
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* You could probably make a pretty good case for this problem being a fundamental problem in other aspects of Microsoft's design philosophy: bloat, poor security, inconsistency, and generally quirky, hard to predict behavior, could all spring from the same fertile root.
** This is a recursive strategy. It's not enough to make aprogram that does what a person expects, but every sub-piece of that program also needs to also do what a functionally experienced, but non-expert, user interacting with the tool for the first time might think it should do. Each button should be intuitively named. Menu items should be logically organized. The interface should be sufficiently uncluttered that interface elements are readily seen. It's OK for a system to have an unfamiliar way of interacting with the user (for example, drag-and-drop) if that method of interaction is widely applicable across the entire system so that once someone is familiar with the technique they can use it elsewhere. And so on.
*** Here's an amusing, and very telling, anecdote about MS human interfaces: I was once talking to a Microsoft programmer about user interface issues, and brought up Clippy as one of the most glaring examples of Microsoft's human interface failures...but the programmer refused to believe me that most people actual
It is true that the shell namespace has hardlinks in it. It also has virtual folders like the Control Panel or enhanced folders like the Desktop or Fonts.
The problem is that none of this is present in the filesystem which still uses those lovely drive letters. If you want to iterate the filesystem, you can use simple, tried-and-true APIs. If you want to iterate the shell namespace, you have to deal with the most convoluted system ever devised and handle numerous design flaws yourself (example: when retrieving the name of a shell item, it can be returned in one of three ways, each of which you have to handle).
This is in fact the reason why there are so many Windows applications out there that ignore the shell namespace and only give you drive letters. It is a pain in the ass to do it properly.
This means that if you want to access your desktop, your home dir or your documents in such an application, you have to go to the relevant filesystem folder. Confusion and anger follows.
This shows another idea that Microsoft doesn't get: making Windows development easy and intuitive for programmers.