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Windows Longhorn Beta Screenshots
An anonymous reader writes "A few screenshots of Windows Longhorn Beta 1 have surfaced on the net showing off many of the new transparency features, Internet Explorer 7 and Avalon or WinFX."
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I'm puzzled by the whole hoopla of transparancy. Besides being a 'cool feature', how does it help me in becoming more productive?
To Terminate, or not to Terminate, that's the question - SCSIROB
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
Seems like Microsoft is doing what Microsoft does best. Copying other companies. Maybe that's an unfair statement, but man, I hate Microsoft =).
I can say with complete certainty that the beta is still under development and has not been released internally or to the public.
Good to see you still need to click start to shut down.
I had great fun explaning that to my mum when she first used xp
Ooh-wee, eye candy!
;)
They're just copying from Apple.
Free of Flash! Free of Flash!
Transparency! Tabbed browsing! A search bar in the browser! Brilliant!
And why the fuck exactly did recycling old technology take them this long?
Is the server performance a Longhorn preview as well?
"And in related news, Longhorn's webserver fell on its arse after 50 geeks attempted to look at the eye-candy simoultaneously..."
Smegma.
seriously. Copying, but not doing a very good job on it. It lacks a certain.....um....style to it.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
Um... It was a general jab at Mac OS X being loaded with eye candy. Not so much a jab at Microsoft for copying the Mac UI.
Free of Flash! Free of Flash!
"The technologies of today --- TOMORROW!"
(yeah, I said that joke before. Kinda lame, I know...)
Circumcision is child abuse.
"many of the new transparency features"
Some one has turned the transparency up too far. When I click the link I can't even see the website.
The screenshots are als on http://elliottback.com/wp/archives/2005/07/09/long horn-5203-screenshots/
It appears that the closed window button (The ' X ', found in the title bar of each application window) has moved 15 pixels to the left.
Unfortunately none of the screenshots have any maximised windows but if the ' X ' button has moved for maximised windows as well then it will be the worst GUI decision EVER! Gone will be the quick hand flick up and to the right to close a window.
Using the 'infinite' screen real-estate in the corners and edges of the screen is very important but Microsoft continually abuse the said space and assign these areas as no-action spaces.
A truly terrible decision if it is the case.
Mirror:
http://www.networkmirror.com/JOdkEXG2eLXwsioX/www
http://mirrordot.org/stories/38d3ca8d0f1450ecd904c fee28fb683c/index.html
"The page cannot be displayed" looks cool! Since it is the page which explorer visits most often it is very important to make it look cool.
And I'm happy to see that cmd still doesn't show directory names properly.
GO Longhorn!
May Peace Prevail On Earth
if you were a windows user, you'd understand why we hate microsoft!
You can put polish on a piece of shit, but you'll just end up with a shiny piece of shit.
mirrordot is still happily serving it up here.
--- sig moved for great justice.
But seriously, i say that because i was really actually looking forward to something new and dareing from microsoft.
They let me and themselves down.
Frankly it looks like Windows XP with a new UI and alpha tranceparancy.
Actually, come to think of it i cannot in words exspress my dissapointment. I don't hate microsoft (thats a mod down) but i'm starting to think they that why linux and mac zelots say is actually grounded by some evidence.
Common Microsoft, wheres the new File System, the, the sidebar with add-ins, the new user experience?
Please don't tell your customers we waited 6 years for a new desktop theme and background.
*rofl* :D
Did anyone elso notice the open "linux noob" webpage in the taskbar in the last 2 pictures?
Now, screenshots aren't a fair or accurate way to judge an OS and User Experience... but I have to say, if the article was titled Bored 15 year old creates Yet Another Windows theme, I sure as hell wouldn't know the difference.
... it's the same as XP ... just a few more items thrown in as far as permissions and security. So what exactly has Microsoft been up to for the last few years? This is the mind blowing, paradigm smashing rewrite? This is innovation?
.Net integration. What startles me is that it's taken years to get this far ... that does not bode well at all.
While the UI skin look nicer than XP IMHO, looking at the dialogues and options/settings
What really gets me is the same old tired icons and maze-like system of hierchy-tree gui navigation to be found in all the system level dialogues. That really grabbed me... it seriously gave me the impression that this Longhorn thing was nothing more than a candy shell slapped on top of the same shit MS has been selling for years.
I think it's very telling how seamless the user experience will be when the microsoft.com address in pic #2 is returning a server not found error... but let's pretend that the computer was unplugged from the net and the user typed in the redirect parameters in the url by hand.
So I'm left scratching my head... if this was indeed a complete rewrite from the bottom up as MS promised, then why the complete similarity to XP/2000/98/95???? Perhaps all their energy and focus was on real security considerations? Maybe that explains all the jettisoned features... Or maybe when they meant rewrite, they really meant pushing some code under the mat, swapping some API's out and splashing on a quick paint job oer the whole shebang to make the old look new again?
Of course, Longhorn is just XP with a new UI and added security with tighter
http://www.apple.com/macosx/
Wow, I actually expected more, considering how much MS has been hyping the "new UI" of Longhorn.
In no particular order:
(1) Explorer seems to have taken a cue from PathFinder's directory browsing, a concept which has also been integrated into the GTK File Open Chooser Widget in the Linux world. Definitely a step in the right direction, but perhaps bundled up with a couple steps backward. Notice the new "My Computer", which sports all sorts of useless widgets everywhere, a mixture of task- and object-oriented interfaces, and more panes than one can possibly be expected to comprehend quickly. Typical Microsoft "toolbaritis," now applied to the file manager.
(2) Media Player continues to amaze in how far it distances itself from any UI sanity. Yet another argument for why toolkit consistency does not matter to normal users. File menu: gone, or just "annoyingly mouseover hidden"? I can only imagine what that menacing "Online Stores" button is for (can anyone say software-as-advertisement money?)
(3) Transparency: ooh, eye-candy. But wait, why does my desktop look like so many stained glass windows, who are, at the same time, light sources? Yet another Microsoft imitation gone bad. Notice how the borders of applications turn into transparent "stained glass" areas, serving to do nothing but make it more difficult to see, grab, and interact with the border of an application. For some reason, toolbar areas are also "semi-transparent," I guess just so you can make sure your graphics driver is working. Notice also how even when the eye candy features are enabled (transparent borders, shadows), Media Player refuses to comply! Stubborn lil' guy, aren't ya? heh heh.
(4) I'm utterly not surprised to see that Windows still makes use of dialogs whom cannot be resized, as in the displayed (and New) Copy Dialog. Yet another great "feature," as my 1920x1280 screen real estate can't even be utilized to show me the full directory name of a the path I'm copying from. Instead, I must make due with two halves of a path concatenated by three dots '...'
(5) Internet Explorer 7. Does this even need comment? What a UI disaster. First, the "toolbar" area is a different color than the rest of the application, which gives us some sort of Carbon/Cocoa hybrid in a single application. Then, the menubar exists below the tabs, implying that these options are on a per-tab basis, when this is clearly not the case (It's true sometimes, like in View Source or Save As, but not true others, like Work Offline or New Tab, which alter the whole application and not just a single tab).
In conclusion, Longhorn, at least from a UI innovation standpoint (but probably from others, too), looks to be the vaporware we were all expecting. Let's keep our eyes and minds pointed at where the real innovation is happening: in ANY of the alternative OSes, proprietary or Free. Maybe by the time Longhorn is released, we won't even need it anymore. We'll just send Microsoft a memo: "Dear Sirs, you can have it back."
When I first watched the Keynote where this OS was shown live, and now looking at the screenshots, I can't help but wonder: Won't these windows be impractical and ugly when maximized? I know I tend to do nearly all of my work in maximized windows, especially web browsing, and I don't think I could take surrendering the top fifth of my screen to some blurry amalgam of my desktop and ten underlying windows, each blurring the next, while the remaining 4/5ths are opaque.
Did you notice that in screen 4 that shows the "new" explorer you have a link to firefox "the browser that you can trust" along with a Red-Hat link?
I can't believe that such images can come from real Microsoft source, unless FF is on radar of MS future purchase list.
Try http://mirrordot.org/stories/38d3ca8d0f1450ecd904c fee28fb683c/index.html
Don't joke with the Mac boys. They can't handle it. ;)
Microsoft is doing Longhorn right by not focusing on the UI. Most of the changes made in Longhorn are internal. Logic to handle driver failures without the bluescreens, sandboxing in kernel file system filters to stop virus scanners from crashing the OS, componentizing everything to end the days of rebooting on patches, creating a single world-wide binary, hardware support for all the PCI express features, microphone arrays, ambient light sensors, hybrid hard drives, the list goes on and on. And then you have the whole 3-D desktop compositing thing which OSX may do as well. But they don't have to deal with the fact that Windows has to contend with both D3D and OpenGL apps on the same display surfaces. Plus an utterly massive library of software and hardware to run it on. It's a really big deal. It took years to solve the problems of putting OpenGL on a D3D surface while handling the tons of pixel formats, and supporting accessbility screen readers, and working over terminal server as usual.
You will get your UI innovation in beta 2, because it's not a big priority. And when you do, you will have a completely replaced library of icons, games, and dialogs. UI can be done overnight, internal changes can't. This beta was ment for IT departments, not for consumers to scrutinize the interface.
the WinHEC build + my 9800pro with "glass" enabled runs slow as hell.
I know it was a pre-beta build but all the LH builds so far are pretty laggy once you enable the 3D effects.
kawai
You gotta remember, you can change a whole lot that won't come out in screenshots. A good example is the difference between the 2.4 and 2.6 kernels in linux. Vastly different, but all a screenshot will tell you is they have a different version number.
However, 'just' a new UI and Transparancy actually required a rewrite of the presentation layer, that means most graphical programs (once they take advantage of it) will run much much faster, instead of the old fashioned GDI they used that had been around for years.
Still IMing in the stone age?
Yes, you did exactly that. People who wait for miracles...you know what happens to them.
Ok, it sounds more like rant and troll, but I want to explore more of this ground. Actually Microsoft's inability deliver something which they haven't bought from others (or stole) and what could be top quality (not only 'good enough') surprises me. There are lot of smaller companies, yet, they deliver excelent products.
But Microsoft with all that money they have can't deliver at least something which doesn't annoy their users. It is sad to see that people rant about Internet Explorer, Office, yet they are chained to them for various reasons - apps, support, etc.
I have stopped to be angry and annoyed to Microsoft some three years ago when drop them from my active used OS list. I can say - after that, life have never been better.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
You can't take a competitors recipe and hope to change it "just enough" to make it look like your own. Like recipes GUIs involve a balance.
If your making coleslaw decide to cut the amount of mayonaise in half, your probably going to want to cut back on the sugar and vinegar too, unless you want to end up with pickled vegetables instead of coleslaw. This requires understanding what makes coleslaw enjoyable. Someone who has chanced upon coleslaw for the first time and is trying to imitate _and_ tweak it, just so that it doesn't taste too much like the original, will probably end up making something entirely different.
Same goes for GUI design, you can't slap competitor's ideas in there without understanding what made original recipe great, plain and simple. Market surveys may say people are interested in a competing product X, but without an understanding of why, you can only end up with a superficial and inferior imitation.
Microsoft has accelerated what appears to be their old GUI with GPU hardware and the result looks smooth and slick, but this only makes the old thorns look more enticing. It's amazing how much they pigeon-hole into the start menu, when most of the time users go straight for "Programs". Games, Music, and Pictures? Set Program Access and Defaults? Help and Support? Computer?!?! Even Programs is not categorized in terms of user goals, or sometimes not even even by application name, but by meaningless brands.
Like a good chef, MS management needs a vision to work towards, not a mish-mash of market surveys that say what to put in next. I bet there will be a link for MS' new blogging service on the Longhorn desktop, but little UI coherency implicit in the design. That starts with the OS and extends into the applications, where accomplishing most basic user goals should be implicit in the design - that means avoiding unnecessary clutter, and sticking to things that the user will find immediately useful in a given context.
But no, not for Longhorn, which will probably be more like a french onion soup without the sweet onions to temper the hardiness of the beef - with maybe a candybar thrown in there for good measure. Edible or even not bad, but definitely lacking some things and having too much of others.
And I think that freaking rocks. Seriously. There's zero learning curve, everything's where you expected, just a few differences here and there.
The difference is in the plumbing. Doesnt Windows XP look almost identical to Windows 95? Yet if you suggest both products have the same functionality, you are sadly misinformed.
Longhorn will be to XP what XP was to 95. An in-depth architectural redesign, with the same familiar user interface.
Some folks like to stick with what they know. I'm not ashamed that I still use Sawfish, when there are so many whizbang window managers/DEs/kitchen sinks around. The same is the case with the Windows UI. I've tried almost all themes, visual styles, stardock, etc. but I still stick with Windows classic.
And I think that's the biggest asset of Microsoft. When they ditch the familiar Windows UI, people will eventually start migrating to other platforms..
Oh yes we can handle it. With just one button too.
Microsoft with all that money
I keep seeing this come up over and over again. There is no correlation between funding and creativity. In fact, the better funded a company is, the less likely they are to take the chances necessary to come up with something new.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
You contradict yourself. As you say, there is a correlation. An inverse one. ;)
As someone who would never use the default WinXP theme, I can't wait to enable the "Windows Classic Theme" on Longhorn and then have it be EXACTLY THE SAME OS as XP. Rockin'.
"This is not the beta you're looking for"
this is not the beta I'm looking for
*blink*
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
And why the fuck exactly did recycling old technology take them this long?
Well, to bake in the evil of course!
You think that stuff can just be sprayed on like Pam? It takes some time to bake it in so it can't be removed.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley