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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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You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
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
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?
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!
"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/
Perhaps true, but it does make the whole work experience more enjoyable. I use a Mac and a PC (XP). I seriously love spending time on the Mac. The XP machine is boring and dull. Does that make me more productive then? No, but I walk away from using the Mac without a headache.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
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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.
http://mirrordot.org/stories/38d3ca8d0f1450ecd904c fee28fb683c/index.html
back in the old days, windows turned into just a 1 pixel border when you moved them, and solid window movement was a big new feature. progress, eh?
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.
For example, people used to think that shadowed window edges were "just" eye candy, but as you spend time in WMs that do shadowing, you realize it's a useful visual cue that keeps from obstructing other data on the screen.
Another example is the 'genie' effect when minimizing/restoring windows. At first it looks like a gimmick, but it is in fact a very useful visual cue, it shows you where the window went so you can find it quickly when you need it back. Nowadays, when I use Windows, I get annoyed by windows just disappearing into thin air.
Yes. And seriously, I'm kinda tired of hearing this come up over and over again. Does it increase productivity? Jeez. I spend so much time on my computer I think of it like a second home. And is everything in my home there to increase productivity? I design my home so that I enjoy living in it, and so that I live well in it. It should be the same with computers, (not to mention buildings, cities, etc.).
For some reason it's accepted to choose furniture based on how it looks as well as how it works, but when it comes to computers you are being frivolous if you want it to look nice. Just imagine if every technology we have were built only with its most narrowly conceived function in mind. It would be like the whole world was made of those cookie cutter housing complexes. Maybe they're great for housing people, but don't they also slowly suck the inspiration out of us? Sorry, I don't want to live in one of those places.
Have any of those people started a "freedom to innovate" campaign and released dozens of press releases touting what innovative people they are?
By the way if you don't think free software innovates you are just plain ignorant of what's going on out there.
evil is as evil does
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."
Try http://mirrordot.org/stories/38d3ca8d0f1450ecd904c fee28fb683c/index.html
UI can be done overnight
It's exactly that attitude that will keep me on OS X for the foreseeable future.
While it's true that a UI can be whipped up quickly, a good UI is the product of testing, testing, and more testing in order to smooth away rough edges, figure out where users are confused and make the application better fit to how one would expect the application to be. None of that can be done quickly.
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?
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.