Microsoft Shows Off Radical New UI, Could Be Used In Windows 8

autospa writes "In a three and a half minute video, Microsoft may have shown the world what it has in store for the eagerly awaited Windows 8. In the video Microsoft showed a radically different interface from past versions of Windows — even Windows 7. Running on Surface 2, the touch-screen successor to the original Microsoft Surface, the device accepts input from a Windows Phone 7 handset (HTC HD7). Gone are the icons that drive Windows, OS X, and Linux operating systems of past and present. In their place are 'bubbles' that interact with files and post streaming information off the internet."

Comments

And I thought Office 2010 was hard to use

[G3ckoG33k]

And I thought Office 2010 was hard to use. The new Excel is a nightmare to learn well. And now, "bubbles"?

Re:And I thought Office 2010 was hard to use

[LordKronos]

No, he's not below average. The problem is mostly likely not that he finds the new interface simply difficult to use, but that he probably has a decade or two of experience using the old interface. He's had all that time to learn where each feature was. When each new version came out, the old features were almost always exactly like before, and just a few new menu items and buttons were added each time. Each time he had to learn a few new things, but all of his old knowledge was still relevant. Now suddenly in one version, everything he's spent many years learning has been pulled out from under him, and he's instinctively looking in the wrong places for everything. Habits that are that well ingrained can be incredibly difficult to break.

I've been using the new interface for about 3 years now, and I still instinctively want to look in the wrong (ie: old) locations. What makes it even more difficult is that there are items in the new interface the mislead people accustomed to the old interface. For example, in the old interface of Excel, if you wanted to insert a new row into your spreadsheet, you went to the menu bar and picked Insert -> Rows. With the new interface, you go up to the top, you see a tab on the ribbon named "Insert" and you automatically think "that's where I'm gonna find the option to insert a row". So you click on it and, I'll be damned....you can insert just about everything EXCEPT a row or column.

Re:And I thought Office 2010 was hard to use

[anshulajain]

Bubbles reminds me of the original vision for KDE4, except that "Bubbles" was/is referred to as "Widgets". Information flows to and from the internet into these
"widgets" in the KDE4 desktop. They have stuff like Facebook/Twitter feeds directly accessible and writable through these widgets and something like an OpenSocial framework for social interaction. Not exactly the same, but the idea seems to be very similar to KDE4.

Re:And I thought Office 2010 was hard to use

[quickOnTheUptake]

Okay, Time for an almost OT rant:
Who the fuck thinks it is a good idea to put the things we use most often or what always visible on the "desktop", the first thing to be covered as soon as we start actually doing something??
Widgets/wallpapers/desktop icons/conkey/whatever are absolutely retarded ideas.
When will UI designers realize that my computer UI is not a desktop, and I do not want it to mimick limitations of physical objects.

Re:And I thought Office 2010 was hard to use

[geedubyoo]

Microsoft ought to take a leaf out of Autodesk's book. The ribbon interface was added to AutoCAD 2009; however there were two big differences. 1) AutoCAD's ribbon is fully customisable (as is just about everything in AutoCAD). 2) The ribbon can be turned off, and the menu bar and tool bars turned back on. In fact, it is possible to make AutoCAD look - almost - like it did pre Windows.

Research stuff

[diegocg]

Microsoft research does really cool things, but somehow the bureaucracy always kill them. I don't think it will be different this time.

I want my 3:46 back

[jfengel]

There's nothing here you haven't seen before. It's the usual Microsoft Surface things, drawing Fantasia-y colors by waving your hands and rotating 3D objects, which you've seen before. Add to that a lot of vagueness about how everything is going to change and a soundtrack that could easily have come from any HR video on sensitivity training or proper timecard procedure.

Maybe these features will be nifty when we get them. But this video is the worst kind of marketing speak.

Re:worst feature removed yet?

[HermMunster]

Yeah, let's stay with one freaking file (though there may be 3 it only takes one) that when it becomes corrupt it takes everything down. A better system would be one that decentralizes this task and only affects one or a few programs (and not the OS). If you aren't aware of it, and it really makes your argument seem silly, is that every program writes tons of files to their folders. Some write them all over the place. To look at what there was (with .ini files) and what we have today (the registry) and you consider that programs can place hundreds if not thousands of files on your computer in various folders, one would have to admit that them putting their little .ini file into their folder isn't going to add much to the complexity. The registry is a poor solution that was never improved and it is a single point of failure on the whole system that causes more than its share of grief for users.

And, as far as how Linux accomplishes the same feat you appear to be clueless about the configuration files. I actually see no detriment to being able to show hidden files and to locate the ones that correspond to the program in question and to rename them in an effort to debug issues.

And, as far as incompatible formats go, why would my photo editor need to know the file format of my CD player program's configuration file? And since when do we not have total incompatibility, even in the Windows registry, amongst programs? Why would my photo editor need to know what's happening to the registry settings (or configuration file settings) of my CD player program? They don't know anything about each other nor do they need to know.