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Another Windows 8 Pre-Beta Surfaces
angry tapir writes "While Microsoft has not announced the release date of its follow-up to Windows 7, an early pre-beta version of Windows 8 (although its official name has not been confirmed) has surfaced on the Internet, the second version to appear within a month. It is the second milestone release that has showed up on the Internet this month. Users of this Windows 8 software have said it features a Ribbon-based user-interface, similar to the one used in recent editions of Microsoft Office. This specific milestone build also has software for a Webcam, a new task manager, a PDF reader and an immersive browser." "Surfacings" like this tell me that Microsoft sees the value in crowdsourced opinion gathering far more than they're sometimes given credit for.
A built-in PDF reader, eh? Should I feel sorrier for Adobe's devs, so incompetent that Microsoft felt the need to step in and provide a PDF reader built by grown-ups, or for Microsoft's XPS team, who have so failed to set the world on fire with XPS that Microsoft felt the need to step in and provide a PDF reader?
Given that using Adobe software to view untrusted material is the rough equivalent of injecting yourself with used needles in the hope of scoring free heroin, I'm going to adopt a "it couldn't possibly be worse?" stance until otherwise demonstrated.
Ribbons in applications and O/S are not like tabs in browsers.
Quite right! However they do roughly provide functionality similar to tabs and if you were to explain the ribbon interface to someone from 1998 or to a lay person the tab anology would be one effective way. I googled "tab navigation" and one of the first results provides a great example of what are commonly referred to as "tabs".
Browsers show the same functional tools regardless of what tab you are on (similar to a sheet in excel). On the other hand ribbons hide different tools behinds 6-8 separate ribbon sections that are usually clicked through where all the buttons have a similar background and 'icons' making it hard to search through as opposed to a File - menu - list with text that a person can scan through in about 2 seconds.
Browsers tabs feature a description (typically the meta title) much like the ribbon interface. The content area below the title area changes when different "tabs" are selected, this functionality is present in both UI. I appreciate your comparison and you're correct with many details yet you do not seem to recognize these interface elements as tabs. Another example: We still have the start menu dynamic from Windows 95 today in Windows 7 (and similar features found in several popular window managers) whose interaction and function have changed little. Bar at the bottom featuring a button, click the button and a menu pops up, select items etc.
One can enable an overlay of key short cuts over the ribbon interface so you do not have to use the mouse however the search time still takes just as long unless you knew the key-binding shortcuts from previous versions.
Change is hard. One is more productive with a tool one is familiar with... perhaps you're not the target audience for these largely superficial changes. It also is apparent you're familiar with efficient usage (keyboard shortcuts) and these largely superficial changes shouldn't be difficult to figure out.
Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
I could not disagree more strongly. Office 2007 was the first office suite that I didn't hate. Word et al. no longer have a clutter of shortcut bars that take up a quarter of your effective screen, no longer is there a series of pop up dialogs for every simple action, I think it's great. The features you actually use are now one or two clicks away. The UI even works on a laptop, with a much smaller screen. Just give it a try, once you get used to it, and unlearn the office 95 ways, it's quite good.
I have seen computers before by the way; I started programming them when I was about 10 yrs old, in the mid 80's.
I'm an "older people". Guess what - it was older people who built the first PC's. In fact, all the people who created the first operating systems are older people now. We made your apps, your games, your everything.
Alright, I'll make an effort to be fair here. Probably 20% of the people my age have never owned a PC, and never will. Another large percentage has never done anything with a PC other than check email, play a couple of games, and maybe read Fox News headlines. Many of the rest have never diddled in the registry, and have almost no idea how to diagnose or cure a virus problem - that's all automatic with the version of Norton shipped on the computer from Dell (or HP or Gateway or) and if that doesn't take care of it then the computer shop can fix it.
But, it isn't just older people. I can find a few dozen youngsters (25 and younger) who have no clue about the internal workings of a computer just as easily as older people. No freaking clue.
Older people. Phhht. Wait 'til you're an octogenarian, and the young pukes are making fun of you. Ha! More, I hope you live to be 120, and you have to tolerate the condescending bullshit from the kids for all of your last 40 years or more.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br