I assume you've never heard of Homestar Runner or Weebl and Bob or Animutations or the entire content of Newgrounds and Albino Blacksheep.
I've heard of Homestar Runner, but I've never heard of the others. Having been online nearly every day for the last 15 years, I can tell you that those are hardly critical (even notable) aspects of the web or web experience. As for how to get Homestar working in a non-Flash world, javascript is powerful enough now to handle anything I've seen on Homestar.
If you switch to hitting the Win key on the keyboard, or can wait a moment after moving the mouse to the bottom left hand corner, your workflow is the same in Win 8.
Companies have been bit by investing in an employee, by training them and then having them up and walk off to a different job. As a result, they're not too keen on letting it happen again.
I don't like the idea of having to throw out my phone with all my contacts and info
But with Windows Phones, the phone isn't the primary source of data (except for game save points). All of your contacts, music, etc, comes from a different source and is only sync'd with the phone. Even game save data, there's api's that'll allow game devs to store the information off of the phone, but it's a rarely used feature. So nothing is really lost when buying a new device.
If you have to "get used" to something for it to be easy, then by definition it is not intuitive
I don't know about that. Sometimes you have to "unlearn what you have learned". It's possible to use a new system and have a handful of "it can't be that easy" moments. It's possible for someone new to enter a market, have a more intuitive and easier experience overall, but those who are used to the current players may not find it intuitive because of past experience, not because of the intuitiveness of the system itself.
I was a fan of Windows Mobile 6.x because of its openness and the resulting flexibility
Sadly that openess created a very inconsistent user experience from the different handset manufacture’s. The result was that nearly every program installed on the phone thought that something was configured in some way that it wasn't. I can hardly remember all of the times a program did something to the phone and I could only shake my head in disgust because it did the wrong thing. The end user experience ended up becoming nearly painful.
I don't know if these are the $20 Sony's posted about earlier, but I love my pair. They can usually be found for around $25 and they're great. Because they have the loop that goes around your ear they rest on the outside of your ear, never fall off accidentally, are ear buds, and don't go deep into your ear canal (that really bothers me). Possibly an audiophile might find issue with them, but I have yet to think that anything I was hearing with those earbuds was worse because of them.
They abused their position as an OS vendor by tweaking products to be less interoperable with their competitors' software.
Their OS is a platform. It sells more copies by allowing for more software to run on it, not less. I've read many blog posts by Raymond Chen, et al, and it seems to me that the OS team bends over backwards to maintain backwards compatability. Plus the shim files which exist in Windows are huge, they do a lot to get any software that runs on Windows to continue to run on Windows.
I'm not saying that what you're saying isn't true, I just haven't seen evidence of it. Sure there's software which stopped working on newer versions of Windows, but when digging into the reasons why, they always tended to be because the software was doing something horrendously wrong, and it was only luck that it was working on the version of Windows it was compiled against in the first place. So, can you please enlighten me with some documented API that behaved one way in one version of Windows and was changed in a later version because the Windows team wanted to break existing software.
VB6 has staying power for one major reason -- you can do about half of the programming by dragging-and-dropping.
So did Microsoft reduce the amount of "coding" that Visual Studio can do through dragging and dropping with non-VB6 languages? I've done some VB.Net programming and looked at a lot of "how to do things in VB5/6" tutuorials, and never stumbled across something that wasn't as easy to do with a different language in Visual Studio. I find it hard to believe that whatever team in Microsoft is working on this would have made less dragging and dropping scenarios.
If the VB6 programs were so easy to write in the first place, shouldn't they be nearly as easy to write in a different language? If they were so cheap and easy to write the first time, why aren't they so cheap and easy to rewrite with a better language?
They should just, you know, build a more secure operating system...
I've read on Slashdot for years that once someone physically gets a hold of your machine, it's 'game over'. I'm under the impression that UEFI secure boot it will no longer be 'game over'. What secure changes could be made to an operating system which prevents the scenario of: somone getting a hold of my hardware, booting into a different OS, modifying the existing install with some sort of malware, and then when I get a hold of my hardware again, detecting that the computer is no longer in the state I thought it was?
Do you honestly think that retail outlets will even consider selling computers without those stickers?
It's possible. I honestly don't think that the retail outlets will care. I think it would be the OEM's who care more. Sloppy had some good points, but I also think it will depend on if there's a seperate Windows 8 Logo program in addition to the Windows 8 Certified program.
It probably also depends on the percentage of the market who bought an early netbook and returned it (or stopped using it) because it wasn't Windows. That group of people will probably be looking explicitly for a Windows logo. The other factor would be how often the following conversation would occur:
Salesman: Here's a nice Windows 8 computer, and here's a nice one that Windows 8 certified.
Customer: What's the difference?
Salesman: The Windows 8 certified has UEFI secure boot.
Customer: What's that mean?
Salesman: It protects against rootkits.
Customer: I've heard about rootkits, I want to be protected against them; I'll get the certified computer.
Now you can argue that rootkits will get around UEFI secure boot, and they very well may at some point. But I still imagine that until it's well known that they do, that'll be the conversation that may take place at a point of sale. If that conversation doesn't happen (perhaps on newegg or amazon) and OEM's find certification to be a costly burden to bare, I can see them considering making non-certified computers.
I hate that god awful ribbon bar. I can't find ANYTHING with it.
Every time when I run into someone having the same experience as you, I ask what they're doing and they're always trying to insert something (object, table, picture, link). So I then advise them that since they're trying to insert something, they should click on the insert tab. Solves their problem %100 of the time.
If you're mentally thinking to yourself that you want to insert something, and there's an insert tab/menu item. I sugest clicking on it.
When Vista came out I bought an iMac.
When Windows 8 comes out, I'm buying a Raspberry Pi.
Why would Windows 8 cause you to stop using your iMac? Are you saying that if Windows 8 never ships you'll never buy a Raspberry Pi? If you're currently on an iMac, why does a release of Windows affect your purchasing decisions at all?
Saying that it sucks as an archive because there are multiple copies of the information seems like a poor argument to me. I find email to be a great archive of information. It's always there and easily accessible.
Not having the files in a folder be sorted sounds horrible. I would be very surprised if most of the placement of files in folders isn't an accident. Besides, when you resort to modifying the registry to have Windows behave how you want it to, allows you to think of yourself as a "power user"; which gives you a inflated sense of self. I would be surprised if auto arrange has made it more difficult for people to find their files for the majority of the Windows user base.
Slashdot Mirror
Why not just make a mobile version of a website?
I assume you've never heard of Homestar Runner or Weebl and Bob or Animutations or the entire content of Newgrounds and Albino Blacksheep.
I've heard of Homestar Runner, but I've never heard of the others. Having been online nearly every day for the last 15 years, I can tell you that those are hardly critical (even notable) aspects of the web or web experience. As for how to get Homestar working in a non-Flash world, javascript is powerful enough now to handle anything I've seen on Homestar.
If you switch to hitting the Win key on the keyboard, or can wait a moment after moving the mouse to the bottom left hand corner, your workflow is the same in Win 8.
Companies have been bit by investing in an employee, by training them and then having them up and walk off to a different job. As a result, they're not too keen on letting it happen again.
You can get a CableCARD and have the cable provider "pair" it with their service and you can drop the privledge of renting the STB's from them.
Microsoft had better offer a instant free upgrade to WP8 for all owners of the Nokia WP7 phones, or they might as well pack it in.
Why? Are the existing phones going to magically stop being able to make calls?
I don't like the idea of having to throw out my phone with all my contacts and info
But with Windows Phones, the phone isn't the primary source of data (except for game save points). All of your contacts, music, etc, comes from a different source and is only sync'd with the phone. Even game save data, there's api's that'll allow game devs to store the information off of the phone, but it's a rarely used feature. So nothing is really lost when buying a new device.
Or how about Microsoft actually launch the product before actually showing it? Dual-screen Courier comes to mind.
But when did Microsoft show the Courier? It only popped up on the internet one day as something that had Microsoft canceled years earlier.
If you have to "get used" to something for it to be easy, then by definition it is not intuitive
I don't know about that. Sometimes you have to "unlearn what you have learned". It's possible to use a new system and have a handful of "it can't be that easy" moments. It's possible for someone new to enter a market, have a more intuitive and easier experience overall, but those who are used to the current players may not find it intuitive because of past experience, not because of the intuitiveness of the system itself.
if a friend is playing a game, very often WP doesn't have it
I suggest Wordament. Once you start playing that, you'll stop being bothered by the games on other systems.
I was a fan of Windows Mobile 6.x because of its openness and the resulting flexibility
Sadly that openess created a very inconsistent user experience from the different handset manufacture’s. The result was that nearly every program installed on the phone thought that something was configured in some way that it wasn't. I can hardly remember all of the times a program did something to the phone and I could only shake my head in disgust because it did the wrong thing. The end user experience ended up becoming nearly painful.
I don't know if these are the $20 Sony's posted about earlier, but I love my pair. They can usually be found for around $25 and they're great. Because they have the loop that goes around your ear they rest on the outside of your ear, never fall off accidentally, are ear buds, and don't go deep into your ear canal (that really bothers me). Possibly an audiophile might find issue with them, but I have yet to think that anything I was hearing with those earbuds was worse because of them.
They abused their position as an OS vendor by tweaking products to be less interoperable with their competitors' software.
Their OS is a platform. It sells more copies by allowing for more software to run on it, not less. I've read many blog posts by Raymond Chen, et al, and it seems to me that the OS team bends over backwards to maintain backwards compatability. Plus the shim files which exist in Windows are huge, they do a lot to get any software that runs on Windows to continue to run on Windows.
I'm not saying that what you're saying isn't true, I just haven't seen evidence of it. Sure there's software which stopped working on newer versions of Windows, but when digging into the reasons why, they always tended to be because the software was doing something horrendously wrong, and it was only luck that it was working on the version of Windows it was compiled against in the first place. So, can you please enlighten me with some documented API that behaved one way in one version of Windows and was changed in a later version because the Windows team wanted to break existing software.
VB6 has staying power for one major reason -- you can do about half of the programming by dragging-and-dropping.
So did Microsoft reduce the amount of "coding" that Visual Studio can do through dragging and dropping with non-VB6 languages? I've done some VB.Net programming and looked at a lot of "how to do things in VB5/6" tutuorials, and never stumbled across something that wasn't as easy to do with a different language in Visual Studio. I find it hard to believe that whatever team in Microsoft is working on this would have made less dragging and dropping scenarios.
If the VB6 programs were so easy to write in the first place, shouldn't they be nearly as easy to write in a different language? If they were so cheap and easy to write the first time, why aren't they so cheap and easy to rewrite with a better language?
They should just, you know, build a more secure operating system...
I've read on Slashdot for years that once someone physically gets a hold of your machine, it's 'game over'. I'm under the impression that UEFI secure boot it will no longer be 'game over'. What secure changes could be made to an operating system which prevents the scenario of: somone getting a hold of my hardware, booting into a different OS, modifying the existing install with some sort of malware, and then when I get a hold of my hardware again, detecting that the computer is no longer in the state I thought it was?
Do you honestly think that retail outlets will even consider selling computers without those stickers?
It's possible. I honestly don't think that the retail outlets will care. I think it would be the OEM's who care more. Sloppy had some good points, but I also think it will depend on if there's a seperate Windows 8 Logo program in addition to the Windows 8 Certified program.
It probably also depends on the percentage of the market who bought an early netbook and returned it (or stopped using it) because it wasn't Windows. That group of people will probably be looking explicitly for a Windows logo. The other factor would be how often the following conversation would occur:
Salesman: Here's a nice Windows 8 computer, and here's a nice one that Windows 8 certified.
Customer: What's the difference?
Salesman: The Windows 8 certified has UEFI secure boot.
Customer: What's that mean?
Salesman: It protects against rootkits.
Customer: I've heard about rootkits, I want to be protected against them; I'll get the certified computer.
Now you can argue that rootkits will get around UEFI secure boot, and they very well may at some point. But I still imagine that until it's well known that they do, that'll be the conversation that may take place at a point of sale. If that conversation doesn't happen (perhaps on newegg or amazon) and OEM's find certification to be a costly burden to bare, I can see them considering making non-certified computers.
You have to do it MS's way or they won't let you sell hardware with Windows on it.
OEM's can sell Windows 8 without secure boot. They can't put the sticker on the box that says "Windows 8 certified" without secure boot.
I hate that god awful ribbon bar. I can't find ANYTHING with it.
Every time when I run into someone having the same experience as you, I ask what they're doing and they're always trying to insert something (object, table, picture, link). So I then advise them that since they're trying to insert something, they should click on the insert tab. Solves their problem %100 of the time.
If you're mentally thinking to yourself that you want to insert something, and there's an insert tab/menu item. I sugest clicking on it.
When Vista came out I bought an iMac. When Windows 8 comes out, I'm buying a Raspberry Pi.
Why would Windows 8 cause you to stop using your iMac? Are you saying that if Windows 8 never ships you'll never buy a Raspberry Pi? If you're currently on an iMac, why does a release of Windows affect your purchasing decisions at all?
Just when I thought I couldn't be less excited about Windows 8. One more reason to skip it.
Do you honestly think that Microsoft is going to drop Metro/WinRT in Windows 9?
Email sucks as an archive
Saying that it sucks as an archive because there are multiple copies of the information seems like a poor argument to me. I find email to be a great archive of information. It's always there and easily accessible.
Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe...yahoo mail users LIKE the current UI?
Nope. After having asked all of my relatives who use Yahoo! they don't mind the current UI, and if anything are just afraid of change.
Yahoo! Mail has yet to be able to handle .ics calendar invites. A fact that I find holds us all back.
Not having the files in a folder be sorted sounds horrible. I would be very surprised if most of the placement of files in folders isn't an accident. Besides, when you resort to modifying the registry to have Windows behave how you want it to, allows you to think of yourself as a "power user"; which gives you a inflated sense of self.
I would be surprised if auto arrange has made it more difficult for people to find their files for the majority of the Windows user base.
It'd be great to have the subfolders organized "Photos, My Pics, DL, Wallpaper" but I'm stuck with "DL, My Pics, Photos, Wallpaper"
That is a sad defintion of the word great.