Re:Aqua is a catastrophe
on
MacOS X DP3
·
· Score: 1
After seeing the screenshots and the quicktime movies I was, well, doubtful. I installed DP3 expecting to be surprised and in fact it is far worse than I would have ever imagined. really. when (attempting to) work with it, the true idiocy of this UI really, er, shines.
I work on my computer. I work on the Mac because for years it's interface (now known as Platinum) has been the best around. The Mac owes it's greatness to simplicity, thoughtful design, and and understated elegance - simple beauty.
Aqua, unfortunately, does not share in this history. It is extravagant, not elegant. It is sexy, cool, adorned with attention getting translucency, drop shadows, saturated colors, animation and blinking lights.
This all my get Apple a lot of attention and press and send chills down audiences spines - but this environment is none in which to get work done.
I do not want my UI to be sexy, amusing, animated, and definitely not 'cool'. I want a quiet, neutral, flat, grey space in which I can concentrate on what i am doing. Any extravagant animation, blinking translucent gel and whatnot is simply a distraction.
I want my UI to be boring. Dull. Uneventful. I need my UI to recede into the background and go unnoticed. I want to focus on what I am doing. Attention is at a premium, if I notice my UI, then it is in the way.
For years Apple has succeeded in providing me that most critical element of my work environment, my UI. Now, it seems that the priorities have changed. Short term amusement and cheap thrills have become a goal. Aqua promises to turn the Mac into a circus.
Quicktime 4, Sherlock, the round mouse, and now Aqua: Apple's new trend of trendy glitz over usability, gimmicks over thoughtfulness, and a complete lack of concern for serious professionals is a travesty.
The professional media market: desktop publishing, multimedia, photography, video, and web design have been and will continue to be an important part of the Mac community and cheezy glitz has no place on our desktops. If no simple solution is available to us, the option of a quiet, nuetral, flat, grey and peaceful envirnment free of distractions; Apple will quickly loose this market.
Attention getting gimmicks will definately sell lots of iMacs and software, but in the long term this will de detrimental to users and thus eventually to Apple. It is wrong to force these cheap marketing tricks onto our desktop and into our lives.
Richard Feynman said: "For a sucessful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled".
Aqua, with enticing eye candy, and sexy animations may indeed fool many many people into buying Apple products. If short term profit is all Apple wants, this may be the best strategy. But eventually, if the UI is a distraction, if it makes us unproductive, however amused we may be by the dancing candy animations, we will be unhappy. Unsatisfied, frustrated. You cannot fool us. Unhappy customers leave.
An interface should be boring. This simple fact contradicts what I see as the basic visual foundation of Aqua. An interface that gets my attention is counter productive. It will sell many copies, but once the novelty wears off, we will go elsewhere.
There is only one solution for Apple - to fragment it's OS market along similar lines as it has its hardware. The split should be along the line of apperance and performance. OS X consumer with Aqua - cute, attention grabbing and wholly unusable like most home stereos; and OS X Professional (now known as Server) with an advanced Platinum interface, quiet, boring and very productive environment with lots os horsepower. Like professional recording equipment...
If OS X ships with ony a cheap gimmick for an interface it cannot be taken seriously by professionals.
A failure to recognise the needs of serious design and imaging professionals who need a neutral workspace and to (continue to) insult our intelligence with cheap gimmicks like drop shadows and animation (which subtract, not add functionality) will hurt Apple in the long run.
Apple is really putting their foot in their GUI with Aqua (pardon the akward metaphor...). It is an insult to professionals who want to get work done in a quiet, neutral envirnonment. I for one do not want to be amused by my OS, i want to get work done...
If these folks do it right and Apple continues turning the Mac into a MTV OS, there will be a LOT of professionals switching over to Linux. I will be one of them.
Although the project is GPL, are they also opening up the project? that is, how can i get involved???
It seems like a lot of individuals and companies are beginning to make a whole lot of money with linux and open source software. maybe these people should think about thelping.
Wouldn't it be morally responsible and even of long term economic interest on the part of, say, Red Hat to help with the legal defense of those trying to delelop the Linux platform???
ideally, we could just censor all the ads on our tv's and life would be nice.
although, i would suspect that it would drive advertisers to use even more sneaky and questionable methods, by blurring content and advertisment, for instance.
compare to the effect of the remote control on the television advertising industry, for instance, might yeild some insights.
although, it would be interesting to see perverted censorship technology and politics re-perverted into something useful - the right to control what we watch.
Slashdot Mirror
After seeing the screenshots and the quicktime movies I was, well, doubtful. I installed DP3 expecting to be surprised and in fact it is far worse than I would have ever imagined. really. when (attempting to) work with it, the true idiocy of this UI really, er, shines.
adrien
I work on my computer. I work on the Mac because for years it's interface (now known as Platinum) has been the best around. The Mac owes it's greatness to simplicity, thoughtful design, and and understated elegance - simple beauty.
Aqua, unfortunately, does not share in this history. It is extravagant, not elegant. It is sexy, cool, adorned with attention getting translucency, drop shadows, saturated colors, animation and blinking lights.
This all my get Apple a lot of attention and press and send chills down audiences spines - but this environment is none in which to get work done.
I do not want my UI to be sexy, amusing, animated, and definitely not 'cool'. I want a quiet, neutral, flat, grey space in which I can concentrate on what i am doing. Any extravagant animation, blinking translucent gel and whatnot is simply a distraction.
I want my UI to be boring. Dull. Uneventful. I need my UI to recede into the background and go unnoticed. I want to focus on what I am doing. Attention is at a premium, if I notice my UI, then it is in the way.
For years Apple has succeeded in providing me that most critical element of my work environment, my UI. Now, it seems that the priorities have changed. Short term amusement and cheap thrills have become a goal. Aqua promises to turn the Mac into a circus.
Quicktime 4, Sherlock, the round mouse, and now Aqua: Apple's new trend of trendy glitz over usability, gimmicks over thoughtfulness, and a complete lack of concern for serious professionals is a travesty.
The professional media market: desktop publishing, multimedia, photography, video, and web design have been and will continue to be an important part of the Mac community and cheezy glitz has no place on our desktops. If no simple solution is available to us, the option of a quiet, nuetral, flat, grey and peaceful envirnment free of distractions; Apple will quickly loose this market.
Attention getting gimmicks will definately sell lots of iMacs and software, but in the long term this will de detrimental to users and thus eventually to Apple. It is wrong to force these cheap marketing tricks onto our desktop and into our lives.
Richard Feynman said: "For a sucessful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled".
Aqua, with enticing eye candy, and sexy animations may indeed fool many many people into buying Apple products. If short term profit is all Apple wants, this may be the best strategy. But eventually, if the UI is a distraction, if it makes us unproductive, however amused we may be by the dancing candy animations, we will be unhappy. Unsatisfied, frustrated. You cannot fool us. Unhappy customers leave.
An interface should be boring. This simple fact contradicts what I see as the basic visual foundation of Aqua. An interface that gets my attention is counter productive. It will sell many copies, but once the novelty wears off, we will go elsewhere.
There is only one solution for Apple - to fragment it's OS market along similar lines as it has its hardware. The split should be along the line of apperance and performance. OS X consumer with Aqua - cute, attention grabbing and wholly unusable like most home stereos; and OS X Professional (now known as Server) with an advanced Platinum interface, quiet, boring and very productive environment with lots os horsepower. Like professional recording equipment...
If OS X ships with ony a cheap gimmick for an interface it cannot be taken seriously by professionals.
A failure to recognise the needs of serious design and imaging professionals who need a neutral workspace and to (continue to) insult our intelligence with cheap gimmicks like drop shadows and animation (which subtract, not add functionality) will hurt Apple in the long run.
just my 2 cents...
adrien cater
Apple is really putting their foot in their GUI with Aqua (pardon the akward metaphor...). It is an insult to professionals who want to get work done in a quiet, neutral envirnonment. I for one do not want to be amused by my OS, i want to get work done...
If these folks do it right and Apple continues turning the Mac into a MTV OS, there will be a LOT of professionals switching over to Linux. I will be one of them.
Although the project is GPL, are they also opening up the project? that is, how can i get involved???
adrien
Sorry to wet your collective cirgar but this _thing_ is SMDI compliant, which, as we all know, requires a boycott.
buy someting else that is not SMDI compliant, and maybe drop Sony a line explaingin to them why exactly you chose the competitions' product.
The open source community and industry would be wise to simple do one thing:
get desingers involved
give intelligent interface desingers as much support, money, resources, respect as intelligent programers writing the code.
A GUI should not be Sexy, Exciting, Amusing, Animated, and especially not Cool.
It should be boring.
I do not want to be entertained by my UI, i want toget work done in a quite neutral environment.
Richard Feynman said rightly:
For a sucessful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
This is my mirror site in Switzerland.
http://www.datacomm.ch/adrien/decss/ index.html
It seems like a lot of individuals and companies are beginning to make a whole lot of money with linux and open source software. maybe these people should think about thelping.
Wouldn't it be morally responsible and even of long term economic interest on the part of, say, Red Hat to help with the legal defense of those trying to delelop the Linux platform???
just a thought
Hmmm....
i am not sure the change would be for the better.
ideally, we could just censor all the ads on our tv's and life would be nice.
although, i would suspect that it would drive advertisers to use even more sneaky and questionable methods, by blurring content and advertisment, for instance.
compare to the effect of the remote control on the television advertising industry, for instance, might yeild some insights.
although, it would be interesting to see perverted censorship technology and politics re-perverted into something useful - the right to control what we watch.
but then again, i don't have a TV.
adrien
being pirated means being widely distributed.
this means market share.
this means sales.
etc.
adrien
maybe he is squatting, and want's to finance his campaign selling the domanins to bush haters...
would be backwards, but for 300'000, it might be a strategy.
oh sh-- just wait untill the rev jerry falwell hears about this...
i don't know if this really counts, but, i have opened mp3 files and started listening to them while they are downloading by hotline or ftp...
of course, it crashed my machine, but...
i ususally end up reading this book at least once a year... i have read it i think 6 times now since is was 17.
:-)
i have waaaaay too much time on my hands...
BUT, it keeps giving back, and keeps me interested in all sorts of things ans creating all sorts of stuff...
& i thought i was the only one who thought this book deeply affected them
that and the muppets, i guess..
GUI's are for dumb people???
:-) and apple, IMHO, has be best one out there...
i kindof like em, personally.
so now we have apples beautiful GUI running on top of a solid, fast, and open *nix based kernel, why sould we not be happy.
OSX for intel? maybe. i think they should just make an X interface and blow the pants off KDE and gnome and...
1- apple should become a hardware company? well, the PPC's are really powerful and they do it very well well, so...
2- apple should make OSX for all platformas and focus on software? well, they do it very well, so...
3- apple should forget the core OS AND the hardware and focus on what they really do best: GUI's? well, there's an idea...
hmmm...
the iMac is most definately runnning a G3 processor...