Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cogito who wrote (134641)	6/3/2012 10:20:38 PM
From: Lahcim Leinad	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213172

What Dvorak says seems to be right on the money. He says, essentially, that the idea of taking the unpopular Windows Phone OS, hoping that people will fall in love with it on tablets, and that they will then want to use it on their desktop computers in order to have a "unified experience" is nuts. Here is an inside view on that mess which is supposed to work on phones, tablets and computers: What isn't to like Here's the issue, and where it fails... 1.) On my 1440x900 screen, with my start menu customized to show 13 recent applications, if I need to hunt, I can see 36 objects at a time on the list. On the new Start menu, it shows all the Metro tiles that need to skip over, THEN I get to sift through all the programs. 2.) Most of the entries on a start menu are categorized in folders. Customarily, folders will include a shortcut for the application's main executable, a help/readme file shortcut, and an uninstaller. With the folders consolidating these programs, I have 36 useful entries on the start menu. If all of them had to be expanded, I'd end up with twelve. If you're going to argue that Metro apps don't need all the clutter, my first argument is that there are these things called "legacy apps" that people still find useful, either due to cost or feature completeness (or both). My second argument is that... 3.) The new start menu fails to account for suites. If I don't need any of the 8 Adobe Production Premium applications my computer has installed, the old start menu only has me scrolling past one entry. The new start menu has me passing 8. If I don't need Microsoft Office, I'm scrolling past 11 icons. If I don't need Nero, that's 10. without subdivisions to consolidate software like the ones I've described, the start menu can go for pages and pages on end, and yes, that's a productivity killer. 4.) "But you can type what you need!" yes...and where is the cue to type? there's no search bar like literally every other place you type stuff. In contrast, the lack of a blinking cursor usually indicates that what you're typing will probably NOT be used by the computer in any meaningful manner, so it's the textbook definition of counterintuitive. 5.) Neither Mary Jo nor Ed have said whether the front-and-center "shut down" button now has a more prominent place. "Off" is not a setting in the same sense that "TCP/IP configuration" or "mouse sensitivity" is a setting, and therefore it has no place being buried in the control panel. Unlike the sound settings, device manager, region settings, and keyboard layout, users use the 'shut down' button DAILY. 6.) Your description of the desktop being 'visual noise' precludes any number of use cases. Off the top of my head, sometimes I'm watching a video while using the start menu. Why should that be covered up by a start menu? when I only need one program and I'm being forcibly shown dozens, which is visual noise? Another quick use case is when the start menu is being used as a step in a set of instructions being delivered as a PDF or Word document or website. Again, if I'm looking for something, it's covered up in the new menu instead of being useful by the old. If the start menu could show me 64 entries at a time, sorted by name (with headers for each letter) or install date (quick access to new stuff), and allowed for subgroupings for Office/Adobe/Nero kinds of applications, and allowed me to opt to use only half the screen while leaving the desktop (or a given application) open on the other half, THEN let's talk about it being more useful. Until then, Stardock to the rescue! Joey ------------- And then there is this: Bottom line The Windows 8 Release Preview makes no major changes to the Consumer Preview and has its same strengths and weaknesses. The interface has received relatively minor tweaks, and several new Metro apps are quite good. Metro is still a visually compelling interface that is optimized for touch and for consuming content. The Desktop remains an afterthought. And Windows 8 still seems as if it's two operating systems bolted together not particularly well, rather than a seamless whole. From: Windows 8 Release Preview: Updated but still uneasy - Computerworld