
Microsoft opines: Vista was 'cheesy'; drops Aero - evo_9
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57437562-92/microsoft-opines-vista-was-cheesy-drops-aero/?tag=postrtcol;posts
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starwed
> "[We are] flattening surfaces, removing reflections, and scaling back
> distracting gradients."

That sounds nice. I think the Mac OS is a little bit too shiny as well. And I
never liked the fat+rounded style Ubuntu has. I don't use Windows, but if the
theming is any good, hopefully other systems will take cues from it.

>"There is no evidence that people want to use [mice]" (John C. Dvorak, San
Francisco Examiner, February 19, 1984).

I didn't realise this guy had been making terrible predictions for so long!

~~~
bluthru
>I think the Mac OS is a little bit too shiny as well

What's shiny about OS X anymore? The only thing I can think of is a glass
panel in iTunes and the stoplight window controls. It's a very subdued,
minimal, content-focused GUI.

~~~
redthrowaway
"Shiny" could be metaphorical, here. Ever since Lion, OSX has been far too
eager to show the world that it exists. Too many gimmicky interfaces, too many
half-baked UI structures.... I don't care. Let me do what I want and get the
fuck out of my way.

I have a limited number of pixels available to me. If you're a GUI designer
who thinks I should give those pixels to you, then you are mistaken. Apple
seems to have forgotten that recently (although Snow Leopard is pretty great).

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blvr
Last week they made a post to Building Windows 8 and deleted it shortly after.
It had a few caps of the new style in it. Here's one I dug out of my cache:
<http://imgur.com/hvvQZ>

It looks sort of like a hybrid of Whistler and Aero styles. It's nice enough
(though I've always liked the Whistler style) but not exactly a massive
improvement over Aero.

 _> >> Harris has relatively little to say beyond describing the Aero as
having the "appearance of highly rendered glass, light sources, reflections,
and other graphically complex textures." But he does add this: "This style of
simulating faux-realistic materials...looks dated and cheesy now, but at the
time, it was very much en vogue."<<<_

To be honest I didn't think Aero had dated all that badly. Is this just a way
of framing Apple software (which is known for that stuff) as dated and cheesy?
Or is he making a valid point here?

~~~
tar
Looks like Imgur is over capacity. Could you rehost the images somewhere like
Minus ?

~~~
blvr
Sure.

<http://min.us/m4bajqk5V>

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aboodman
Jeez those toolbars are ridiculous. When the content part of your UI is 60% of
the window, something has gone very, very wrong.

~~~
sliverstorm
Maybe, maybe not. If the past is any indicator, they are targeted at casual
users who need the help, and can be turned off.

~~~
aboodman
The biggest icons in that UI are 'Move To...' and 'Copy To...'.

Casual users do not want to think about raw files, let alone how to move them
around the filesystem. That is why all modern operating system don't expose
these concepts.

You don't fix this kind of problem by making the buttons bigger.

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te_chris
Am I the only person who liked Vista? Seriously, it blew XP out of the water,
I never had a single problem with stability and it looked and worked much,
much better. I even had a win 7 free license (MSDNAA) but I never bothered
installing it because Vista was just fine for that particular machine - FWIW
i'm a mactard now.

I think most of the Vista hate is just bandwagoning. The XP love? I have no
explanation for that

~~~
jinushaun
You're missing out. Win7 destroys Vista

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ars
"So we evolved Snap for Windows 8. This feature lets you run any two WinRT-
based apps side-by-side"

If this tongue in cheek? Since when is software evolved? I prefer to design my
software, and not let it progress randomly. And am I supposed to be impressed
with two windows? A whole two? How much extra for three?

~~~
recoiledsnake
>And am I supposed to be impressed with two windows? A whole two? How much
extra for three?

Can you have two windows side by side on an iPad? Android?

Didn't think so. You can on a Windows RT tablet. So it's definitely a feature
worth mentioning.

~~~
ars
It says windows 8 - isn't that a desktop OS? I remember reading about how
people were complaining about the new interface of window 8 how it has classic
mode and some kind of tablet mode where you can only have one window at a
time.

Maybe I'm mixing up their desktop/tablet/phone OS's. Clearly I'm going to have
to find out more, but I'm waiting for it to be released.

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fiaz
What the Windows ecosystem needs isn't a focus on UI, what it needs is a new
set of APIs that obliterate older software and removes this insistence on
backwards compatibility. I think that such a move could potentially be
leveraged by Microsoft towards a massive development gold rush for new
applications.

~~~
gurkendoktor
WinRT on ARM seems to be what you want. The Windows 8 store will certainly
cause a gold rush as well.

But are you honestly arguing for forced obsolescence here? The most agile app
developers would have a chance at a quick buck. The Windows team could kick
out ugly code. And then?

~~~
fiaz
I am most definitely arguing for forced obsolescence. The prime motivating
factor being the fact that it is perfectly acceptable and "normal" to go
through all of the hoops and ladders of inoculating your computer against
viruses. And then when those programs fail, users have to go to take their
computer to get their digital machine to be cleaned out as though it was a
poorly built car in need of maintenance.

I'm not advocating that the API is cleaned out merely on the technical level,
I'm advocating (with a lack of clarity on my behalf) that Microsoft needs to
encourage an ecosystem of development creativity. Instead, we get a UI that is
abstractly "optimized" for usage but is far removed from providing a pleasant
experience for their users.

~~~
gurkendoktor
Apple is adding optional sandboxing to their system without intentionally
breaking backwards compatibility in their APIs. Why wouldn't this work for
Microsoft?

And isn't Metro exactly what you want?

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freditup
I'll miss it. I thought the glass was a nice touch that wasn't too gaudy.

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freditup
Seems like Windows should just include both. The flat look as a default if the
prefer, and an option to change to the aero look.

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peppertree
That's going to be straining on the eyes if you prefer to work in dark
environments.

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redthrowaway
I see an inch and a half of useless buttons in that screenshot that they'll
have to ditch before their WM becomes useful.

Seriously? Cut/copy/paste _buttons_? Why?

