

Microsoft Claims it Killed the Start Button Because You Didn't Want it - followmylee
http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+Claims+it+Killed+the+Start+Button+Because+You+Didnt+Want+it/article25060c.htm

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Spooky23
I think that they're right on this one. Since Windows 7, I may have traversed
the start menu a couple of times a month. I use pinned apps on the taskbar or
Start menu front page for frequently accessed stuff, or use search.

Keep in mind that for most users, they are not running many applications
anymore.

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Zirro
The issues are most likely to appear with users who go straight from Windows
XP to 8. They are not familiar with the ability to search among applications
and files, nor with the concept of pinning shortcuts to the taskbar.

Considering the marketshare XP still has, and that these users are likely the
ones most resistant to change, this may turn out to be one of the largest
problems Microsoft will face with Windows 8.

I am not saying that legacy-concepts should delay innovation, but it can't be
denied that Windows has many users who aren't interested in learning new ways
to work with their computer.

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stan_rogers
XP had the Quick Launch bar, which I find a lot handier than pinned
applications (they take up less room). I guess it depends on the user, but I
operate wearing a lot of different hats (and, unfortunately, a lot of
similarly-named applications), and the XP start menu is a lot handier for me
than either Win7's version or the Win8 preview I tried.

I know: that's "anecdote", not "data", but if anybody had bothered to ask me,
they'd have a firm data point telling them that the lowest common denominator
(no need to be pedantic, the phrase has acquired a different meaning outside
of mathematics) should never be the only way. I can barely tolerate Win7 on a
day when I'm feeling of a particularly generous spirit; I'll be giving Win8 a
pass.

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Orf_
I'm inclined to trust Microsoft with this one. They clearly have the data to
back this choice up - why would they disable it if it was getting used?

I personally use it a lot as a glorified run prompt (type program name in,
press enter) but whatever, I can adapt.

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steverb
As far as I can tell, that works exactly the same in Windows 8. Hit the win
key, type the first few letters of a program name, hit enter.

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codgercoder
How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail
a leg doesn't make it a leg. Abraham Lincoln

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thedillio
No, no, no Microsoft, the start button was fine. We just didn't want 7 ways to
turn off the computer...

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k33n
They actually claimed nothing of the sort. That statement is a pretty liberal
interpretation of what Microsoft said.

Microsoft is simply saying that the Start Button in its current form was not
compelling enough to provide any long term value to the user that they
couldn't get by simply pinning things to the task bar. They evolved the Start
Menu. They didn't kill it.

~~~
falling
it became common, when companies design something the techies don't like
instead of just sticking to what they are used to, to call it "they think they
know what I want better than I do", forgetting that's the whole point of
design.

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Toshio
Many years ago, I rejected the start button and the OS surrounding it, and
switched to Linux.

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nnnnni
I upvoted you, but you probably switched to KDE, GNOME, or some other WM/DE
with a "Start Menu button" equivalent.

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mistercow
I have always enjoyed how Microsoft likes to adopt good features from other
OSes and rename them. No no, you're not "adding apps to the dock", you're
"pinning apps to the taskbar". This is definitely completely new and not in
any way a case of Microsoft showing up at the party 10 years late.

~~~
WayneDB
Excuse me, but Windows had a Taskbar before Apple had a Dock. Windows also had
Quick Launch shortcuts before Apple had a Dock as well.

So, Apple is the one who showed up late to that party.

Furthermore, the Taskbar works nothing like the Dock and it looks nothing like
the Dock.

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whateverer
Now, now. You can't claim that they aren't similar, because the concept here
is unifying both launchers and task lists, which was what distinguished docks
from task bars before.

They have different features, yes. Their animations are very different, that's
actually where most of the differences lie, yes. But now, as far as
task/window management goes, they are pretty much the same thing.

I wouldn't hesitate to call Gnome Shell's activity bar thingy a dock, for one,
even though it wouldn't matter; the dock doesn't have the same prominence that
environment as in Windows or Mac OS X.

Still, I don't see the problem with them retaining their traditional name for
their UI element, given that the new taskbar was still an evolution from the
previous one.

Now, with respect to the interaction, MS is mostly following the trend here,
as most are converging towards search for launching, and with the reduced task
management of smart phones, I would expect that developers would now be
encouraged to make their apps save and restore their states without the user's
intervention, and thus applications where you actually have to do the clean
up, save, close, start, open, repeat cycle would also become rarer, so that
those session-restore features that some DEs have would actually start to be
used, further downplaying the actual launching of applications.

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WayneDB
Claiming that Microsoft blatantly copied "pinned items" is a gross over-
simplification though.

So is claiming that "they are pretty much the same thing". They're not.

And I am correct in saying that Windows had a Taskbar before Apple had a Dock
because Apple didn't own NeXTSTEP when the Dock was released.

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flatline3
> _And I am correct in saying that Windows had a Taskbar before Apple had a
> Dock because Apple didn't own NeXTSTEP when the Dock was released._

Given Apple's history, that's a stretch. Modern Apple is essentially NeXT.
They 'acquired' NeXT, but internally and politically, it was practically the
other way around.

Apple owns NeXT, including previous inventions.

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WayneDB
That's absurd. Let's go back in time to 1995...NeXT and Apple are _two
separate companies_. NeXT had a Dock. Windows had a Taskbar. Apple had
neither.

Stop trying to change history to suit your fanboy-dom.

(Also, as gouranga mentioned below...RISC OS had them both before NeXT or
Win95 anyway.)

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whateverer
I only see one person throwing a fit over a product comparison here.

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WayneDB
So, disagreeing and showing facts is throwing a fit?

