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First look at Windows 7's User Interface
- Thread starter Axemantitan
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Wow... there are major changes here happening with Windows!
I like the interface. Ummmmm... maybe looks a teeny bit like OS X with the widgets and the taskbar?
But we'll see what Microsoft brings. Thank goodness Macs can run Windows so I don't need a swperate computer to test OS's out!
Thanks for sharing. It was a very interesting article.
Wow... there are major changes here happening with Windows!
I like the interface. Ummmmm... maybe looks a teeny bit like OS X with the widgets and the taskbar?
But we'll see what Microsoft brings. Thank goodness Macs can run Windows so I don't need a swperate computer to test OS's out!
Thanks for sharing. It was a very interesting article.
Microsoft fails at multi-touch!
I couldn't disagree more. The damn thing still does not work properly.
Guys view the video I have linked below. It shows Windows 7 in action (or should I say not).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7696648.stm
xL
I couldn't disagree more.
The damn thing still does not work properly.Guys view the video I have linked below. It shows Windows 7 in action (or should I say not).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7696648.stm
xL
Multi-touch on a computer monitor just isn't practical. It sure looks slick, but who is really going to use these on a daily basis? Do you really want to sit up close to your computer monitor and move your arm around everywhere to check your email? No, you want to sit comfortably in your chair and move your mouse/trackpad.
Apple is doing it the right way, incorporating their multi-touch features on their trackpads.
Apple is doing it the right way, incorporating their multi-touch features on their trackpads.
It still looks pretty much as fugly as Vista. I swear that George W. Bush is in charge of MS development and he tells them not to oversimplificate.
As I contended back when I wanted to fix PCs, Microsoft at some point needs to cut the ties to people running DOS applications and make an OS from the ground up. Leopard began cutting ties with Classic apps, and for good reason. Classic apps are ANNOYINGLY crashy in OS X, but at least they don't F up everything else.
Microsoft, being the market leader in operating systems, has kind of allowed businesses to get away with using the same software for a decade without downloading a darn update. If businesses want to use old-arse software, let them. But let them use your older versions of Windows. Develop something good and more stable and implement something Classic-like for Win32 applicaitons. Anything older than that can go on the scrap heap.
Ironically, the ugliest things about Vista and W7 are, well, the windows. I have definitely loved Apple's uncluttering by having the menu bar up top all the time (something I know they've done forever) and introducing the dock at the bottom. Go open IE on a Vista machine and try to find the address bar. Seriously, try. I swear it's there, hidden among 17,000 other pieces of junk. Meanwhile, Safari and Firefox on Mac OS X have it pretty darn easy to spot.
Microsoft, you can do better. For the sake of people who know me as a computer expert, please do better so I don't have to spend my off days fixing people's crap and then telling them "shoulda bought a Mac" every time.
As I contended back when I wanted to fix PCs, Microsoft at some point needs to cut the ties to people running DOS applications and make an OS from the ground up. Leopard began cutting ties with Classic apps, and for good reason. Classic apps are ANNOYINGLY crashy in OS X, but at least they don't F up everything else.
Microsoft, being the market leader in operating systems, has kind of allowed businesses to get away with using the same software for a decade without downloading a darn update. If businesses want to use old-arse software, let them. But let them use your older versions of Windows. Develop something good and more stable and implement something Classic-like for Win32 applicaitons. Anything older than that can go on the scrap heap.
Ironically, the ugliest things about Vista and W7 are, well, the windows. I have definitely loved Apple's uncluttering by having the menu bar up top all the time (something I know they've done forever) and introducing the dock at the bottom. Go open IE on a Vista machine and try to find the address bar. Seriously, try. I swear it's there, hidden among 17,000 other pieces of junk. Meanwhile, Safari and Firefox on Mac OS X have it pretty darn easy to spot.
Microsoft, you can do better. For the sake of people who know me as a computer expert, please do better so I don't have to spend my off days fixing people's crap and then telling them "shoulda bought a Mac" every time.
It doesn't look so bad... lets see if I can use it for more than 10 minutes before wanting to kick the screen. At the end of the day 'You can't polish a turd!' 
They've eventually worked on the user experience.. But seriously, these are features that should have come with XP or that other OS from microsoft which failed.
The design is awful, and even worse than Vista. It's got something kitsch, something not streamlined, not a universal look. I don't think apple needs to worry, with their release of snow leopard coming up.
The design is awful, and even worse than Vista. It's got something kitsch, something not streamlined, not a universal look. I don't think apple needs to worry, with their release of snow leopard coming up.
Isn't that what they did with Windows NT (which, as I understand it, includes 2000, XP, Vista and 7)?
The new task bar is basically an admission of complete failure. Windows users who hated Apple would argue for years that Windows was a task based UI rather than an application based UI like Apple's. That's why it was called the task bar, because it listed and separated tasks. As the guy said in the presentation, each window is supposed to stand for a task. This never really worked that well (hence the grouping by app option).
The new "task" bar basically adopts Apple's model of grouping by application. Apple are going to have a field day with the "photocopiers" comments now.
Actually Microsoft needs to provide a new Win64 API that won't be compatible to the old APIs...The new layer would get rid of DLL Hell and the registry as a central app settings repository. The system would still use the registry for all its settings.
A win32 Virtual Environment would enable all old apps to live in a sandbox configuration...
Vista was actually a first attempt in doing exactly that, the implementation though wasn't good...
windows 7 should be really good. the gizmodo article highlights alot of updates msft is going to make to the os.
http://gizmodo.com/5070219/giz-explains-why-windows-7-will-smash-vista
http://gizmodo.com/5070219/giz-explains-why-windows-7-will-smash-vista
you must be one of those users who actually installs 17,000 "others pieces" of junks/toolbars. so obviously you will have trouble finding the addressbar.
i would suggest you go to a store and take a look and i'm certain, even you can't miss the address bar of IE on Vista.
I have high hopes for Microsoft, and for once I don't think MS will let me down. Basically because their whole future is riding on it. If they pull it off, it'll be loads of good PR. If they fail, Apple gets another year and a half as king. This is too important for MS to mess up, they won't.
I think Windows 7 looks good. OS X is really freaking bland, like Windows classic (95/98). Whenever I boot into Vista on my MBP after spending hours in OS X, it's refreshing to see color in Vista.
Vista gets way too much flack. On a good system like the MBP, Vista (after SP1) runs very very well. It's craptastic hardware that makes Vista run like crap.
Vista gets way too much flack. On a good system like the MBP, Vista (after SP1) runs very very well. It's craptastic hardware that makes Vista run like crap.
Vista's okay, as long as you have the machine for it. I find it hard to navigate sometimes using my friend's machine.
If this is a "maintenance" release like the guy in the video said, they should charge current Vista owners $49 (at the very MOST)...
There used to be a joke how there was legacy code in Windows and MS couldn't figure out what it did. They left it in just so the system wouldn't break.
Vista and thus 7 are supposedly based on 2003 Server. But it seems to me that for a fraction of the giga $ spent on systems development MS could have had a new lean 64 bit OS if they started from scratch. It's a certainty they could have a working kernel at least.
Vista and thus 7 are supposedly based on 2003 Server. But it seems to me that for a fraction of the giga $ spent on systems development MS could have had a new lean 64 bit OS if they started from scratch. It's a certainty they could have a working kernel at least.
Right, thats why my laptop which meets every specification (actually exceeds most of them) still has explorer crash, i kid you not (i had a tally going for a while) at least 10 times a day. Thats why returning from sleep my computer always freezes for a good 30 seconds. Thats why half of the time when inserting a flash drive I have to restart the computer because it makes a rejection noise and will not recognize it.
yea, its my 3 GB RAM, and dual core running at 1.8 ghz each thats not living up to their end.
It still actually hurts my eyes to see that blurry-ness in the fore window title bars. What they needed to do was compress the range of colours in there too, since the blurred black part absolutely sucks my eyes to that area. And what's with the gradient ending halfway down in that above screenshot? I get that they're trying to make it look shiny but that doesn't always work! For example - see the pic.
And I've got perfect vision! Maybe too perfect for Microsoft.
But they've never been good at making the whole thing look smooth and pleasing to the eye. Older Windows were much too sharp looking, I think OSX has it right but it's also a little slower at dragging/resizing.
I know I'm biased towards the Mac OS, but I really hate the UI. The blurring really does nothing for me and I hope it's something that can be turned off. What really bothers me about it though is that all the other tricks and gimmicks start to fall apart because of it. They have to put a glow around the text in the top bar, which seems cheap, and then you start realizing that the drop shadow doesn't make sense because if you can see through something than you expect to see the shadow through the window. Or the drop shadow should be tinted because the light is filtered through the blue-ish window. I know I'm being nit-picky but these are the things that are going to be bugging me. I mean if you have to resort to this many tricks to pull an effect off in your UI, than maybe you're working too hard on something that doesn't make sense. That's when you step back and ask yourself what needs to be simplified. And I really want to like Windows 7 (and Vista) because sooner or later I'm going to have to spend a lot of time using it at work. At least XP stays out of my face with it's ugliness.
I liken it to the amateurish work we get from agencies sometimes where they rely to heavily on PhotoShop drop shadows and glows and bevel/emboss effect in the artwork they send us.
Honestly I like the choice...its not as if MS is dropping the mouse. Hopefully Apple can add support for multi touch in OS X