Re: Vista... is MS blatantly stealing the Mac's UI?

ZnU <znu@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:znu-E7A6F2.01133529072005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

> In article <Xns96A281DAFB109emteedee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> Mike Dee <mikedee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Maybe not, I think this time around they're "borrowing" heavily
>> from Linux.
>
> I see Microsoft still hasn't figured out the whole "coherent,
> logical UI" thing. Take a look at:
> http://www.winsupersite.com/images/showcase/lh_5098_notebook_18.jpg

It (still) appears to me stolen, a cross between a KDE & Gnome look-
alike.

> I can't tell what the hell is going on there. Some of those icons
> seem to represent folder-like things (though I bet they don't
> behave like normal file system folders), while others seem to
> represent commands. Meanwhile the whole window looks like a file
> system window, but looking at the location, we see it's actually a
> control panel. Huh? And why are the objects that appear in an icon
> view on the right duplicated in the list-like pane on the left?
> And why are "Games" separate from "Installed Programs"?

So gamers can't get lost? ;-)

> I ran into some screen shots of IE 7 today as well that seem to
> raise some questions:
> http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=102

OMG!! I'm gobsmacked by these images. Apart from the XP close box these
look very much like KDE with an Aqua theme!

An excellent link BTW, ZnU.

> Notice that the main menu, unlike in every other Windows app, is
> not at the very top of the window. Rather it sits below the bar
> containing the location field and the forward/back buttons, and
> the bar containing the open tabs. At first I thought it might make
> some kind of sense to put it below the tabs, since many of the
> menu commands would apply only to the current tab rather than to
> all tabs, and putting it there would imply that it was contained
> within the current tab. Upon further reflection though, that makes
> no sense, because the bar containing the forward/back buttons and
> location field contains *only* items that apply to the current
> tab, and that's *above* the tab bar.
>
> Also, there are a bunch of icons in the menu bar, most of which
> don't even represent menus. That's rather non-standard.
>
> Just to return to one of my long-time gripes, I see Microsoft
> still names buttons with "Yes" and "No" rather than with
> appropriate verbs (in this case, "Check" and "Don't Check"), which
> requires the user to pay more attention reading the dialog:
> http://www.flexbeta.net/images/ie7beta1/phishing_filter.gif

Apart from the "yes" "no" buttons and the XP close box, little else is
left that reminds me of Windows.

> As long as Microsoft makes these kinds of silly, basic mistakes,
> Apple has nothing to worry about on the usability front, to matter
> how shiny Microsoft makes their icons.

To my way of thinking, MS sees Linux as an enormous threat. What better
way to destroy an enemy that to make it look the same? They've done it
before, eh?

--
dee
.

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