[t_hah]

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/longhorn_aero.asp

I am not sure how they are going to get away with this one...but I could name a few things that look very familiar to me on the pics.

Can you find the familiar pieces as well?

t

[maxintosh]

It looks horribly inconsistent. If Microsoft is going to change the GUI every OS release, there are going to be a lot of upset users.

EDIT: 1000th post! WOO-HOO!!!

[thunderous_funker]

Definitely not Scottish...

Hmmmm. Syncmaster. That's a novel idea for an application.....

[iWrite]

Ugly.

UNexciting.

I'd rather pay bills than look at that.

[sniffer]

Originally posted by t_hah:
[url]Can you find the familiar pieces as well?

t

Yep. I see what you mean.

But I also noticed something else that is very typical for MS, and that's shortcuts for everything all over. And with the impression from the pictures I would say I am everything but worried. MS problem is that they don't know how to make things simple and logical IMO.

[tintub]

Here, for the first time, is a gallery of UI prototypes that I believe accurately portrays the "Aero" user interface in Longhorn.

That doesn't sound like actual screenshots to me...

[Shaddim]

The phrase, "keep it simple, stupid" keeps coming to mind the more I see of Longhorn. MS just doesn't "get it".

You'd be amazed at the number of calls we get each day with customers asking, "Can you help me get out of this Windows HELL?" or, "Can I trade my Dell in for a Mac?".

People in this area are switching in droves, it's amazing.

[sniffer]

Originally posted by tintub:
That doesn't sound like actual screenshots to me...

It's pictures from the prototype of Longhorn. The author is trying to give a idea on how the final GUI will end up like. He base it on that Luna from early on looked about like the final or something like that.

[sniffer]

Originally posted by MacNStein:
People in this area are switching in droves, it's amazing.

Seriously? Wow, I haven't heard about such thing. But that is good news. Or was that sarcasm?

[DeathMan]

You'd think with all the viruses and worms right now, people would be seriously starting to look at this platform. I'm not out an about, but many of my friends seem really sort of tired of dealing with all the crap that is windows.

[forkies]

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/showcase/aero-04.png

I don't thing Windows needs a new UI.

[olePigeon]

I thought fruity flavors went out with the iMac?

[Adam Betts]

Originally posted by forkies:
<snip>

I don't thing Windows needs a new UI.

Hehe, nice touch

[Shaddim]

Originally posted by sniffer:
Seriously? Wow, I haven't heard about such thing. But that is good news. Or was that sarcasm?

No, it's true. We can't keep a Mac of any type in stock. "We don't care what it is, we're just damned tired of this Windows bullshit!" "Here's some money, give me something that doesn't bombard us with advertisments and contract a new viris every day!"

Cool.

[iDriveX]

I think Microsoft is trying to be OVER comprehensive. Sometimes people understand with pictures instead of a ton of words. It's like In Safari it doesn't say "Back" "Forward" "Reload" and "Add Bookmark". You just understand, ya know? I think in iSync, if the words weren't there like "Sync" and ".mac", the graphics are so intuitive, it would work without the words...Windows isn't like that. It seems just over complicated.

[mixin visuals]

using windows xp is like going to a toystore and buying a barbie doll when on the next isle over you could get a g.i. joe action figure

[Misanthrope]

Heh, this thread is funny.

I can feel it in my bones that the PR staff that works for MS (where ever they are now, the pr staff, not MS) are laughing the night away reading posts like this. Why? Because in making such a big stink about their UI plans, your only propogating their whole endeavour! It's genius marketing really, and you all fell straight into it. Then again, years of Apple's PR may of induced this.

Secondly, (and I'm willingly giving into what I just stated above) I like the Aero design (from what I can see). I see it as a different variation on what Aqua could of been, and as such, I see it leading to more competition, which is exactly what this market...hell, this economy needs now.

My $.02.

[iNub]

I think this new "interface," and Aqua, are hideous. "...seems strangely like trying to nail jell-o to a wall." It's like working through Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, big gigantic buttons and glowing this and pulsing that. Yuck. In their attempts to improve their interface, Apple and Microsoft are creating all kinds of stupid addons that have no function, and the result is a harder to use system. At least Apple has shown some restraint in the "stupid gadgets" department, but they could do to lose some of the animations and blurry poopstains that exist in their interface. Personally, my interface of choice takes second seat to the application that's being used. When you're not using it, it doesn't glow or pulse or bounce or blink. It exists in the background, waiting to be used, like any well-behaved 100%-use thing should. Animations and bouncy things are cool for like 10 minutes, or until you want to get some real work done with no distractions. Maybe I'm weird like that.

Back on topic, though. That looks like a cross between Watercolor and Brushed Metal. Yuck. I've seen Playskool toys with less garish buttons and crap. It's a step up from Luna, however.

[osiris]

It looks like a caricature of OS X. Even the blue desktop pattern reminds me of X's default desktop.

It's almost lickable. Except for the hairy interface - the sliders and buttons are frickin huge. Same with the dialogue boxes... It all seems like clunky overkill.

But it's not totally gawdaweful looking, it's a little 'prettier' than whatever the hell they have out now. It's just an OS X rip off in my eyes, so I'm flattered. But they could make their OS plated in gold and it'll still suck.
Microsoft.

[MindFad]

Anything's better than Luna, right? Riiiiight?

[t_hah]

Aero is such an original name. I knew that Apple screwed up with Aqua, they should have named it Aero instead!!!

[Wiskedjak]

Originally posted by DeathMan:
You'd think with all the viruses and worms right now, people would be seriously starting to look at this platform. I'm not out an about, but many of my friends seem really sort of tired of dealing with all the crap that is windows.

MacOS is not immune to virii. It's just that virus developers, like most software developers, don't see the point in going through the effort to write code for only 5-10% of the market. If 90-95% of the market were using Macs, you'd see just as many virii targeting MacOS as presently target Windows, and holes in the OS would likely become more apparent as well.

Personally, I hope the Mac market NEVER exceeds 5-10%.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Dear God. And we bitch about brushed metal!

[forkies]

This guy (Thurrott) is such a whore to microsoft that it makes me sick

[l008com]

Originally posted by Wiskedjak:
MacOS is not immune to virii. It's just that virus developers, like most software developers, don't see the point in going through the effort to write code for only 5-10% of the market. If 90-95% of the market were using Macs, you'd see just as many virii targeting MacOS as presently target Windows, and holes in the OS would likely become more apparent as well.

Personally, I hope the Mac market NEVER exceeds 5-10%.

Thats not entirely true. The main reason is that windows is so insecure, it takes very little effort to write a virus for it. OS X on the other hand is extremely secure, and it would take tons and tons of effort to write a virus that could somehow take over/take advantage of it.

[Misanthrope]

Originally posted by l008com:
Thats not entirely true. The main reason is that windows is so insecure, it takes very little effort to write a virus for it. OS X on the other hand is extremely secure, and it would take tons and tons of effort to write a virus that could somehow take over/take advantage of it.

That is unless of course you happen to work for Apple, and have an upper hand on knowing all the exploits which are in the pipe for patching.

Hate Jobs cause he gives you ****? Ruin his day with a virus.

[l008com]

Yeah but even Apple's security holes are minor. Hold down a letter for 5 minutes and your screen saver will crash and someone can get to your desktop. Screen saver passwords are only meant to protect your computer from your kids or other family members. Security experts all say that once someone gets in physical contact with your computer, security is irrelevant. What sucks is we have to endure the same crap. When a virus strikes, everyone gets their ports blocked, not just windows users.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by l008com:
Yeah but even Apple's security holes are minor.

And the last known exploit was patched via Software Update after what, sixty hours?

-s*

[sleepyrenderer]

Originally posted by thunderous_funker:
Hmmmm. Syncmaster. That's a novel idea for an application.....

Woah, you're right! They ripped off their own free ActiveSync application (which predates iSync by years)... damn them.

[iWrite]

Someone should write a "BuyAMac" virus and send THAT around the world!

[tooki]

Originally posted by mixin visuals:
using windows xp is like going to a toystore and buying a barbie doll when on the next isle over you could get a g.i. joe action figure

How come a small figurine for a girl is a "doll" while the same thing for a boy is an "action figure"?

tooki

[chris v]

Wow, Microsoft is ony two years from releasing an OS on "par" (gotta use quotes there, as parity is going to be ever-elusive in the interface realm) with the one we've had for two years, now.

How will Apple ever catch up??

CV

[t_hah]

Alright, so they have Quicktime styled buttons...they stole the iTunes icons...

I am not even going to get into a discussion about Aero...but they even have an 80GHz Xeon chip?

WTF?!

[Spliffdaddy]

Originally posted by sleepyrenderer:
Woah, you're right! They ripped off their own free ActiveSync application (which predates iSync by years)... damn them.

[Mac zealot]roger that, commander Jobs.

we have the suspect in sight.

nobody escapes the reality distortion field on my watch.[/Mac zealot]

[Adam Betts]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
[Mac zealot]roger that, commander Jobs.

we have the suspect in sight.

nobody escapes the reality distortion field on my watch.[/Mac zealot]

Reality distortion field joke is getting old

[Mediaman_12]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by t_hah:
[B]Alright, so they have Quicktime styled buttons...they stole the iTunes icons...

I am not even going to get into a discussion about Aero...but they even have an 80GHz Xeon chip?

WTF?!

and 20GB of RAM

So they are predicting that between now and when Longhorn arrives Processor speed would increase to 80GHz but some how people would have a lower Memory, Processor speed relationship than they have today ????

[sniffer]

Yo, seriously. Windows got it:

You can now go -> Settings (control panel) -> Hardware & devices -> "Find your PC" -> "Browse files and folder for this computer".

I am glad to see they know how to make it easier for the users. Yikes!

Oh, and 80 GHz Xeon processor. Damn, we are domed.

[l008com]

I'm unsubscribing from the thread now, and the reason, i thought i'd share with everyone, is simply that I just don't care about windows. I'm a Mac Tech and I didn't even know about these windows virii that are going around until the other day. I just don't care.

[SillyMe]

cough RIPOFF cough!

[christ]

Originally posted by tooki:
How come a small figurine for a girl is a "doll" while the same thing for a boy is an "action figure"?

tooki

'cos the dolls ain't allowed to see any action!

[SillyMe]

I installed three updates/patches to my WinXP box this week. My XP box does one thing: Battlefield 1942. My Mac does the rest.

My MacOS X box was updated/patched zero times this week.

My brother called me yesterday. He is resinstalling XP Pro on his Dell again (for the forth time). He got the computer in January.

It truly is madness in the Windows world. And the real kicker is that people put up with it to save a few bucks.

/walks away shaking head

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
[Mac zealot]roger that, commander Jobs.

we have the suspect in sight.

nobody escapes the reality distortion field on my watch.[/Mac zealot]

*LOOOOOL* -That was GREAT!!!

[ApeInTheShell]

Because G.I Joe has always been for guys. Just like video games, there are only a few girls that like it.

The start menu looks like it is going to be the Apple Menu and that sidebar the Dock.
It will alienate users of course because people don't like two places to start from. Perhaps the other one will have an End on it.
A good feature to add to Longhorn would be a better way to log out. In Mac OS X when you click logout your logged out. The same thing for shut down. If you leave the shut down dialog box open it will shut down in 2 minutes. It is so very simple.
It says 80ghz RAM by the way, and how come they aren't showing the future Power Mac G4 rip-off instead?

[richardjanus]

How about "Sync, Sanc, Sunc!!!"

[Nonsuch]

I think Microsoft might as well stop calling the OS "Windows" and just give in and call it "Wizards."

[SupahCoolX]

Originally posted by Nonsuch:
I think Microsoft might as well stop calling the OS "Windows" and just give in and call it "Wizards."

Hey, that's actually a good idea, what with all the Lord of the Rings movies and all.
Wizards RQ: The power is yours to behold!�

[vsurfer]

Originally posted by t_hah:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/longhorn_aero.asp

I am not sure how they are going to get away with this one...but I could name a few things that look very familiar to me on the pics.

Can you find the familiar pieces as well?

t

Don't worry it's still a whore's breakfast!
An advertising driven breakfast at that.

You gotta love the opportunity seemingly built in for or either themselves or other commercial partners to advertise within the OS. Like TV.

On another level one worries -- will the OS arena end up like commercial TV versus public TV?

Still, Just looking at it makes me want to vom! When I reinstall my terminally crashed Win2K on VPC, I won't be tempted to buy an XP os pack. Har har!

[ginoledesma]

Seems like MS is pouring a lot of the "task-based user interface concept" into Longhorn. But I still don't see how far they can take this away from the desktop metaphor which "Apple and the rest" still use today.

One thing that caught my attention was their mention of "Libraries" for documents (via WinFS). Sounds a lot like Piles to me. It would be nice to see how MS can take that, though, as Apple hasn't mentioned Piles in Panther yet. WinFS + NTFS is a welcome improvement, in my opinion.

[JasonQG]

I'm not sure what to make of this until I use it, but that volume control thing looks sweet.

[Visnaut]

Originally posted by iDriveX:
I think Microsoft is trying to be OVER comprehensive. Sometimes people understand with pictures instead of a ton of words. It's like In Safari it doesn't say "Back" "Forward" "Reload" and "Add Bookmark". You just understand, ya know? I think in iSync, if the words weren't there like "Sync" and ".mac", the graphics are so intuitive, it would work without the words...Windows isn't like that. It seems just over complicated.

Exactly what I think. Using Windows is becoming more and more like a game of 20 questions. 'Would you like to do this?' 'Would you like to do that?'.

Sure, it might be customizeable and easy to remove such annoyances, but when you have to deal with it everyday on public school or work computers where its an unchangeable default, it gets real old, real fast.

On the other hand, I find Mac OS X to be less in-your-face. Things are made intuitive, rather than trying to explain or unfold the process of something unintuitive.

Just some observations.