Re: [LUG] OT: Windows XP

To: list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Subject: Re: [LUG] OT: Windows XP

From: Julian Hall <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2014 23:12:44 +0000

Delivered-to: dclug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On 14/02/14 22:45, Simon Avery wrote:

On 14 February 2014 22:16, Simon Waters <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Most users don't give a fig any more about this stuff. They are use to
Android, and iOS, and Windows XP, Windows 7, and they really don't want to
have to change anything at all. Okay they like the ability to change a few
things occasionally, mostly they want it to "just work". Most home users
are pretty disgruntled at a login screen (unless they have kids). If they
must have password don't give them a username to remember. As a result you
see people migrating to Windows 7 because they took a 5 second look at 8
in the shop and decided "no".

You *get* it.

MIcrosoft didn't with 8.

Metro was a huge mistake, another example of marketing arrogance thinking it can change the world without considering the most important thing: users. It's not the first time MS have mis-judged a market drastically, but they've got it right more times than not. I can't recall when they got it /quite/ as badly wrong as this, even Vista was usable in comparison.

Nobody should rely on having to download something else to make an OS usable, much less something from a random site that's in no way endorsed by the OS creators.

It's 2014. We've had computers for a long time and most people are familiar and adaptable - but similarly, computers are tools and the OS merely a way of accessing that tool. It should never get in the way of expectations.

Bad Apple - love you to bits - but you occasionally suffer from "I know this, I can do it, so it's not a problem." :)

Another strategy would have been for Microsoft to follow the Linux path and separate the GUI/Window Manager from the OS and during installation let the user choose. I had a laptop supplied for a recent course [1] and the guy who delivered it - with Windows 8 installed - said, when I pointed out it didn't have a touchscreen, 'I know.. none of the ones I'm sent out with Windows 8 installed have touchscreens' and agreed with me that Windows 8 is a pain without one. Therefore I think Microsoft should have either detected the presence of a touchscreen and installed the appropriate GUI, or asked the user during the install to choose the classic desktop or the new Metro[2] interface.

I did see an in depth review of Windows 8 where the reviewer pointed out all the failures in the GUI, but checking the YouTube url just now it's been pulled.

I agree you shouldn't have to download third party software to make it useable, nor should you have to use Google to work out how to do simple tasks. When you get to that point I think you've failed the first principles of HCI.

Julian

[1] It ended up not running but I was allowed to keep the laptop.. long story.
[2] That was a massive clanger wasn't it, choosing a name someone else had copyright to who wouldn't let them use it.