Friday, December 7, 2012

Philip Greenspun: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is a Christmas gift for someone you hate


As Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber states, the following is “from a guy who's so anti-Apple that he gives credit for the desktop interface to the Xerox Alto, not the Mac.”



Philip Greenspun blogs, “Suppose that you are an expert user of Windows NT/XP/Vista/7, an expert user of an iPad, and an expert user of an Android phone.... you will have no idea how to use Windows 8.”



“Microsoft has had since October 2008 to study Android. It has had since June 2007 to study iPhone,” Greenspun writes. “It seems as though they did not figure out what is good about the standard tablet operating systems... The only device that I can remember being as confused by is the BlackBerry PlayBook.”



MacDailyNews Take:



We've tried to use a BlackBerry PlayBook. It was a dismal experience. It's a total POS. – MacDailyNews, January 3, 2012



As anyone who's ever tried to use DCW's playbook can attest, it's a wholly unintuitive piece of overpriced crap. Amateur hour, indeed. – MacDailyNews, February 22, 2012



Greenspun writes, “A reasonable user might respond to this dog's breakfast of a user interface by trying to stick with either the familiar desktop or the new tablet. However, this is not possible. Some functions, such as "start an application" or ‘restart the computer’ are available only from the tablet interface. Conversely, when one is comfortably ensconced in a touch/tablet application, an additional click will fire up a Web browser, thereby causing the tablet to disappear in favor of the desktop... Confused about how the tablet apps work and want to Google for the answer? You go to a Web browser in the desktop interface and can't see the tablet interface that you're getting advice on how to use.”



Read more in the full article here.


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