[boriscleto]

The Joy of Tech comic... throwing a banana cream pie in the face of technology.

[jogiba]

Looks like OSx Lion is going with this tablet-esque idea too *sigh*

[casil403]

On a positive note, being someone working in the field of rehabilitation, interfaces like these are wonderful for people who have limited use of their hands. I had a quadriplegic client recently who had a tablet interface and it opened up a whole new world for him as before he was unable to type on a keyboard. A couple of modifications to a universal cuff/wrist splint and he was able to use it pretty much like anybody else and to see the joy on his face the first time he used it was awesome and heartwarming.
With the apps available nowand shortly in the future for environmental controls (ability to turn on appliances/lights/electronics using an IPad) it allows for much greater independence to people with disabilities and for them.

[boriscleto]

Looks like OSx Lion is going with this tablet-esque idea too *sigh*

In OS X Lion it will just be gimmicky thing like Dashboard was for Tiger.

Mission Control


Launchpad - folders


Full screen apps


We'll know a lot more on Monday.

[PeteyJ]

We'll know a lot more on Monday.

That much is definite. My current understanding is that you'll still have the regular desktop and all that extra tablet-esque mumbo jumbo will be yours to turn on and off, but we'll see next week how it will actually be.

[magkelly]

So it's probably a lot more like using widgets then? Well, that I could handle, I guess. If I can turn them off then that's fine. I don't use the widgets capacity now. So no big deal.

I like the old style menus, the desktop, small icons etc. Even when it comes to icons I'm not fond of too much screen real estate being taken up by program icons and such. All the icons that link to my most used programs are on my task bar or in the case of ones I don't use every day up on the menu out of the way where they belong.

I have exactly 5 icons on my desktop and that almost never varies. The system icon, the trash icon, a link to my DVD-RW drive, and one that links to my Docs folder. You can actually see my wallpaper, my stylish ever rotating photo desktop, and that's exactly the way I want it. I like a clean, fun desktop environment, not one that's cluttered up with a multitude of icons that block my view.

I just don't know that I'm ready to upgrade. I've finally gotten comfortable with Win 7 and it's eccentricities. Took me a while that. I don't like an OS that tends to hand hold you a lot and Win 7, I had to turn off a lot of things to prevent it from doing that. If Win 8 is even more of the same likely it will annoy the heck out of me.

I don't understand why every new version of Windows seems to get more and more into controlling the user experience to the point of denying you the right to use your machine as you like to. I'm a power user. I don't need the OS to hold my hand all the time. Seems every version of the OS that comes out I have to turn more and more crap off just to get the OS out of my face in terms of user account controls and needing permissions all the time.

That much is definite. My current understanding is that you'll still have the regular desktop and all that extra tablet-esque mumbo jumbo will be yours to turn on and off, but we'll see next week how it will actually be.

[RoxnDox]

That much is definite. My current understanding is that you'll still have the regular desktop and all that extra tablet-esque mumbo jumbo will be yours to turn on and off, but we'll see next week how it will actually be.

*Hopefully* they'll let us turn it off. The wonderful interface design team who brought us the "ribbon" in M$Office made a conscious decision *NOT* to allow us users to revert to the classic menus we've been using for so many years. If those sort are working on the overall desktop interface, then we get what *they think* we need...

Jim

[subeeds]

I'm happy with my laptop as is. I can't stand touch screen applications. It gets dirty enough without my rubbing my fingers all over it.

I second that. I don't like touch screens. I'm still getting used to all the ins and outs of 7. Shoot, I just upgraded to the new FireFox and it took me a week to get used to it.

[hcarvalhoalves]

Mission Control
Attachment 93531

Launchpad - folders
Attachment 93532

Full screen apps
Attachment 93533

We'll know a lot more on Monday.

With all the iPhone/iPad hype Apple got delusional and turned into a gadget company, not a computer company anymore. You can see how they already started bringing the bulls*** to the Mac platform with that AppStore...

With iLife '11 for instance, they dumbed iPhoto to make it act like an iPad app. The problem is that they removed features everybody liked and made the interface so utterly stupid that now it doesn't even make sense to use anymore, it's just dumb and doesn't do anything.

I hope they stop going overboard and start focusing back on the Mac platform instead of releasing gadgetry, as honestly it's the only computer that I can buy that still doesn't suck.

[magkelly]

I absolutely loathe the MS Ribbon. I stopped using Office after 2007 because of that feature. There is a program you can buy, an add on that makes it possible to have menus like 2007 in 2010, but I found it made the program drag.

I'm using Softmaker's office now. It has all the features I need. I was using Open Office and Star Office for a while, but I like the Softmaker office better. I got it for free (legally) when they were doing this promo thing last year so I can't complain it cost me a whole lot to switch. I usually will use that at home.

For work of course I still have to keep up with the latest MS Office, but honestly that ribbon is just a deal breaker for me for personal use. I'm really not fond of it showing up all over Win 7, but when it comes to actually working around it when using an office application I just can't stand it at all.

[lithos]

Oh, jeez, the bloody ribbon interface. My uni has the latest office, of course, and I remember firing it up for the first time. "WTF?" was my reaction.

For some reason, a good 1/3 of the menu bars is devoted to those stupid "Headings & Styles," which precisely no one uses. Oh, it's easy to select some BS pre-defined "style," but simply getting it to put text on the page without some stupid formatting is impossible.

[dadipentak]

Just out of pure cussedness, I'm still using WordPerfect. I got really good with v5.1 and it's just easier to stay reasonably current in WP and convert to ms word when I have to (which isn't often now that I'm retired.)

It seems to me that most of what you get with these upgrades is more fru-fru (who gives a **** about cutsey themes & such?) and a steep learning curve to get at a little useful functionality. I guess I'm not the only curmudgeon here.

[RoxnDox]

I absolutely loathe the MS Ribbon. I stopped using Office after 2007 because of that feature. There is a program you can buy, an add on that makes it possible to have menus like 2007 in 2010, but I found it made the program drag.

I'm using Softmaker's office now. It has all the features I need. I was using Open Office and Star Office for a while, but I like the Softmaker office better. I got it for free (legally) when they were doing this promo thing last year so I can't complain it cost me a whole lot to switch. I usually will use that at home.

For work of course I still have to keep up with the latest MS Office, but honestly that ribbon is just a deal breaker for me for personal use. I'm really not fond of it showing up all over Win 7, but when it comes to actually working around it when using an office application I just can't stand it at all.

I have to use M$ Office at work too, and I hate that damnable ribbon. At home, OpenOffice is quite enough for me.

Oh, jeez, the bloody ribbon interface. My uni has the latest office, of course, and I remember firing it up for the first time. "WTF?" was my reaction.

For some reason, a good 1/3 of the menu bars is devoted to those stupid "Headings & Styles," which precisely no one uses. Oh, it's easy to select some BS pre-defined "style," but simply getting it to put text on the page without some stupid formatting is impossible.

And when you're using it on a laptop, the amount of wasted screen space because of the stupid ribbon is even more annoying than usual...

Just out of pure cussedness, I'm still using WordPerfect. I got really good with v5.1 and it's just easier to stay reasonably current in WP and convert to ms word when I have to (which isn't often now that I'm retired.)

It seems to me that most of what you get with these upgrades is more fru-fru (who gives a **** about cutsey themes & such?) and a steep learning curve to get at a little useful functionality. I guess I'm not the only curmudgeon here.

Hell no, I think there's a lot of us! Maybe we ought to start ourselves a social group... Nah, who'd want to be around such a cranky old bunch of grumps?

Jim

[krypticide]

I see some FUD being posted. The new touch-friendly interface is OPTIONAL. You can use the regular Windows desktop solely, if you want.

Having said that, I personally find it exciting as this plus the fact that Windows 8 will run on ARM means that we will be seeing tablets running Windows 8. Can't wait to have a fully backward compatible OS in tablet format with the proper UI.

[jogiba]

Windows 8 and the ARM Revolution: The Pros and Cons | PCWorld