Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 15th Jul 2009 21:38 UTC
OSNews, Generic OSes It's time for another "OSNews asks" item. This time, I want to focus on something that I've been wanting to talk about with you all before, but never found the time for. The question is simple: which feature(s) from other operating systems would you like to see in your own main operating system?
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Comment by moleskine
by moleskine on Wed 15th Jul 2009 22:39 UTC
moleskine
Member since:
2005-11-05

I mostly use Linux. I think it lacks a sense of style, of elan or pizazz - call it what you will. Or at least the typical Gnome desktop does to my eyes. I can't speak for KDE. I'd also like to see better audio, full and fairly easy colour management, and better tools for photographers. Gimp is not bad but still lacks a few of the things which make Photoshop distinctly superior. Evolution could use some more user-friendly features as well. Perhaps they should pinch the better ones from Thunderbird. Linux is still too driven by developers who lack the skills of good designers, typographers and those with a grasp of what a non-technical desktop user will want and like - and not want and not like.

I'd like Windows to have better security, to the point where anti-virus stuff is no longer needed. Above all, though, I'd like Windows not to be so clunky. It always feels less than the sum of its sometimes unwieldly parts, as if it was designed by a camel-committee. I include Windows 7 in that view, too, though it is a great improvement on Vista.

Don't use Mac OS so cannot comment.

Overall, though, I'm sometimes tempted to wish a pox on all three. Lack of universal file access, codecs and standards that are adhered to - so any OS can read and write files from any other OS - is the bugbear of computing for me. In some respects we are still stuck in the "toys for boys" era, on the desktop anyway.

Edited 2009-07-15 22:42 UTC