“As more computer users move to larger, wide-screen monitors, Microsoft is staking a claim to that added real estate. Windows Vista, the update to the operating system due this year, will add a feature called Sidebar. Sidebar is a small panel at the side of the monitor that can be used to view photo slide shows, RSS feeds and other small programs, dubbed gadgets.”
,,, but they’ll probably get a patent for it anyway.
I had been using this since QNX 5.x – Dont quote me on the version, I just know it’s there 🙂
So… OSNews can only post about stuff that is completely new to the computer world? Great idea.
So… OSNews can only post about stuff that is completely new to the computer world? Great idea.
Exactly. I read an article here that an installer was being worked on for Genteoo Linux. Hell, how long has Windows had one of those? There was another article here just yetserday about how you could hook up an mp3 player in Suse (or is it Novell now?) and have it instantly recognized – I didn’t see people of other operating systems bitching that they’ve had this for how ever long.
Edited 2006-02-03 23:39
Yeah… either this site is getting boring or the IT world is. Maybe both are boring or maybe I’m just bored
I wish Microsoft would make something to replace the current Taskbar and System Tray setup, but they seem to of left it mostly untouched.
It would be nice to have something like the boxes in xfce (can’t remember the name) and a small ‘start’ button in the corner as an option.
I wish Microsoft would make something to replace the current Taskbar and System Tray setup, but they seem to of left it mostly untouched.
OMG NO! Leave the taskbar alone. It’s the only thing Microsoft has gotten right in the last 20 years. All this garbage that KDE and Gnome and OSX try to do is ugly space wasting, time wasting, resource wasting and has horrible usability in comparison. It’s bad enough they started defaulting to grouping similar windows together. Leave my taskbar alone!
(wow.. I’m getting grumpy in my old age.)
So all those little system tray apps aren’t resource wasting? You need a better argument than that.
Oh yeah. Answer this one: how is it space wasting if you can choose auto hide?
All those system tray apps are just that, apps. Which can be shut off. THere shouldn’t be anything running in their unless the user wants it to (except quicktime and the like where they enable the stupid systray plug-in everytime you install a new version).
I’m not saying with any other desktop environment in mind, I am just stating it because you made it sound as if those systemtray apps are part of the Windows taskbar, and they aren’t, they are separate applications.
BTW. The OS X Dock uses zero resources when not being accessed (meaning most of the time). So, the argument that the Dock is a resource hog is completely unfounded.
I don’t think anyone said anything about the Dock being a resource hog.
Also, it is litterally IMPOSSIBLE for the Dock to not use any resources.
Actually, I kinda liked the way Be did it, but XP has that now so that is kinda a moot point.
The KDE and Gnome panels are almost the same as the Windows taskbar, if you want it to be, no use griping about it.
Now the Dock: I like MacOS, and it is my main system, but the Dock is wretched.
Yeah, the dock has nothing more than the “ooo, aaah” effect, which lasts until the time you actually use it.
MSR has been (was?) working on a taskbar replacment that was a lot more versatile than the current Windows taskbar, while still keeping the old look and functionality.
http://research.microsoft.com/research/vibe/groupbar.aspx
Not saying the actual software is any good, as it is still very much research quality work, but cool none the less.
Thanks for the link. I should poke around MSR more often. Groupbar would be very good if it automatically grouped all windows for a current app, and had it so when you clicked a group, ALL the windows in it opened. Not sure if it does this yet, gotta try it on an XP machine @ work.
You can do that with the normal taskbar.
Just get TweakUI and tell it to always group items.
I actually really like the Dock. It’s just a taskbar that uses images instead of text to identify apps. It’s proven that people can recognise images much easier and faster than text. I find it really frustrating to have more than about 5 windows open when I use Windows in college. The Windows desktop environment doesn’t seem to scale well. It makes you keep closing apps and windows all the time.
Of course this could just be because I am used to Mac OS so when I use Windows it feels alien and clunky. Just my €0.02
Javascript rollovers that create a blank spot whilst the image loads. Truly pathetic. MS Will never learn :/
…than just being a place for “widgets” or “gadgets” or whatever they’ve started calling them.
For instance: right now, under Windows, notifications are a mess. Everyone notifies the user differently. Pop-ups, ugly tool-tips. Then there are the billion people who copied MSN Messenger’s “XXX is online” sliding window and use it for their own applications alerts.
With the Sidebar and a notification API, it could be so much better and unintrusive, but unfortunately they seem content to offer “gadgets.”
Its not that I don’t like the concept — I have Yahoo! Widgets installed, myself — but I think that, since it ships with the operating system itself, they could do so much more than just “gadgets.”
Well, on the upside, we might see more application-based integration with the sidebar, since it ships with Vista by default.
With the Sidebar and a notification API, it could be so much better and unintrusive, but unfortunately they seem content to offer “gadgets.”
Vista has a notification API, and in previous builds, there was a sidebar gadget that showed/logged such notifications. Whether this reappears when the sidebar is integrated in public builds again is unknown at this point.
Preliminary UX Guidelines for Notifications
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/UxGuide/UXGuide/Resources/W…
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/Ux…
Why would I need desperately sidebar and why I don’t need Antivirus Software in Vista?
I cannot understand MS decisions.
If they gave me the choice I will choose the antivirus over sidebar, which I never have palns to use.
When would MS start realizing they are an OS developer and not a Utility or Tools Company?
Fix the damn OS, or at least protect it if you can’t.