A number of screenshots of Windows Longhorn were leaked, and some people in the know have confirmed that these shots are authentic. The new UI is called “Plex” and it is clear that Microsoft is moving away from the traditional UIs, to highly task-based ones. Check out the shots before they vanish.
An Early View of Windows Longhorn
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Interesting. Looking better and better
I questioned whether these were real or not at first (see my post on the site), but after doing a bit of hunting it seems they are — more can be found over at bink
It’s good to see that Microsoft is actually working to redesign the UI, not just changing the Windows borders to ones that actually look worse.
Ok, my next purchase for an OS and hardware will be OSX. That is gross. I felt like my teeth would rot out of my head in looking at those.
1. The screens look good (especially bluejeans.jpg :-). Very professional and artistic. They’re borrowing some from Apple (e.g. jelly bean buttons) but Apple will probably also be taking from them.
2. The task orientation seems better suited towards the home than business, where solutions providers would probably prefer to customize the desktop experience at a lower level. But maybe this is just the default shell we’re seeing.
3. File folders in the “My Documents” windows? I had heard that Microsoft was replacing the hierarchical file system with an OODB – of course Cairo was supposed to provide that too, back in 1996.
4. I may be off base, but I get the impression Microsoft thinks that the PC desktop is a mature industry and it’s time to provide a common appliance to accesses the things that people want most, as opposed to an open-ended box inviting unlimited customization.
5. I predict there will be pressure on Microsoft to re-establish the dichotomy between home and business OS’s. Home users want lots of eye candy, an appliance form factor, and point-and-click ease of use. Business users don’t care so much about eye candy and want to do their work quickly and efficiently, but are usually willing to invest some time learning tools.
Looks like more of the same to me, nothing spectacular. Nothing to see here… move along.
Asside from the obtrusive desktop/clock/quicklaunch/programs list menu bar on the right, I don’t see anything really different.
This unnecessary interface element is enlarging an already unnecesserally overstated menuing-system’s desktop realestate to the size of a postage stamp.
Repeat after me…
Less is more… Less is more… less is more
I have to agree that except the “Display Properties” window, all the rest did not impress me either. There are some good ideas on the Explorer, like the images and MyComputer view, but the way it is done with this “web page” look, it just does not appeal to me.
As for the Start Menu, its hieriarchy just sucks.
There are some good ideas there, and the task-based system seems to be the future, but the way everything is layed out, it just sucks IMO.
why do they insist on copying the look of kde3?
lol….
From a UI perspective, its the same old stuff. Of the screen shots I see nothing new, innovate or original.
In FACT, I seriously don’t they are real. I cannot believe MS would allow such a elementary UI to be released. Actually I have seriously don’t they are real.
Its really bad. I could go into details, but I will not. I believe they are fake. The icons are different from screen to screen, showing KB for your hard drive space instead of MB or GB. Get real.
On the other hand, MS does have the worse GUI….
I must compliment the new UI. They moved from the garish RGB mess to a nice, cool, blue. Of course, WinXP looked nice in the early screenshots too, before they screwed it up. Let’s hope Playschool doesn’t get a hand on LongHorn before it’s released. That said, the screenshots reminded me of AfterStep (modeled after NextStep), only prettier. The big thing on the right is basically a dock! The whole “task oriented thing” also bothers me. Honestly, it’s a good idea for new users, but the interface overload really kills efficiency. Take the new “Search” panel in XP. I used to use it a lot in Win2K, but never touched it in XP because it got task-oriented-ized. The whole filesystem as a database thing sounds cool, but I hope there is an efficient, fast UI to it in addition to an easy one.
task orientation sucks in general IMHO….I can not find my way around the NEW crontol panel even if I try so I had to shift back to the old school way.
I think you are correct, task oriented is good for folks who need to be directed to the correct application for what they want to do, but for those of us that KNOW what we want, nothing beats the win 95-2000 / mac interface. unless youy are realy good, then the cli is the best.
Can you say … “Clutter?”
The colors are pleasant and seasonal.
The very first screen shot has a “check system compatibility” button. Does that mean it wont be compatible with all PC’s? And at this point, isn’t is a little late to test for system compatiblity, when you have already paid for it?
This is a beta. Beta testers need to test things. That doesn’t mean that this will be there in the final version. And if the user bought something without reading the minimum/recommended hardware, then it is the user’s fault, not Microsoft’s.
fake, fake, fake
in one of the screenshots it said somthing “Longhorn XP” come on….if this maddness must continue i will move back to apple system 7 or if i want some color OS 8 although i do think os x is the best gui. btw: the screenshots are sooo fake. and the last one “dos 1985” there is no .com or .net .org. and last and not least the winxp, 2000, NT setup program is NOT dos. it is a shell on the NT kernel. and is has no screenshot capibilitys.
BTW: if this is the “new” gui…. i just might go back to dos!!
Those welcome panes (the big expanse above the My Documents and My Pictures windows) seem like a waste of space. One has a few icons for items that could be in the side task pane. There also seems to be a “what is selected” indicator that could also go on the side (or in the status bar like it has been in past versions).
That said, I can already see a problem with those side task panes. They are going to run out of space for all the tasks! Look at the My Pictures one. There are already 16 tasks! Yes you can collapse some to make room for others. Or you could (get this) put them in pull down menus! I mean look at all the room on that menu bar. Plenty of space for a few extra menus, don’t you think?
As for that desktop sidebar, there better be some pretty compelling applets for it as have been alluded to in previous OSNews Longhorn articles. It looks pretty useless/redundant as is in these screenshots.
Im not an UI expert, but someone has definetly put these shots together to look like kde3.. are you guys blind?
did anybody notice switching between October 20 and 20 October on different screenshots?
and how about “Burn DVD” button on my documents and no existing DVD drive in My Computer zone
There will be eyecandy in the form of various alphablending / shadow type effects, that’s pretty much what sets it aside from an overly skinned XP. Windows 2000 was Microsofts last decent OS release, now it’s all about applying clutter all over the place to compete with OSX kickin GUI, I sincerely hope there atleast are some innovation beneath the surface in Longhorn or it’s the last time I bother buying a Microsoft OS.
Microsoft is digging their own grave with this… making it soo much easier to catch up on the Desktop front while MS keeps playing with their “My Documents” folder designs and what not…
“Making it soo much easier FOR LINUX to catch up…” … silly me forgetting stuff.
The shots are real. Trust me.
As you can see the guy have paintshoppro installed.
Other notes – you cannot screenshot of setup screen unless you do it in VMWare. Then show that it’s done in VMWare.
Other general notes – the guy have too many third party tools installed (Nero, WinRAR etc.) It’s not happen in one day. Looks like regular used system, not like fresh installed beta version of OS.
The only real argument that they are not fake is that it looks too much like XP. But then it may be because the guy had too little imagination for these mockups.
I don’t think these are real, and if they are, yuck.
The scary thing is that the bloaty look of all the UI elements in these shots could quite possibly be the direction which Microsoft is headed.
I’m greatfull to all those who have put so much hard work into desktops such as gnome, etc. which are much more functional.
Useless eye candy sucks. I’ve sold my new G4 for this exact reason.
hmm, it’s labeled as 6.0…. I wonder what are the kernel improvements
cad user: The very first screen shot is a part of both WinXP and Win.NET Server. The Check System Compatibility is for various hardware testing.
I still stand by my original assumption of fake, there was some clever people posting in the winbeta thread (where it all started) with long lists of just why is was fake the most compelling was the fact the GUI was so far advanced…… its a beta and everything is hardware rendered already..
jon
I wouldn’t take the inconsistancies and stuff to mean it is a fake. The UI is still early (Longhorn won’t be released for more than a year) and I remember how the original Chicago (Win95
screenshots looked very sloppy.
fake or real, they are disgusting. What an imrovment over traditional UI.
I think its great. I sure hope its real.
Microsoft will always be disillusioned with their grand, big resource hug, do everything, feature rich, run in our environment, code anything, thousand button crap.
Want Longhorn 2012? Buy a Mac.
Inform yourself!
No MP3, no DIVX,no Opensource, no root, no Privacy!
this is innovation? this is truly useful?
task-orientation is the new buzzword to sell this crap? Zzz.
I’m very glad that I get to see a preview of the first Microsoft OS I will refuse to buy. Cutesy features with no asthetic appeal (and these have hardly any functional appeal) do nothing for me. I want simplicity, I want neutral colors, I want better fonts, I want screen real estate … since Microsoft completed Windows 2000, they have done NOTHING but screw up the fantastic job they started with W2K.
It’s quite a shame … because I know eventually I will be forced to use that ugly thing (yes, I know it will change … but it looks like the XP team is working on Longhorn and that’s not at all promising). I sure hope OpenBeOS works out …. I sure hope Apple gets its act together, finds better hardware, and finds a way to sell it to me at a reasonable price.
Well, hopefully it’ll allow me to turn off all the new crap and revert back to the classic interface (as XP does). And I have a feeling that ‘sidebar’ thing is going to last for about 30 seconds once I install it. It’s annoying in Mozilla/Netscape, and I predict it’ll be even more annoying on the desktop.
It seems that the more MS works to idiot-proof’ the interface, the more power users are given the cold shoulder. I mean, how much has Explorer really evolved since Win95. And has anyone ever tried a file manager called Directory Opus ?
BTW: Is it true that longhorn is going to use some BEOS-like database file system? If this is the case, then why did MS work so hard to get the consumer version of Windows to use NTFS, only to dump it in the next version?
I’m going through the screenshots, and the ONLY thing I see different is big giant bars saying ‘DOCUMENTS’ or ‘VIDEOS’ chewing up a third the screen. Lemme get this straight… We’re supposed to get excited about them adding… oh, the shock.. Wizards?
Ok, ‘Task Oriented’=Wizards. Got it. I think I understand. In other words more hand holding for Nubes that gets in the way of people who already know how to use the machine.
Maybe I’m a minimalist, but I’m getting sick of them wasting endless time on visual effects like fades, wipes and goofy colored bars. Maybe if more time were spent making the OS stable and responsive instead of adding goofy visuals to distract you from how badly the machine is crawling, M$ wouldn’t have as many detractors.
Personally, I really could give a @#$% for the goofy colored buttons that function exactly like the old square ones. La-di-da. Skins and Themes, just more goofy stuff to eat up bandwidth, drive space and peoples productivity.
Sorry, but MS is going to have to do a lot more to be able to compete with Linux on the desktop ;-). Seriously though, they will have to offer some real killer features or corporations will switch to Linux workstations in hordes next year. The database file system that was mentioned a few months ago would be such a killer feature, and it will be interesting to see if Linux or MS gets it first (both after BeOS, that’s for sure).
A KDE Longhorn theme wil probably exist before Longhorn is released ;-). Personally, I hate the looks, but that’s because I’m an information addict. I want to be productive and I want my screen to have a high S/N ratio. I don’t need a start menu: my KDE kicker has a small task launch combobox, and that works perfectly. Start mozilla? It’s already there because I entered it previously. Start evolution? Type “evolution”. If this was Windows, I would have to type “C:Program FilesXimianEvolutionXimian Evolution.exe” for this to work, and then the launcher would complain because of the spaces 🙂
I see something from BeOS and something from kde/icewm skin…
not bad even if I saw loads of better UI (mozilla-modern metatheme just to tell one..)
surely an improvement over the playmobil winXP UI…
I personnaly prefer as many things to stay out of the way as possible and not chew up screen space for no reason. I see no reason for that fugly sidebar. I like things to be easily accessible but not intrusive 99% of the time.
Seems like MS legal department already sent the army of lawyers to that site. The screenshots are all gone now.
Not much for me since I still prefer to delete all icons on the Windows desktop except “My Computer” (tweak UI) and do not use a “Background-Wallpaper” (No Clutter, thank you).
*Transparent* SideBar is a great and practical ideia. That’s a most welcome feature for me.
(Maybe, copied from non-transparent QNX side bar ?)
that’s funny … they look like LiteStep … hahaha
Was I the only one that thought they was looking at a QNX screen shot for the first few seconds?
Why do they always use those EXTREME large icons in configuration screens ?? and that waaay to big start menu ??
ever worked with those on resolution < 1280*1024 ?? aarrhgghhh
since XP , i decided to never buy an M$ OS again , unless it’s better then 2k + sp2 …
And on the screens i can see that there’ll be ANOTHER horrible IE 6+ and ANOTHER horrible Mediaplayer … and even a more irritating sidebar ….
sorry , but i hope they make something good of it , but i have serieus doubts atm ….
To the non believers……now the originals have been pulled there are some other (different) shots on offer over at http://www.windowsxp.nu/
I won’t link to them directly though….(feel free to mod this down)
Doesn’t anyone prefer the nice crisp interfaces from Max OS 9 and Windows 9x? Aqua isn’t so bad (mainly because of the non-graphical parts of it), but do others with Windows XP really use Luna? I use Windows XP and can’t stand Luna. Give me Windows Classic anyday. Aqua is nice – my roommate has a G4 – but it would be better if it was a little duller and sharper (I can’t understand those Aqua themes for Win. The only good thing about Aqua is the Quartz rendering engine that comes with it – which themes cannot replicate).
just me or does it look like that M$ actually included virtual desktops in longhorn?!
Microsoft is NOT GOING TO RELEASE THIS TOMORROW. Get the context right.
Yes, I prefer the old look and the least wasted screen space the better. I run XP in classic mode for window decor and taskbar. Amazingly, classic mode finally looks a little more refined too. Like the ugly Windows logo on the start button.. it has been replaced by a full color image finally. In the end, I prefer BeOS. Better window management, better responsiveness… etc etc…
I installed a firewire card and a video cam in BeOS two days ago and was impressed at how it just worked. No installation of drivers, no rebooting… How nice!
I don’t see anithing special, only cosmetic changes. The taskbar goes from bottom to left or right. The visual is ugly like XP.
I prefer the KDE 3.1 visual or Acqua interface.
It will more than a year. If this is the alpha version, there is still MAJOR additions and subtractions.
If this was, say, beta 2, then start to get worried, however, since this is alpha, I say, wait and see what happens.
I’d also say, wait until this time next year for the first/second beta. If by then they haven’t improved the UI, replaced the awful DOS letter/device BS, Office doesn’t exploit the new API’s, aka, Avalon (which will be based on the .net framework), and their CLI tools are still crap, then come back and spit and curse, otherwise, hold on.
so my posts won’t get yanked.
imo?
looks like a variation on XP….it could be a skin.
that being said, when i run xp, i turn off all the eye candy, which reverts the look back to win2k, which looks pretty much the same as winnt.
i suppose i like the colors better…xp with eye candy turned on, is a designers nightmare.
you would have thought somebody had a color wheel in their design dept…
Heh, I saw the screenshots on the BinkWindowsXP site, and more deja vu. Check out the gradients on the menus. They’re right out of Window Maker! As for the database FS, it’s not a replacement for NTFS, but an extension of it. Luckily, Linux will have something like this in ReiserFS 4. Currently, the foundation of Reiser4 is going to be in kernel 2.6, and further functionality will be added over time. Check out the (highly nifty) design document at http://www.namesys.com/v4/v4.html
Ok I like XP but the interface they show is too cluttered. Can you say QNX? But not as sweet looking. Of course there is still 2 years to go…
BeOS doesn’t have a database filesystem. R3 did, however, in R4 it reverted back to a traditional filesystem with a number of optimisations. By R3, it was becoming more complicated than it was worth, and as a result, it was replaced.
ReiserFS, however, offers what Longhorn is promising, except one difference. It is here, TODAY. ReiserFS v4 will be released at the end of this year, which will be an interesting development (goto http://www.namesys.com for more info), including a new plugin interface that will allow security enhancements like ACL to be simply plugged in.
It looks UGLY, CHEAP and GROSS, and freaking messy.
If microsoft is soo “Revolutionary” Why can’t they make something “Revolutionary”
This looks like a cheap mix of MacOS X, Linux and BeOS! Damn if they are mixing 3 sweeties, at least mix em’ good!
You’ve been hit by…
You’ve been struck by….
Photoshop and a simple program called styleXP.
“Longhorn” jeez… that name is an insult to UT alumni everywhere. 😉
Guys, of course the interface looks crappy. It is alpha quality. Even Windows XP looks like crap and it is intended for public consumption. You’d think Microsoft could afford to hire some decent artists.
The only killer feature for me is the new filesystem. XP is nice, but I still can’t find all my stuff, which is one of the reasons I like BeOS so much. If MS offered that kind of functionality in XP right now, I honestly don’t think I’d ever upgrade my computer again. Well.. until it dies of course.
>>”Longhorn” jeez… that name is an insult to UT alumni everywhere. 😉
it was probaly created by vengeful aggies! 😉
I found the video to the screenshots.
You can download it here.
ftp://194.117.158.30/incoming/Longhorn/LH3683PreviewLong-WiNBETA.r…
..that sidebar is apparently also part of MSN 8. Saw pics of it over in last week’s USA TODAY, where they compared AOL 8 to MSN 8 (MSN won…).
Looks like a hoax to me, even Microsoft IMHO wouldn’t release something this ugly, even in Alpha form.
You are right, that does like the way QNX sets up its desktop. of course, with QNX you can’t put anything on the desktop.
What the heck is an “alumni”? When I went to university in New Zealand we didn’t have any of this “alumni” crap – aka, capa foofoo POS or something.
Sure, we had a “social club” which would pay for a piss up on Fridays, however, a “alumni”, what the hells up with that?
I don’t know if you were being weird in your post or what but an alumni is a graduate of a school.
Actually, there have been a great many good-looking themes created for Mac OS X, and utilities designed to easily swap them in and out.
Check out http://www.resexcellence.com. The “brushed Aqua” theme seems to be getting especially popular.
Windows longhorn????? I prefer my “old” BeOS
To Windows users: please visit
DOSNews.com – always news about DOS!
hahahahaha
Michael Vinícius de Oliveira
BlueEyedOS Webmaster
I’m not going to say it looks nice. Firstly, the colour scheme. I really really hope for Microsoft’s sake that this isn’t the default colour scheme. They should make the blue one as optional while the silver one the default. This is because, IMHO, silver looks much much more professional. Plus, it is easier on the eyes.
Then for Windows Explorer – what’s the big idea? Why take unnessacary space for eye candy – useless eye candy at that. On top of the folders and files is a picture (that looks nice, IMHO) saying my Documents and my Pictures. For My Pictures, at least up there there is some icons for some tasks, but what’s so wrong on putting them on the left?
Grrr….. that would probably be the first thing I would disable.
Then the panel – whose’s big idea was to put it on the right of the screen? It steals precious horizontal space. Maybe by time this thing is released, wide screens/ “cinema” would be common :-D. At least for BeOS when a window is maximized, only the top part is viewable. Plus, the clock (I think) is barely readable. OMG – what did Microsoft did? Hired the same people that designed eye candy for Mac OS X’s UI?
And the screenshots – which genius got the big idea of having such a high compression of JPG? Fast downloads, no doubt, but it truly make the screenshots really UGLY.
1) After seeing Bink’s screenshots, now I belive all those screenshots are true. Unless, of course, it’s all a big conspiracy and Bill Gates is really an hostile alien… where’s Mulder and Scully? 🙂
2) Hm. Looks real ugly. Too bluish. Too dark bluish for my taste.
3) Someone at Microsoft must decide: traditional taskbar or dockbar. The two at the same time on the same desktop is unbearable! You lose SO MUCH real estate on this.
People! It’s lie! This is not real pictures! It is fiction, artwork and way-to-make-money (see bottom of page).
Few monthes ago i seed “Longhorn screenshots” with ABSOLUTELY defferent interface. It was Stardock DesktopX theme.
I do not believe! How you can make screenshot of logon screen BEFORE any user logged in?
All these screenshots are fake
BlackTiger: Few monthes ago i seed “Longhorn screenshots” with ABSOLUTELY defferent interface. It was Stardock DesktopX theme.
Actually, later on the story was updated saying it isn’t Longhorn but a release in between Whistler and Longhorn.
BlackTiger: I do not believe! How you can make screenshot of logon screen BEFORE any user logged in?
Either by using VMware or Virtual PC, or other x86 emulators. You can boot it up in another installation of Windows (or Linux, in VMware’s case), and snap away. Later just crop out the rest of the alien screem and just take the Longhorn screenshots.
My guess is the screenshots are real.
Ugly. Cluttered. Clumsy. Loud.
I thought XP was bad enough. Yuk. OSX, Linux and AmigaOS4 here I come.
Again with the ALPHA with all the gui being hardware rendered with no glitches. I think / hope not.
however, could this have something to do with the MS beta site being hacked, all microsoft said was ‘binarys were downloaded of buggy programs’.
I still dont belive it
jon
I don’t know why you people don’t get the idea…
IT’S A FREAKING ALPHA!!!
Synonyme for test version, to test all sorts of stuff they might want to implement, it’s nowhere to what it’s supposed to get. The UI is just changed for whomevers sake, it’s NOT the final GUI.
And WFS is not going to be an extension of NTFS, it’ll be a replacement. Files are going to be sorted as blobs in the database, so how can it be an extension then??
‘sorted’ was meant to be ‘stored’
Super freak’n double Yawn!!!!!!!!!!!!
I care less and less about every new version
of Windows. They are a monopoly!!. I dont care
how much people complain about the way it looks.
99% of the planet is going to blindly use it anyway.
Why do they put ‘My’ in front of everything? Wouldn’t it be better to have a folder called “Documents” and another called “Pictures?” What’s the point of all the “Mys” everywhere!? Seems like a pain, because it’s harder to get a real alphabetizing… I’d automatically look under ‘P’ for pictures, but apparently now I have to look under ‘M’ – ugh.
Hmmm…..
Interesting indeed but as far as I can see little or no change. I have used many different GUIs and OSs in my time and not to sound trollish, I can see where Longhorn has stolen it from.
Multiple Desktops, Dock-like sidebar for the desktop (ala gkrellm), and the like.
Radically changing the UI design? How do we come to this conclusion? We are still basing around a “Start” menu, 3 button window (min, max, close). Still utilizes the Start Menu layout of Windows XP. We are still based around a taskbar and systray.
As a technician for Internet Access I have found that task-oriented menu-ing has failed to ease users around the system. Instead, I have customers that are more confused by them. Task-Oriented attemts to dumb down the interface by make it step by step when it should be a case making it point-blank. Human interface should not be a maze of questions or menus. It should be access.
In all honesty, the work is stolen with only a few touches here in there. It is using the basic designs pioneered by Apple and Xerox, extending them with X-Windowing features, and glossing them with graphics and task-orientation.
No matter how much gloss you put on, it is the same lips.
Looks like someone at Microsoft installed QNX and liked the way that it looked. This is not bad, as QNX has a great interface, probably the most intuitive and simple out there.
Although somewhat better worded.
All this Task oriented B.S. reminds me of is Wizards. They are Wizards.
So that begs the question
Who here likes Wizards? I don’t. I haven’t met anyone that does outside of a handful of M$ Word users. Mention Wizards to an Excel user and you’ll send them screaming for the razor blades.
<sacarsm> Yes, I’m like you. I make buying decission based on a dithered JPG screenshots of an alpha version. Yes, bring AmigaOS4 on!
I messed it! The link to the screen shoots is dead. Does anyone else know of any other links to it? I want to see it for myself.
I have it saved on my computer, I could email them, but I don’t know your email addy.
I’m not going to say it looks nice. Firstly, the colour scheme. I really really hope for Microsoft’s sake that this isn’t the default colour scheme. They should make the blue one as optional while the silver one the default. This is because, IMHO, silver looks much much more professional. Plus, it is easier on the eyes.
I don’t really care what the default is, as long as it can be changed. Similarly, I hope they include more default options for theme choices. My system doesn’t seem to react very well to most 3rd party theming programs, and most new options I’d like to see added to Explorer aren’t available in most of them anyway.
Then for Windows Explorer – what’s the big idea? Why take unnessacary space for eye candy – useless eye candy at that. On top of the folders and files is a picture (that looks nice, IMHO) saying my Documents and my Pictures. For My Pictures, at least up there there is some icons for some tasks, but what’s so wrong on putting them on the left?
I believe one of the shots had a bit of text on it that said it was a placeholder. That being said, if there are useful functions there, it could be a good use of space. There’s already a lot of stuff crammed into the left sidebar in WindowsXP, and I end up resizing my windows a lot to see the information at the bottom of that list.
Grrr….. that would probably be the first thing I would disable.
and hopefully (no reason to believe otherwise) you can do that.
Then the panel – whose’s big idea was to put it on the right of the screen? It steals precious horizontal space. Maybe by time this thing is released, wide screens/ “cinema” would be common :-D. At least for BeOS when a window is maximized, only the top part is viewable. Plus, the clock (I think) is barely readable. OMG – what did Microsoft did? Hired the same people that designed eye candy for Mac OS X’s UI?
The only problem there would be if you couldn’t move the panel elsewhere on the screen. Personally, I don’t think I’d mind it being on the right or left, once I got used to it, but then I don’t even have my start button on the bottom-left of my screen, either.
And the screenshots – which genius got the big idea of having such a high compression of JPG? Fast downloads, no doubt, but it truly make the screenshots really UGLY.
Bandwidth was probably their primary concern, and I get the feeling that their main purpose was to show the layout and design rather than the graphics, especially since most of the graphics probably aren’t finalized.
Why do they put ‘My’ in front of everything? Wouldn’t it be better to have a folder called “Documents” and another called “Pictures?” What’s the point of all the “Mys” everywhere!? Seems like a pain, because it’s harder to get a real alphabetizing… I’d automatically look under ‘P’ for pictures, but apparently now I have to look under ‘M’ – ugh.
Do you really spend enough time in listview in Documents and Settings$username and have enough directories in there (the default non-hidden directories there are Desktop, Favorites, My Documents, and Start Menu) that it’s really hard to find ‘My Documents’ because it’s not named Documents? I find it’s actually helpful in some areas of the operating system (when it lists “My Documents”, “user X’s documents”, and “user Y’s documents”, rather than “$usernameMy Documents” for users X, Y, and Z), but overall I just don’t worry about it much. The vast majority of the files on my system are nowhere near the documents folder. If some study MS did said that people preferred (or learned the system more quickly with) ‘My Documents’ to ‘Documents’, it’s such a minor thing to me that I’d prefer they use what works best for new users. Beyond that, I usually have a ‘documents’ shortcut at the base of each of my drive partitions that connects to the various ‘My Documents’ folders and other areas of my file system that I consider relevant (in other words, documents I might be looking for).
My this and My that always bothered me too. It simply never occured to me to assign myself ownership of things on computers I use, and I always wonder if anyone else does or it’s just some crackpot ‘usability’ thing MS came up with.