Posted on 06/04/2009 2:25:23 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Has Microsoft, after more than 20 years of work, finally come up with an operating system that rivals the Mac OS? Are the two just different flavors of the same GUI?
Hadley Stern, writing for Apple Matters, thinks this might be the case.
It may have taken Microsoft 20 odd years to figure this one out but there is some pretty big news on the horizon. Of course the market-share battle is lost for Apple, although it continues to chip away here and there. But the innovation-share battle continues. And the big big big news:
Windows 7 Doesn’t Really Suck
…
Unless Apple is hiding something very very very big with Snow Leopard Apple is about to lose the high-ground (and bullying rights) when it comes to its operating system. The blunders of Vista were easy to pick at, picking on Windows 7 will be nitpicking at best, stupidity at worst. For all intents and purposes Snow Leopard and Windows 7 are two flavors of the same GUI.
I’m not so sure. Why?
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.zdnet.com ...
Somebody needs to get out more. What an absurd bit of “logic.”
After all of these years it looks like MS has gotten it right. It's about time.
I'm playing with linux these days anyway but that's because I'm an OS geek. That and I can't afford to be anything but cheap, so free apps are good apps.
Yeah, I could. But it's also the case when I am browsing or watching other videos.
If you had a Mac that feature is built into the OS :)
Oh, sure. Twist it a little. Sheesh!
Hello, Ray!
My 15 inch HP monitor stopped working a few months ago, so I purchased a new 17 inch HP monitor. The font is (was) smaller than I liked, but I didn’t know how to fix the problem.....everything I tried didn’t work.
Just now, after seeing your post, I held down the control button and scrolled down with the mouse, and the fonts became larger!
A big thank-you to you, Ray, from Greg on the coast of Maine.
What’s wrong with the Start Menu?
Sure, if you have the time and the energy. It took me almost a week to get Mint running and connected to my wireless router. Every MS PC connected in seconds.
I am not sticking up for Windows or putting down Linux but how do you even know which version of Linux to pick? And, once you get it installed how the hell do you find the drivers for every piece of hardware?
It's gotten better but it still reminds me of Windows 3.1 and DOS days.
That's why I love these PC threads here on FR. You find things out all the time.
You are quite welcome for the serendipitous help.
Windows 7 actually works really well. The 64 big implementation really performs.
I have had many more problems with Apple products than I have had with Microsoft.
Windows 7 actually rocks.
That feature is NOT built into the OS.
What is built into OSX is a screen zoom feature. What raybbr is talking about is the quick change of the fonts in Firefox.
Yes, you can use the zoom feature to zoom in on a flash section of a page and view the video bigger, however if you want to see any of the text on the page, you will have to move the mouse around. The zoom feature works like a big magnifying glass, and trying to read with it makes my head hurt.
LOL...yeah right.
What I really want is the "Flash screen" I am viewing to increase in size as well. Is that possible in Firefox?
Yes, but his video will be magnified — unlike in FireFox. That was the point I was addressing, not reading the text. Which is why I suggested changing video resolutions. I misinterpreted what his intent was.
Definitely. It's a throwback to the days of computer clubs and people whose primary interest was in making the machines run. You have to be someone interested in the OS in and of itself.
Desktop linux is still the domain of enthusiasts - just like DOS was. It can be packaged to use by the corporate desktop user, but I think one really has to thoroughly wring out the cost benefit analysis. I've read a lot, but I still don't think it's worth it.
Yeah I have a pile of iPods (about 10 last count) that have stopped working.
I have a $6000 g4 notebook that stopped working.
We no longer use that virus like solution called iTunes...I don’t even want to talk about how many music files we had to purchase over again because of the glitches in their licensing technology. Yeah I am one of those idiots that actually buys their music.
So when I add it all up Apple pretty much sucks with long-term quality and their service is the worst in the industry.
Note to self: never stand next to surfer during a thunderstorm.
It’s a lazy design meant for the days when people would only install a few applications. In 2009, people install dozens if not hundreds of applications, so its concept of using a list view of folders which requires the user to read through a long block of text is archaic. A better design would be to create a sort of “Applications” button in the taskbar which would then pop up a view similar to OS X’s Stacks grid view, where the user is presented with an array of large icons. Visual association is more intuitive than a list view of text.
The Start menu also means that the Windows interface itself is centered around a descending hierarchy of menus. If you want to perform any configuration or alteration to the system settings, you generally have to go through the Start menu, and about 15 other submenus before you arrive at the setting you want. These submenus are navigated primarily through the reading of text rather than large icons which plainly convey the option they represent. (The Control Panel has semi-large icons, but their meanings are not plainly obvious.) In an era of high-resolution displays, Windows’ stubborn reliance on text explanation rather than visual cues is going to cause even more headaches, literal and figurative.
Windows 7 at least fixes taskbar clutter through menu grouping centered around large icons in the taskbar, but it’s like putting a bandage on a cannon shell wound.
And for several years I've been wondering why my monitor's fonts were so unstable! Now I know the restof the story...
With that sort of a failure rate, you really should elaborate on what happened. Otherwise, PEBKAC.
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