Microsoft "Longhorn" Discussion

Sorry for linking other boards, but http://funmac.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3259&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

There are pictures of the leaked .. (??) version of alfa (??) of Longhorn. I don't want to copy those pictures and post them here or host those pics anywhere. M$ are normally slow so that thread may be there for a few days before it gets down.

What do you think? A lot looks copied from you know where as always. It does not look invitating, so as I've so far avoided touching an XP, I try not to touch longhorn either after XP.

How does that Longhorn look to you?
 
actually, to be quite honest, i am liking the way those shots look

the previous all blue, that was gross, but this, this is alot better and i have no shame in admitting i like it :)
 
Why do you take any conclusion about a pre-beta version of something that will be available on the market in 2005-2006 ? All chances are that the interface will be completly rewritten by the time it is made available, taking advantage of the then current video cards and CPUs.

Comapring a beta with existing software is not useful, and it's not fair, neither for the existing software, nor for the beta.
 
If it wasn't for the longhorn name I could never tell it wasn't XP. Besides that I am relived it's not a clone of OS X
 
Hate to be the one to say it Ricky, but..
I don't get it.
What is it that is supposed to be showing us or them, how much MS sucks?
Sure it looks uber-crap, but it looks like a grey version of the actual thing to me..
Making something grey doesnt prove its crap. Make OSX look all grey and it would be crap too..
 
LongHorn is a long way home :p for the Wintel/Amd people around here and so far an ugly one :rolleyes:

Back to serious self: I think all those stuff are SO early to judge if they suck or blow but one thing is for sure: By then, Apple will offer us something a lot better than that :p :D

:)

Jason? What do you like there? Of course it may look better than the all blue stuff but still it is uglier than Windows 95 GUI :eek: Shame on you! ;)
 
The "new" (anything after 2000) windows UIs seam to be like crappy webpages using way too much javascript, squished into a desktop environment...
 
Yep. It's really just a skin slapped onto the Window GUI, which of course costs some processor/graphics card time. But then I guess it's more compatible than really creating a new GUI with new widgets etc. Well, it's not really our problem. Unless they _really_ go Brushed Metal. :p
 
hulkaros said:
Jason? What do you like there? Of course it may look better than the all blue stuff but still it is uglier than Windows 95 GUI :eek: Shame on you! ;)
Click to expand...

well lets start with this, first off, the way something looks is a completely subjective matter.

second, this looks many times better than win95, its like saying os8 looks better than panther, and i'm sure you would agree with that.

third, how do you know what apple is going to have by the time longhorn launches, or even better, what the final longhorn is going to look like?

some of the bias around here is astonishing, throw out common sense just to say "mac is good!"

geez people, its an operating system, they do the same thing different ways, they are both getting better over time, and thats a fact.
 
Hmm... Jason: It's not completely subjective. Taste is not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of whether you've got any. :p

Without turning this into a subversive discussion about UI-design repeating all the basics that we've talked about every so often... There's a simplicity in both the Win95 UI (used in Win 95, 98, NT 4, Me, 2000) and the Classic Mac OS that the newer iterations (i.e. XPs Fisher Price and Apple's Aqua/NewAqua & Brushed Metal) do not achieve. All the newer UI-designs make use of newer technologies like Alpha Channels etc. (transparency, shadowing). Some do that more efficiently, others less, but they all do to some extent. The question, however, is, whether there ever was a need to do so at all.

I'd personally say that in some places, it made sense. I've gotten used to Aqua's very extensive use of shadows, transparency etc., but it kinda impresses me now when I look at the clarity of a system running, say, Mac OS 8.0.
 
Somebody asked at the beginning of this thread about reason why MS are waiting so long till the next release, I think it has something to do with the recent monopoly rulings against them. They aren't free from those until 2005/6 or something. I agree with Jason that some balance of common sense should be maintained but the fact is that MS have been found guilty after an unbelievable legal struggle to prove what everybody knows. Depending on what area you earn a living in, I suppose you could claim that Windows is sh**. My brother is a Java programmer and spends hours cursing XP, I'm a teacher and spend hours cursing XP for constant hassle. I genuinely belive that Windows IS sh**, at least in the area that I have experience with! Sweeping statements like these are dangerous and often ignorant if you don't have direct experience to back it up. I'm sure that there are areas that XP excels in but I must say that my own time spent with it has been difficult to say the least. For the first time ever, the school has had to engage the services of an outside technician to service the 24 computers that we have. They are all within 8 months old and run XP. They cost the school a fortune and are proving difficult to maintain. Nothing exotic is added to them, they are not even networked! They just seem to give more trouble than the teaching staff have time to fix.
 
im not at all impressed with those pics :)


im only sure about thing though: (actually 2)
the DOCK and Expose are one of the most user-friendly/cool/amazing/fantastic/breath-taking features on an OS and their both on Panther :) ta ta ..
 
Surely the Judge didnt just say "you can't be a monopoly for um.... 4 YEARS!"
That's crazy.
 
:confused:

Jason:
"some of the bias around here is astonishing, throw out common sense just to say "mac is good!""

Where you talking to yourself? :p

Jason:
"third, how do you know what apple is going to have by the time longhorn launches, or even better, what the final longhorn is going to look like?"

As I posted before:
"...I think all those stuff are SO early to judge if they suck or blow..."
Which basically means that I don't know how LongHorn may end up! :rolleyes:

Anyways, I cannot argue with you anymore on this subject because in reality there is no subject to argue about: We are talking about Vaporware here PLUS I am a Mac head strong and you like to believe for yourself that you are open minded and unbiased and this and that but CLEARLY in the majority of your posts you seem to be more of a Wintel/Amd lover :rolleyes:
 
Or later. No specific date has been chosen. Only the term 'years' instead of 'months' has been used, and a (public?) beta is expected for Summer 2004. MS also urges people to use the PDC (latest) build only on _powerful_ machines, because it's heavily unoptimized code. It's more a technical demonstration than even an alpha version right now.

However much we hate Microsoft, I think they're doing the right thing by taking their time with the next big version of Windows. We all know that it's definitely needed in order to squash enough bugs and bring enough _good_ new features. WinFS, for example, sounds interesting. The look will probably change over time (as it has with Whistler compared to the final version of Windows XP), so we shouldn't debate too much about it just yet.

Even as a Mac head, I must admit that I _hope_ that Longhorn will be a _good_ thing. I also hope that the time until Longhorn will help Apple and Linux to grab some market share, of course, but overall, we're better off as people of the world, if all operating systems are improved over time, aren't we?

I'm still hoping that some day, we'll see statistics that give Windows (all versions) about 50% market share, Linux 20%, Mac OS 20% and 10% of 'others'. Then we could finally talk about easier cross-platform application development and would maybe end up with viable solutions. Right now, a switch between operating systems is much too expensive for me. Only imagining having to buy all those software licenses AGAIN... Most app-developers don't offer cross-platform upgrades, for example. Wouldn't it be great if an Adobe CS license would enable you to use the software on _whatever_ platform you want to work? (Of course you would only be allowed to use it on one at a time...) Now if the apps would run on all of the platforms (including Linux), that would be just dandy. ;-) One can dream...
 
hulkaros said:
you like to believe for yourself that you are open minded and unbiased and this and that but CLEARLY in the majority of your posts you seem to be more of a Wintel/Amd lover :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Let me do a computer check list here.

Apple Stuff:

800mhz G4
800mhz iBook
iPod
iSight

PC Stuff:

Does Virtual PC count? :p

Um yeah, i'm a wintel only lover... seeing how i dont even own one currently :confused:
 
When a mac user likes the new look of Longhorn or he says something positive about Windows/Microsoft, then he's a Wintel lover? I think that's some stupid thought from a macfreak. "Don't say anything positive about MS, because you aren't 'cool' then!"... :confused:
 
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