Longhorn movies...

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Im not sure, but this looks familiar...



Longhorn movies



A threat?
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 36
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by T'hain Esh Kelch

    A threat?



    Personally, I don't feel threatened by a bunch of purposelessly floating windows.
  • Reply 2 of 36
    Ahahah, the windows "fluttering like a flag billowing in the wind" feature looks really tacky. Should make a lot of Microsoft fanboys giddy.
  • Reply 3 of 36
    flounderflounder Posts: 2,674member
    Plus, by the time it's out, we should be getting close to 10.4
  • Reply 4 of 36
    fawkesfawkes Posts: 80member
    Those are nice demos, but I didn't see anything there that represented any real improvement to usability.



    To be sure, OS X is loaded with eye candy--but it is generally used with at least some degree of purpose. The "genie effect", for example, is intended to give a clear indication of where a minimized window is going (to the dock, and to what location). The cube effect of fast user switching in Panther gives a very convincing illusion of one desktop being replaced by another. This list could go, of course.



    I'm sure that the technology demonstrated in those movies can also be used with similar purpose, but a flappy window certainly doesn't count! Most of what was shown falls into the catagory of, "wow, that's pretty cool, but what's the point?"
  • Reply 5 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Flounder

    Plus, by the time it's out, we should be getting close to 10.4



    More like 10.5-10.6, it seems. It's been pushed to 2005.
  • Reply 6 of 36
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    <Sarcasm>

    I don't know. Apple should look out. It may be a huge success in space.

    </Sarcasm>



    *Picturing 3 astronauts twirling in space reading an AIM chat.*





  • Reply 7 of 36
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Fawkes

    To be sure, OS X is loaded with eye candy--but it is generally used with at least some degree of purpose.



    Precisely. And what astonishes me is the degree to which Gates & co. simply don't get it. The appeal of Quartz is not that it can make windows flop around! Having been subjected to XP for the better part of a week now, I'm still not sure they've understood the point of a GUI. They really do seem to be stuck in an increasingly archaic mindset, where all this visual stuff is just fluff and eye candy.



    For all the hoo-hah about how PCs have become commoditized, Gates apparently can't understand the implications of that either, if his "Apple is now providing leadership in colors" statement is any indication. Bill, cars come in colors. Clothes come in colors. Frickin' coffeemakers come in colors. Welcome to the land of the commodity consumer product, where people like to be able to choose between options that suit their particular tastes, and even *gasp* their décor! He can't even seem to understand the idea that an interface should accomodate itself to the user. I suppose the problem is that the class of geeks who like nothing more than to jump in and fiddle with machines, unafraid of the danger of breaking them (because that's just another puzzle to solve!) should never, ever be in charge of building interfaces intended for average people.



    They don't understand that if most VCR clocks blink 12:00, it's the fault of the interface to the clocks. Ordinary people have been setting well-designed clocks and watches for centuries.



    MS is not alone, either. I remember when I first started reading Slashdot (before it was bought out) I noticed that Linux had become a refuge for DOS command-line jockeys who had been simmering with resentment at Microsoft for forcibly subjecting them to mice and icons and checkboxes. I wonder what they're doing now that almost every Linux boots into KDE or Gnome?
  • Reply 8 of 36
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    The filename of the last movie is "Dizzy.MOV". Who wants to their computer to make them dizzy? As the annoucer admits, these are better described as technology demos, rather than concepts for the Longhorn UI.
  • Reply 9 of 36
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Stoo

    The filename of the last movie is "Dizzy.MOV". Who wants to their computer to make them dizzy? As the annoucer admits, these are better described as technology demos, rather than concepts for the Longhorn UI.



    I smell CYA.



    I have a long record of actual use of Windows to fuel the thesis I posted above. Let's just say that when I saw windows wiggling around on screen, I wasn't the least bit surprised.



    One can only hope, for the sake of cubicle drones everywhere, that they do a better job of making use of that technology when they actually ship Longhorn.
  • Reply 10 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Amorph

    They don't understand that if most VCR clocks blink 12:00, it's the fault of the interface to the clocks. Ordinary people have been setting well-designed clocks and watches for centuries.



    Very nice way to put it!
  • Reply 11 of 36
    michaelbmichaelb Posts: 242member
    Yes, M$ just doesn't get usability, and the "blinking clock" analogy is an excellent one to describe the shortcomings of technology interfaces.



    Quartz Extreme ripoff movies aside, I thought the thread that mentioned the following link was a FAR more realistic demonstration of the Windows UI.

    http://www.deanliou.com/WinRG/WinRG.htm



    But the desktop manager movies did seem to draw a lot of oohs and ahhs from the crowd (or it could have been the geek girl with the sexy sounding voice?). So for the hell of it, why doesn't Apple make some technology demos that show, here and now, what can be done on a shipping OS...?



    I've seen the fishtank running on the desktop with the translucent terminal over it, how about something more?
  • Reply 12 of 36
    gargoylegargoyle Posts: 660member
    Those clips are just showing off microshafts implementation of quartz. I can see the first one (the flapping window) make it into the OS and a every day effect.



    I am sure windows users are all going "Ohhh" and "Ahhhh" cos its new. I still prefer to show my friends a quicktime move, then "accidentally" shift-click the minimise button.



    Now that we have matured a little with quartz extreme, we are getting stuff like exposé, while M$ still blunder with flapping windows. Which is the one feature I would like to see in longhorn.



    I really would!!!



    I think it perfectly reflects the stability of the OS...
  • Reply 13 of 36
    wjmoorewjmoore Posts: 210member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gargoyle

    I am sure windows users are all going "Ohhh" and "Ahhhh" cos its new. I still prefer to show my friends a quicktime move, then "accidentally" shift-click the minimise button.



    Anyone know why when I do that on my iMac (specs in sig image) it doesn't keep playing?



    WM
  • Reply 14 of 36
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    IMO, it's no big news for those of us using Mac OS X. Windows users should be happy to have Quartz-like technology available to them, but it won't make much of an impact on Macs or OS X by then, especially if they can't find better uses. I could see MS doing the old Copland spinning folder opening effect and stuff, but it will be interesting to see whether they can leverage the technology in ways Apple hasn't. As others have said, Apple will be shipping 10.4, maybe 10.5 by the time Longhorn appears. I'm more interested in seeing how divergent the two operating systems' treat the user than how much they show off their respective graphics engines.
  • Reply 15 of 36
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    I'm very impressed by the advances made on OSX, it does seem to get faster, or I am, at any rate, or perhaps my perceptions have been adjusted by RDF ??? Still, I really though that after 10.2 they wouldn't be able to eek any more significant speed out of OSX, but it seems that in a few key areas of Pather, that they have, Finder, Fast USer switching, PDF!! Impressive, Apple continues to make the most of hardware, to the benefit of current owners everywhere.



    The Cube in space, fast user switching effect, is straight out of some posts I made a while ago. There is an entire back pane to just about any window, that is not used. Apple did experiment with 3D desktops a LONG LONG time ago, think DOOM OS, but found the idiom to chaotic for users. It might be time to bring back some actual 3-D motifs, into the generally preferable 2-D desktop idiom.



    I saw the MS longhorn videos of a few months ago, they made no sense in terms of user benefit, Apple's QE tech rountinely does. A key difference.
  • Reply 16 of 36
    yevgenyyevgeny Posts: 1,148member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Matsu

    I saw the MS longhorn videos of a few months ago, they made no sense in terms of user benefit, Apple's QE tech rountinely does. A key difference.



    Speaking as one who looks at WinXP all day, I can say that MS puts on a nice show for their future GUIs, but when it comes time to ship, they ship out a pretty conservative product. The question is this: once they have hardware accelerated GUIs, what the heck are they going to do with it? My guess is not very much- if you think about the progression of windows GUIs, it is pretty easy to see that they aren't really going anywhere very quickly. MS has a tendency to ship very conservative GUI upgrades (how many shades of grey would you like in a GUI?). Most of XP's functinality increases came from a better start button and the ability to group x number of the same programs into a group in the task bar. That's right, a better start button and icon grouping were the primary GUI enhancements.



    I REALLY appreciate the boldness that Apple has in its GUI. Apple is willing to make changes where MS views the GUI as being "not borke" and so "not needing fixing". MS is really pathetic in this way. Fast user switching is intuitive, and best of all, fast. Expose is brilliant. Somebody at Apple needs a raise.



    Don't get me going on what a pain it is to program MS GUIs in MFC. Why can't these people make a decent SDK?
  • Reply 17 of 36
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Don't be too surprised if MS comes out with an Expose-alike (accent too tedious to make on my XP computer) by the time Longhorn ships.
  • Reply 18 of 36
    the cool gutthe cool gut Posts: 1,714member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BuonRotto

    Don't be too surprised if MS comes out with an Expose-alike (accent too tedious to make on my XP computer) by the time Longhorn ships.



    No doubt .... their probably still scrambling just to get the column view implemented in such a way that it won't bring the entire system down. As hard as they try, by only releasing OS updates every three years (along with hundreds of patches throughout the year), their not going to be able to keep up for long.
  • Reply 19 of 36
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    I saw the long(p)horn movies. I don't think they show more than what one can do with a computer. It would be interesting though to see MS implementation and applications of this technology.



    Apparently, Apple has a clear advantage, since OS X's display system is composited from day one, nearly one year ago the compositor is hardware accelerated and now we start seeing how this technology could improve the way a human can interact with a computer. I am curious to see where the competition from MS would push Apple in the year or years to come.
  • Reply 20 of 36
    costiquecostique Posts: 1,084member
    Actually, the flying windows concept is schizophrenia. Really. Hey, guys, look at me ? d'ya like how I can juggle my $4k notebook! If I am not mistaken, windows could be rotated in NextStep some 10 years ago, but somehow nobody tried to use this effect. Yes, I can toss and juggle my notebook if I don't know what else I can do with it.



    The main problem with GUI these days seems to be that the industry lacks a visionary. Those who made GUI like we use today seem to be out of business. Or their ideas have been overused. It doesn't take an artist or a user interface guru to draw flying windows. That's exactly what I thought when I first saw the genie effect movie.



    And we can mock Microsoft and Bill Gates for ever; it's just a pity that they cannot create anything new. The progress in GUI has ultimately stalled.
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