Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

Four ways I know of.

1. Use the column view so you can see every folder you've navigated through. (My preference)

2. Right click on the title bar's label.

3. Use the path button on the toolbar.

4. Use the back button (Yeah, it's not always up)

If the toolbar is missing, click the white button at the top right of the window to return to a regular Finder window.

:) That said, none of those are exactly obvious which is a recurring problem with OSX. About the only thing OSX gets right in that category is that almost everything behaves the same so you don't have to figure it out twice. For example, open a document in textedit, you can right click on the title and get the folder tree the file exists in.

While this may not end up being the greatest of reasons, a lot of my classmates shy away from .NET languages/MSFT technologies because they're more difficult to develop in Linux. Getting rid of that complaint would be super awesome.

Bonus points for not moving the configuration screens around.

Things that have changed with explorer: less space for content, caused by adding not-so-useful toolbars, folders tree replaced by "selected" or "favourites" pane, "easy mode" tree navigation that prevents opening more than one branch at the same time, default to "libraries" in Windows 7, default to views other than detail, sometimes very difficult to change, hiding file extensions, folder redirection... Most of the changes can be reverted touching some registry or configuration setting, but it's increasingly difficult and time consuming, and sometimes impossible.

I guess the changes are intended for new users, but it would be very welcomed to have a "classic mode" switch somewhere. Usability is important, but please consider that old users have different usability requirements. For me Windows is less and less usable with each version.

About the config dialogs, I've recently had to make a novice user to change the DHCP settings for Windows 7 over the phone. It wasn't an easy task.

2. You know that buzz that Apple and Google have? When was the last time you heard anyone who doesn't work there say the same thing about Microsoft? Your mindshare is a dead stinking corpse in the middle the street that no one cares about.

3. Get smaller and get faster. Mozilla updates every couple of months and its like a party. Safari updates whenever Apple feels like it (which is still faster than you guys). Chrome updates whenever they take their ritalin. They all update faster than you guys. You've got 40 million programmers up there and this is the best you can do?

4. Other platforms exist. At a minimum, your browser should be on them (see point 1 first, though). Us Mac users thank you and curse you (well, I do, anyway) for allowing to have Office. Now go do the same for Linux.