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Windows GUI – Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)

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Re: Windows GUI – Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)

#101

Post by tracker1 »

felixgallo wrote: post #73
speedgoose wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not web but react native.

Whatever product manager team decided to jump into React Native with both feet for the Windows experience needs to be ejected from the industry permanently. Think of how many thousands of human hours per day are now spent waiting on React Native jank, all in order to save the Windows developers from having to program in Windows using Microsoft products.

MS could/should have just made other XAML/MAUI options a better experience in general over the React Native thing... It might be different if they actually embrace web as a whole and at least gave a consistent UX, more like say WebOS or ChromeOS, but that's not what they're doing here.

What MS really needs to do is create a really long checklist of all the UI defained configurations and options, along with a connected list of all the relevant API interfaces they connect to... then come up with a consistent, complete and competent component library to do a ground up re-implementation of all the things in a consistent way.

This would, of course mean stabilizing the released version of windows to mostly bug fixes for a couple years while frantically generating and dog-fooding the new UX... starting with a re-revamped task manager, and launcher/file-picker. Just a bare desktop and a hotkey that opens task manager as the first and only UI elements then working out from there.

Re: Windows GUI – Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)

#103

Post by bbzylstra »

derleyici wrote: post #5

8 for Windows 11? An OS that includes ads in the Start menu, made with React. I'm not even mentioning right-click, which has basically two views: you open it and see some uselessly chosen tools, and you still need to open the old version (with the old design, breaking design consistency) to access actually useful things. Viva Windows XP!

You can use winutil to replace the new start menu with the old one. I think the option is in "advanced tweaks".

https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil

Re: Windows GUI – Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)

#105

Post by tracker1 »

wink wrote: post #59
dag11 wrote: post #32

I'm surprised nobody caught this, but both the screenshot for Windows 8.1 is not Windows 8.1, it's Windows Threshold, the development phase of Windows 10. The specific screenshot they show is the very first start menu they cobbled together for Threshold, which would later be redesigned again before shipping as Windows 10. The screenshot is also showing off early adaptations of Windows 8 apps running in movable window…

I am not surprised, from memory I only know like 3 people who ever willingly used 8.x. The active user base must be tiny compared to Windows 7 and 10 users (if we just stick to that range). I have personally not used it for more than an hour total (on anyone's PC combined) and I have (co-)owned and used at least one Windows PC continuously since 1995.

8.1 was slightly better, but most people I know that used it, used one of the start menu replacements that looked/felt more like Win7.

Re: Windows GUI – Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)

#106

Post by tracker1 »

SeanDav wrote: post #79

I hate the flat, borderless, barely visible scroll bar mess that is Windows 11. Just try to determine where one window starts and another ends with multiple overlapping windows open, especially in dark mode. Windows UI peaked at Windows 7 and has been steadily in a race to the bottom ever since. Windows 11 is going to be the final straw that prompts me to relegate it to a game playing or only-use-because-I-must secon…

Been pretty happy with the PopOS Cosmic series so far.

Re: Windows GUI – Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)

#107

Post by tracker1 »

neilalexander wrote: post #72
thefz wrote: post #22

I still consider Windows 2000's UI to be the peak of computer interfaces and nothing else has come close to its effectiveness and clarity for day to day work.

30 years ago, Microsoft was writing books that were hundreds of pages long detailing not just how to build effective and consistent user interfaces but also with explanations from user-centric research as to why those things mattered. Every user interface component carefully considered and rationalised, every reusable pattern carefully reinforced, all to build a desktop where interactive elements look interactive, sk…

I don't even mind WebView or otherwise flatter material design choices... but so many implementations fail at even that... If you actually read through the material design guidelines it makes a lot of sense. But then so many UI toolkits and programs that are allegedly following this are just plain not.

Performance issues aside that is.

Re: Windows GUI – Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)

#108

Post by tracker1 »

gainda wrote: post #78
cubefox wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This begs the general question: why were PCs (and monitors, keyboards, mice etc) always sold in ugly grey, for decades? Before they finally relented and switched to black?

not an expert, but i vaguely recall that certain colors can make plastics weaker - maybe it was the case here for a while until technology improved

More likely, people just don't give a damn if their keyboards only last a coupe years and buy a new one.

Re: Windows GUI – Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)

#109

Post by chasing0entropy »

dagmx wrote: post #96
wackget wrote: post #87

Giving Windows 11 the highest rating and XP one of the worst ratings clearly demonstrates that this author is not a serious person.

Just because you disagree , doesn’t mean that your opinion holds any weight over theirs. Especially because you’ve provided no rebuttal of substance, and resorted to name calling.

Windows 11 usability is garbage compared to Windows 10. Windows 10 already had multiple desktops, docking(which does need app to augment), sandboxing, and the start menu worked. Further win 10 does not gimp the OS if not activated, doesn't require an online account, and has an identical update mechanism to win11.

There is nothing superior or even functionally 'new' in Windows 11 besides compute burning eye candy and embedded backdoored encryption

If Windows 7 had multi core enhancement, driver downloading, and updated libraries it would still be a superior OS from a weight of resources perspective.

Re: Windows GUI – Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)

#110

Post by joenot443 »

wackget wrote: post #87

Giving Windows 11 the highest rating and XP one of the worst ratings clearly demonstrates that this author is not a serious person.

I don't think it's meant to be taken seriously, at all. It's a pretty unserious surface level critique of past GUIs based on 2025 standards. It's a bit like ranking the Coolest Looking Batman's - there's not really an honest metric outside of ones personal favorite.
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