Re: Windows 2001 Sneak Peek

Ben Black (black@layer8.net)
Sat, 27 Feb 1999 22:21:12 -0800


On Thu, Feb 25, 1999 at 09:46:31PM -0500, John R Chang wrote:
> you would copy a file or print a document. Presumably with big buttons
> and intelligent wizards...
>

And sexy chicks named Lily Wong, apparently. Porn sells, I'm waiting for
the Windows2000 Ron Jeremy GUI (gooey?).

> But frankly, Neptune scares me. It demonstrates their deep
> understanding of the market, as well as their relentless pursuit of a
> given goal. It clearly passes the "Mom test." Perhaps their
> condescending "the user is dumb" assumption is actually the best way to
> approach the problem?
>

The problem up to now has been smart people designed the interfaces, just
as smart people designed the software underneath. Microsoft is a major
innovator, so they totally discarded that model.

To be honest, I don't think the desktop metaphor is all that great. I
believe it is as outdated as hierarchical filesystems. You should be
scared not because Microsoft is dumbing down the interface, but because
it might actually be doing something original, for a change.

That scares me.

-- 
 --b

This time my name is Ben.