8 ms·

I recently got a windows 7 machine. Some things that bug me as a programmer using it, and make me wish I just paid up and got a mac: 1) WPF - I am trying to us

I recently got a windows 7 machine. Some things that bug me as a programmer using it, and make me wish I just paid up and got a mac: 1) WPF - I am trying to use this in my work life. It scares me when I hear your ex-product manager twittering that it's dead. I now feel like I should've done my app's front-end in qt or swing. 2) Will microsoft create in-built, tested, virtual desktop support already? More people use laptops that need it even more. I use virtuawin, but things just don't work elegantly. Mac OS X supports virtual desktops natively, and it works without a hitch. 3) The one thing I actually do like that comes out of microsoft are your office products. I think as people actually go paperless now, it's a good time to double down on investing in OneNote as a platform used across tablets, phones, and PC's. Also allow for one to sync it to say, their windows home server, and let one define tags to be whatever they want -- and you may have something that will make me committed to the platform. 4) It's 2010 and I still use cygwin or a virtual instance of linux just to have a console with the commands I want. Windows PowerShell came wayy too late for me to want to bother spending time learning it. Mac users don't have this problem. 5) Start defining some rules for say "windows experience" PC's. This can be an upper-tier for laptop makers to try and not be cheap. This comes from my frustration last april when trying to buy a new laptop. Go into any b&m store, look at the windows machines - feeling like cheap plastic, glossy screens, and meh build quality - then walk over to apple's corner. It's a night and day difference. There's high-quality PC laptops made (ex: lenovo T series, HP envy), but they're hard to find in stores, and are typically only found online. Microsoft needs to define some rules on what a great PC has, similar to what they're trying to do with windows phone 7.

Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
Agree about Office. While it's expensive it's still, for me at least, best of breed (except PowerPoint). If I were Microsoft I'd be looking to leverage Office more than Windows.
larsberg 16y ago
Lots of issues with #2, many of which you encounter on OSX. Immovable dialogs that pop up on one screen while the app is on the other, leaving the app disabled (this is my OSX nit with Spaces). Applications that aren't ready to be shifted offscreen. Applications that can't handle either a larger screen size (if you virtualize as a BIG screen) or the idea that they're not in the minimized state but are not visible. It's a giant mess. There were always good quality virtual desktop programs running around inside of MSFT written locally, but there was no way to get them up to ship quality when you considered the AppCompat issue. One thing I both admired and hated when I worked at MSFT is that Apple users are content to purchase updates for every piece of software they own when a new major version of the OS is released. Sidenote: I'm out of MSFT now and have been in a 100% Apple environment for my research for the last three years.
sqrt17 16y ago
ad 5): heartily agree. To make people stop thinking "cheap beige box loaded with crapware" when they hear Windows, MS should reinforce the "PCs at Mac pricepoint are just as nice as Macs" image. They did have a "recommend me a nice Windows notebook/desktop" page at some time, but it was kind of half-hearted and hard to find. For example, they could create some "Windows Experience" (i.e. solid usable box) and "Windows Ultimate Experience" (i.e., reassuringly expensive and stylish) badges for notebooks and desktops that: * have decent build quality and conform to current ergonomic standards (wrt. fan noise, panel brightness etc.) * don't include crapware (for some definition of software-that-the-user-doesn't-actually-want; maybe just something like "the OEM does not accept third party influence on the choice of applications", although most PC vendors include software that is simply superfluous.) * have enough RAM/bandwith/CPU to run the current version of MS office The "Ultimate Experience" could carry a further requirement to: * include a current version of MS Office (seriously!) and one of the reassuringly expensive versions of Windows 7 * have nicer-than-usual design and feel (i.e., Thinkpad-quality keyboard on notebooks, desktop PCs that are recognizable and don't look like a beige box).
- nl 16y ago
  For example, they could create some "Windows Experience" (i.e. solid usable box) and "Windows Ultimate Experience" (i.e., reassuringly expensive and stylish) badges for notebooks and desktops that Not MORE badges on a windows machine? I hate all those stickers and badges, and I'm not alone. See http://ipadtest.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/the-cancer-of-microsofts-tastlessness/ http://ipadtest.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/the-cancer-of-micro... for example.
rodh257 16y ago
What do you want microsoft to do about number 4? Appears to me that short of going back in time and making it sooner so you'll learn it, they can't do much now...
- seltzered 16y ago
  one pragmatic idea I had was to help support colinux efforts. There's been a lot of debate in that community over getting support for x64 revisions of windows.
- Zak 16y ago
  I suspect seltzered wants first-class user-level *nix compatibility. The fact that Cygwin exists demonstrates that something along those lines is practical.
ttrashh 16y ago
#1) I don't get this one. WPF/Xaml/Silverlight is the best thing to come out of Microsoft in years. I really can't imagine doing front end development in another tech. MossyBlog is full of shit. Who cares if Silverlight/WPF merge? Do you really think they would push Silverlight as the dev platform for their new phone OS if it was going to be replaced by html5?
- Lazlo_Nibble 16y ago
  Did any of their partners really think they'd push PlaysForSure as the DRM platform for Windows media if they were going to abandon it once they launched their own player hardware?
xpaulbettsx 16y ago
Re: #1 - WPF isn't going anywhere, and while WPF "in-name" might be frozen in the future, this API "paradigm" of Xaml + code (i.e. that WPF and Silverlight both follow) is huge inside Microsoft and is definitely here for the long run. WPF is definitely not dead.
- runjake 16y ago
  In fact, there seems to be a lot of initial interest and wonder regarding WPF amongst the public Windows development community. With Windows developers, you seem to have your small group of moving onto avante garde (for lack of a better term) Microsoft technologies, but most developers wait until long after the technology is mature before adopting it. This seems to be quite in contrast with the OSS world.

Tyrannosaurs 16y ago

Agree about Office. While it's expensive it's still, for me at least, best of breed (except PowerPoint). If I were Microsoft I'd be looking to leverage Office more than Windows.

larsberg 16y ago

Lots of issues with #2, many of which you encounter on OSX. Immovable dialogs that pop up on one screen while the app is on the other, leaving the app disabled (this is my OSX nit with Spaces). Applications that aren't ready to be shifted offscreen. Applications that can't handle either a larger screen size (if you virtualize as a BIG screen) or the idea that they're not in the minimized state but are not visible. It's a giant mess. There were always good quality virtual desktop programs running around inside of MSFT written locally, but there was no way to get them up to ship quality when you considered the AppCompat issue. One thing I both admired and hated when I worked at MSFT is that Apple users are content to purchase updates for every piece of software they own when a new major version of the OS is released. Sidenote: I'm out of MSFT now and have been in a 100% Apple environment for my research for the last three years.

sqrt17 16y ago

ad 5): heartily agree. To make people stop thinking "cheap beige box loaded with crapware" when they hear Windows, MS should reinforce the "PCs at Mac pricepoint are just as nice as Macs" image. They did have a "recommend me a nice Windows notebook/desktop" page at some time, but it was kind of half-hearted and hard to find. For example, they could create some "Windows Experience" (i.e. solid usable box) and "Windows Ultimate Experience" (i.e., reassuringly expensive and stylish) badges for notebooks and desktops that: * have decent build quality and conform to current ergonomic standards (wrt. fan noise, panel brightness etc.) * don't include crapware (for some definition of software-that-the-user-doesn't-actually-want; maybe just something like "the OEM does not accept third party influence on the choice of applications", although most PC vendors include software that is simply superfluous.) * have enough RAM/bandwith/CPU to run the current version of MS office The "Ultimate Experience" could carry a further requirement to: * include a current version of MS Office (seriously!) and one of the reassuringly expensive versions of Windows 7 * have nicer-than-usual design and feel (i.e., Thinkpad-quality keyboard on notebooks, desktop PCs that are recognizable and don't look like a beige box).

nl 16y ago
For example, they could create some "Windows Experience" (i.e. solid usable box) and "Windows Ultimate Experience" (i.e., reassuringly expensive and stylish) badges for notebooks and desktops that Not MORE badges on a windows machine? I hate all those stickers and badges, and I'm not alone. See http://ipadtest.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/the-cancer-of-microsofts-tastlessness/ http://ipadtest.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/the-cancer-of-micro... for example.

rodh257 16y ago

What do you want microsoft to do about number 4? Appears to me that short of going back in time and making it sooner so you'll learn it, they can't do much now...

seltzered 16y ago
one pragmatic idea I had was to help support colinux efforts. There's been a lot of debate in that community over getting support for x64 revisions of windows.
Zak 16y ago
I suspect seltzered wants first-class user-level *nix compatibility. The fact that Cygwin exists demonstrates that something along those lines is practical.

ttrashh 16y ago

#1) I don't get this one. WPF/Xaml/Silverlight is the best thing to come out of Microsoft in years. I really can't imagine doing front end development in another tech. MossyBlog is full of shit. Who cares if Silverlight/WPF merge? Do you really think they would push Silverlight as the dev platform for their new phone OS if it was going to be replaced by html5?

Lazlo_Nibble 16y ago
Did any of their partners really think they'd push PlaysForSure as the DRM platform for Windows media if they were going to abandon it once they launched their own player hardware?

xpaulbettsx 16y ago

Re: #1 - WPF isn't going anywhere, and while WPF "in-name" might be frozen in the future, this API "paradigm" of Xaml + code (i.e. that WPF and Silverlight both follow) is huge inside Microsoft and is definitely here for the long run. WPF is definitely not dead.

runjake 16y ago
In fact, there seems to be a lot of initial interest and wonder regarding WPF amongst the public Windows development community. With Windows developers, you seem to have your small group of moving onto avante garde (for lack of a better term) Microsoft technologies, but most developers wait until long after the technology is mature before adopting it. This seems to be quite in contrast with the OSS world.