5 ms·

Fifteen years ago, one of the Microsoft fanboy arguments against both Linux and LibreOffice (then OpenOffice.org) was that neither worked exactly like Windows /

Fifteen years ago, one of the Microsoft fanboy arguments against both Linux and LibreOffice (then OpenOffice.org) was that neither worked exactly like Windows / Office. Then Microsoft comes along and changes everything. The Ribbon instead of the pull down menus. Now which office suite works more like what users have used for a couple decades? Windows 8 comes along with a totally different UI. So different that ordinary users don't know how to do the most basic tasks like print, or even how to shut down the computer. Windows 8 UI (no matter what you call it) "fixes" things by adding back a start menu, but not calling it start. No search box in the start menu -- you just have to magically know that you can start typing. And magical key combinations to type in commands. IMO, it really is change for the sake of change. And generally change for the worse. The interface we had with classic Mac, and Win 95 was pretty usable. And stable. (Nevermind the underlying tech it ran on top of, no real kernel, etc.)

mgraczyk 7y ago
Fifteen years ago, Windows 95 was only 9 years old. I think changing something 9 years old over the course of 15 years is probably an acceptable speed.
- DannyB2 7y ago
  Why after 9 years don't we change from a steering wheel to a steering tiller. Marketing thinks it is the bestest idea. After 9 more years, let's change to steering pedals and use hand controls for acceleration and breaking. (pun) After 9 more years . . . Maybe you see a problem with this progression?
  - dpark 7y ago
    You might want to go look at some actual early cars. A lot of stuff that’s now standard was not for decades.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
wiseleo 7y ago
Office 2007 ribbon was a terrible release. I am an Office power user and I still have to dig through well hidden “advanced” dialog boxes that were previously exposed in the UI to do things that I remember Office was capable of doing. I still hate that change.
- bahrd 7y ago
  Weird thing to think about too was that it came out right as we were seeing 16x9 monitors become the standard. So you have more real estate on the sides but MS decides to just take a big old chunk of the top away on all of their Office products. I still haven't bothered to relearn all of the shortcuts since then either, used to be nice since you had the pull-down menus as a sort of training wheel.
- com2kid 7y ago
  > I still have to dig through well hidden “advanced” dialog boxes that were previously exposed in the UI to do things that I remember Office was capable of doing. The search button in Office apps is super useful. Type in a vague suggestion of what you want and it'll pop up a button for the appropriate feature! The ribbon is very nice for some things. It is meh for others. In Excel I'd argue it was a dramatic improvement. I remember spending forever digging through Excel menus trying to find out where some feature had been crammed in 10+ years prior before the concept of good UI even existed. The ribbon was a nice opportunity to reorganize things into more meaningful categories. But yeah, there are still some things I can never remember quite were they are at.
  - dan-robertson 7y ago
    The search feature is a good improvement. You see it used to various degrees in other complicated programs with lots of features (eg emacs, blender, even jira). It’s good because it can make things better for people looking for a function they don’t know and for advanced users looking for something they do know. And it provides a good intermediate level of speed between digging through menus and knowing the keyboard shortcut. On the other hand, the built in help system before 2007 or so worked out pretty well (maybe it was slightly dying by 2003. I remember the vba help worked well and maybe the rest didn’t work so well), whereas the help system in 2007 was completely awful and I think it was getting worse. I haven’t used office recently enough to know if they ever fixed it or if it was just replaced by incomplete documentation, google searches, and obscure forums.
tachyonbeam 7y ago
After not having used Windows for a couple of years, I installed Windows 8 on my old computer before giving said computer to my mom. Out of the box, Windows update was broken. Known bug, the fix for it was to download a patch, and the said patch, after being downloaded could only be installed with network access disabled (???). What garbage. How did Windows update ship broken out of the box? How did this pass quality control? I don't know how anyone can trust Microsoft and let themselves get sucked into their vendor lock-in.

mgraczyk 7y ago

Fifteen years ago, Windows 95 was only 9 years old. I think changing something 9 years old over the course of 15 years is probably an acceptable speed.

DannyB2 7y ago
Why after 9 years don't we change from a steering wheel to a steering tiller. Marketing thinks it is the bestest idea. After 9 more years, let's change to steering pedals and use hand controls for acceleration and breaking. (pun) After 9 more years . . . Maybe you see a problem with this progression?
- dpark 7y ago
  You might want to go look at some actual early cars. A lot of stuff that’s now standard was not for decades.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

wiseleo 7y ago

Office 2007 ribbon was a terrible release. I am an Office power user and I still have to dig through well hidden “advanced” dialog boxes that were previously exposed in the UI to do things that I remember Office was capable of doing. I still hate that change.

bahrd 7y ago
Weird thing to think about too was that it came out right as we were seeing 16x9 monitors become the standard. So you have more real estate on the sides but MS decides to just take a big old chunk of the top away on all of their Office products. I still haven't bothered to relearn all of the shortcuts since then either, used to be nice since you had the pull-down menus as a sort of training wheel.
com2kid 7y ago
> I still have to dig through well hidden “advanced” dialog boxes that were previously exposed in the UI to do things that I remember Office was capable of doing. The search button in Office apps is super useful. Type in a vague suggestion of what you want and it'll pop up a button for the appropriate feature! The ribbon is very nice for some things. It is meh for others. In Excel I'd argue it was a dramatic improvement. I remember spending forever digging through Excel menus trying to find out where some feature had been crammed in 10+ years prior before the concept of good UI even existed. The ribbon was a nice opportunity to reorganize things into more meaningful categories. But yeah, there are still some things I can never remember quite were they are at.
- dan-robertson 7y ago
  The search feature is a good improvement. You see it used to various degrees in other complicated programs with lots of features (eg emacs, blender, even jira). It’s good because it can make things better for people looking for a function they don’t know and for advanced users looking for something they do know. And it provides a good intermediate level of speed between digging through menus and knowing the keyboard shortcut. On the other hand, the built in help system before 2007 or so worked out pretty well (maybe it was slightly dying by 2003. I remember the vba help worked well and maybe the rest didn’t work so well), whereas the help system in 2007 was completely awful and I think it was getting worse. I haven’t used office recently enough to know if they ever fixed it or if it was just replaced by incomplete documentation, google searches, and obscure forums.

tachyonbeam 7y ago

After not having used Windows for a couple of years, I installed Windows 8 on my old computer before giving said computer to my mom. Out of the box, Windows update was broken. Known bug, the fix for it was to download a patch, and the said patch, after being downloaded could only be installed with network access disabled (???). What garbage. How did Windows update ship broken out of the box? How did this pass quality control? I don't know how anyone can trust Microsoft and let themselves get sucked into their vendor lock-in.