Windows 7 GUI –To Be or Not To Be

There appears to be a large flap over the proposed changes to the Windows user interface, as evidenced by the spirited debate ( and much kvelling by Mac OS X fans). MaryJo Foley, over at ZDNet, gave readers a chance to post their opinions, and, other than the group who would complain if you hung them with a new rope, feel into the love it or hate it camps.

Only having seen small glimpses of the interface, I must say I don’t like what I see, but then I don’t like Vista either. I look at Vista and say if this is a Microsoft attempt at being more like OS X, the interface designers in Redmond need a trip to Lensmasters(tm).

Among the complaints by some are the loss of the familiar, like the ability to right click. This is one place where Windows was ahead of Apple from the start. After all, Apple only recently found out that a mouse could have more than one button.

The problem appears to be that Microsoft thinks that there must be large change to the interface, to get people to perceive enough change to propel an upgrade. For me, nothing could be further from the truth. I would simply like the new software to use newer hardware to its fullest, while allowing older hardware to work along side the new.

For me, a problem with Windows, since 3.1, has been the way that certain things can be done several ways. This leads to confusion for some, and a restriction to one way to do each thing would be much better. Also, putting things together in a logical manner would be very good. Lately, what goes into, and comes out of, the Control Panel has been rather haphazard.

In a push for touch (I’m guessing here) screen usage, the icons all are getting bigger and bigger. This makes the screen real estate advantage of the 17”, 19”, and larger LCDs go away. The point is to get more on the screen, not the same, or less. Not everyone has multiple monitors, or wants them. It also, for me, leads to a cartoonish feel, like it was designed for 4 year old children. Perhaps there should be a setup choice, when the system recognizes that a touch screen is available, to increase the icon sizes, but otherwise returns to the sizes found in Windows 2000 – or better yet, asks the user to choose from 3 sizes, shown as the setup progresses.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, until someone listens and acknowledges, that OS/2 had the best, most intuitive, and useful GUI of any operating system I’ve ever used. I don’t know why it has not been copied in Windows, as Microsoft supposedly still owns a part of it. Programmers used phrases like object inheritance as part of the description, but no matter the language used, the usefulness was undeniable. Things could be done that were simply not available in the Mac OS or Windows. (This leads some to write me and say that OS/2 had this or that limitation, and how much better Windows XP is, for whatever reason – and they are right. OS/2 was never intended to be used with the memory and CPUs of today, but the Workplace Shell was fantastic!)

The Workplace shell needs to be grafted onto the innards of Vista – now that would be progress! (are you listening Mssrs Ozzie and Ballmer?)

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There is always time for failure.John Mortimer