atw: OT: Microsoft and usability
- From: Craig Hadden <craig_john_hadden@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: atw <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 12:14:18 +1000 (EST)
Slow as I am, it's just occurred to me that one thing
that's important to me (and that I do a lot) is
challenge conventional wisdom. (Some people might
express that habit of mine differently!)
Anyway, it's according to that habit that I wrote this
message, which relates to an aspect of conventional
wisdom regarding usability -- an area relevant to many
TCs, of course.
In many people's books, conventional wisdom (CW) says
that Microsoft is inherently evil (unlike all other
big company, it seems) and should be bashed at will.
CW also says that Macs are inherently easy to use.
Well, I recently came across an article about Windows
and Mac OS X:
> [On a Mac:] You want to listen to music? Load iTunes
> first. You have to know which app to use before you
> can do anything. To an accomplished Mac user, this
> is second nature, and that's why so many [Mac users]
> ...wonder if I'm brain-damaged
I strongly identify with the article: having very
seldom used Macs, I find them difficult to use just
because they're so unfamiliar.
Naturally, someone new to Windows would have problems
too, but the article argues that the Windows UI is
easier to learn:
> When you select a photo file in XP's Explorer, for
> example, the task pane changes to show options
> related to pictures.
The article is at:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/longhorn_task-based_ui.asp
An older but longer comparison by the same author is
at:
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/windowsxp_osx.asp
It says:
> what [Apple] really does well is digital media.
> ...Windows XP includes Windows Movie Maker,
> but it's sort of a joke
> The classic view of Microsoft and Apple is that
> Apple innovates (they do) and Microsoft copies (they
> did). But today, the roles are somewhat reversed.
Both articles are quite old, so it may be that they're
out of date, but I thought they gave food for thought.
Regards,
Craig
===== My e-mail address is:
===== craigh(at)attachesoftware(dot)com
===== (I may not see messages sent to my Yahoo address)
Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com
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