unity-design team mailing list archive

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Ed Lin wrote on 06/06/11 22:46:
>...
> Windows 8:
> They too struggle to come up with an interface that works both for
> small touch screens and the more and more often as "legacy" labeled
> desktop experience. Their solution for now doesn't strike me as very
> elegant but one thing they did get right: There is one single OS for
> every form factor and every architecture (though that doesn't say
> anything about their licensing and version madness...)

I don't understand why you think a single OS for multiple form factors
counts as getting something right. The success of iOS, Mac OS X, and
Android strongly suggests otherwise.

> There is a lot more to say about their hardware and partner
> "strategies" which are interesting for Canonical but I'll just mention
> two little interface details that are worth taking note of:
> You know the windows snap feature, in Win8 you can resize both windows
> with a single handler. A pretty obvious feature which would be nice
> having.

That would be nice, yes.

>...
> OS X Lion:
>...
> Menu bar: Not only do full screen apps, launchpad, time
> machine/versions and mission control view have no top menu bar, I
> think it's telling that the menu bar wasn't used or mentioned in the
> video a single time. Every day activities all can be accomplished by
> gestures, obvious interface controls and universal drag and drop. It's
> becoming apparent that the menu bar is "legacy" for Apple who too are
> converging their desktop and touch experiences. It stays relevant for
> their Pro line of apps, Adobe CS, Office suites (not including iWork?)

iWork for Mac uses menus heavily. That's one of the reasons iWork for
iPad has fewer features: there are fewer places to put them.

> but for the usual consumer applications it's no longer needed. For
> example I went through the small menu of the new App store, it's just
> fall back entries, not a single function that isn't exposed more
> logically and simple in the interface directly.

The App Store is not a typical application. First it is extremely
simple, and second it is based on the Web page model where people scroll
to access not just content but functions too. For example, you need to
scroll to the bottom of a page in the App Store to change the country.
In a typical application, analogous functions are typically menu items
instead (e.g. "Tools" > "Language" in LibreOffice).

>...
> In terms of individual features: auto save and versions is a must have
> ;) Windows has versioning too btw, it's only lacking a nice GUI (big
> surprise). btrfs is already available for the adventurous, would be
> nice to see some frontends with this level of integration and ease of
> use as time machine in OS X (time machine works on the file manager
> level but also works with individual files and even mail and iphoto
> for example, all you have to do is click on the icon in the dock).

I am both amused and disheartened when people assume that emulating Time
Machine or Versions is a matter of putting a "frontend" on btrfs. btrfs
is neither necessary nor sufficient for that. It is not necessary,
because Time Machine and Versions are implemented using basically the
same HFS+ filesystem that Mac OS has been using since 1998. And it is
not sufficient, because for both features the hard part, 90 percent of
the work, is the user interface and the application APIs.

> On another note: "Launchpad". Sue them! :P

The logo is really similar to Launchpad's old logo, too.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060611133645/https://launchpad.net/

- -- 
mpt
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