Windows sucks

[figmo]

I had to say it. This isn't a "religious" thing; it's a post from someone who is frustrated at all the crap she has to run to keep her system from getting invaded by stuff.

People keep saying Macs are more expensive, but when you add the maintenance costs to the Windows boxes and note that the Mac will be useful for a longer period of time, Macs turn out to be cheaper.

I just wish Adobe would effing port FrameMaker to MacOSX or Linux so I wouldn't have to run Windows at all.

I now go back to making my systems usable so I can get back to work. :-(

Comments

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

Windows doesn't necessarily suck. Just the version you're using. ;-)

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I'll bite. Which version of Windows doesn't suck? Please don't tell me "Vista," because I know better.

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

Win 7!

And that's about all I'll say in a public forum.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Obviously you can't answer this (NDAs and such), but as a longtime Windows user I am finding the Vista-like changes to MS Office frustrating because I can no longer keystroke many commands (I avoid using the mouse whenever possible because I like to avoid repetetive motion injuries). The most frustrating one I can no longer keystroke is the one in MS Word where you do a Paste Special. It used to be "Alt-E S" followed by whichever format (or non-format) I wanted. Now I can't do that, and it slows me down BIG TIME when I have to use MS Word.

If somehow you can get feedback to The Powers That be that some of us don't like to do everything with a mouse and would like to be able to keystroke everything, I'd really appreciate that.

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

There was a TON of rigorous, triangulated user research done on the 2007 ribbon design. So given that knowledge I think it's unlikely they'd miss something *that* big. Do you just mean that you want to be able to Paste Special without using a mouse?

That's Control-Alt-V now. Or am I misunderstanding?

A good list is at:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP101476261033.aspx

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Office pointer; I wish I could have found that in the UI.

As for the "TON of rigorous, triangulated user research," they didn't ask me for my input, and they certainly didn't ask the other tech writers I've spoken to who find the new interface frustrating.

It'd have been nice to have an option to go back to the old UI.

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

I'd invite you to get acquainted with the design & research process that supported the design change and to see if you still feel the same way:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2008/03/12/the-story-of-the-ribbon.aspx

Personally I think it's among the best-designed and researched interfaces ever implemented given the set of constraints and diverse audience expectations. So I'm probably not the right person to complain to.