Although everyone is talking about Windows 7, few seem to understand what it means that Microsoft is pushing its Surface-like and iPhone-like UI for the next Windows. Here’s what it means: After several decades, the DEATH OF THE WIMP USER INTERFACE is at hand. (WIMP stands for Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointing devices.)
12:10 AM * PERMALINK * 11 comments
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Comments:
MS windows ... the end.
The mouse will stay. Multi-touch is fun and all for navigating in and interacting with a productivity or A/V environment, but when it comes to gaming, the mouse will still be the de facto point-click-boom tool. I'm sure that other tasks that require more precision and/or speed than multi-touch can offer will crop up. Still, regarding multi-touch, do want.
Not sure that I agree that the multi-touch interface will find the wide audience they hope. I believe the adoption of this UI will be gradual, like that of the pen-based tablets. It's simply far too flashy and impractical for many everyday tasks. And your finger is far less precise than a mouse.
A keyboard on a flat screen with no tactile feedback? I challenge you to buy this http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/ type all your articles for 6 months using it, and then tell me that keyboards are going away.
The laser device would simulate typing on a flat surface with no tactile feedback.
After six months, write another article telling us how Microsoft is correct in eliminating the keyboard.
How often do you find yourself doing anything in one of those 12 photos? Can't remember the last time I felt like finger painting on my computer...but if I did then yes MS7 would rock!
It would be like giving a surgeon a shuvvel for most office operations, as one above said, fingers are far less precise than a mouse. This is a fad, good for phones and simple UI's but bad for complex tasks and 8 hour days on the computer.
It would be nice if Micro$oft would just roll over and die though.
In your article you close by saying "The mouse will be gone forever".
So what are gamers to do? Can you imagine playing any 3D shooter without a mouse? I'm sure you could plug in a joystick or gamepad but most PC gamers swear by their mouse twitch abilities.
And how can you play a high-intensity, fast-paced game with your hands in the way all the time?
One more thing...
You say, "...reaching out and touching things is what comes naturally to humans."
But the whole idea of touching things is being able to feel them and distinguish the object via its properites (i.e. texture, temperature, size, etc.)
So what do you do when everything feels flat and glossy?
We require feedback from the items we manipulate in order to work with them properly.
This is why physical keyboards will continue to be the norm.
Microsoft should be spending its energies on a stable, attractive and easy-to-system, that is elegant and simple but powerful. WAIT, Apple has already done that, and many Linux distros are getting there way ahead of Microsoft. While I like the new filing system in Vista, I hate the way they screwed up the Control Panel, which was just fine under XP. Now it is convoluted and messed up. Look at the beauty in Apples Control Panel....
They saw it on Star Trek so it must be good.
"In the early 1980s, the conventional wisdom was that DOS's command line interface was faster, cleaner and generally better than that new-fangled, funky, slow "GUI" user interface" Er, references please? I'm old enough to remember that time, and my recollection is absolutely, totally, the opposite.
A non-tactile keyboard would be a nightmare for visually impaired users...
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