Forgive me, for I have sinned.

[Laukev7]

I was bored, and having tried out all the major x86 OSes, I installed an alpha version of Microsoft Longhorn, just to see what it looks like. Well, I must say, I am astonished.

Astonished by how Microsoft would make such a ridiculously huge, bloated and complicated system in the apparent goal to make it EASIER TO USE.

It's so bloated and full of useless baubles and oversized icons that everything feels cramped. Picture this: a huge bar on the right (copied from QNX) with superfluous applets, that takes a quarter of the screen, an enormous start menu which takes nearly half the screen, with needless entries. Not to mention that everything is virtually undistinguishable, because everything is the same colour! The Plex theme is even worse than Luna!

Microsoft is hyping about how users will be able to find stuff more easily with Longhorn. Yet, everything is very badly organised. Why do you need a control panel entry AND a Hardware entry AND a Printer entry in the menu? Shouldn't 'My documents, My music, My videos' belong in 'My computer'?? And what's with 'Game Libraries'??? Why do you need a search entry in the menu AND the  sidebar AND the control panel AND the Explorer toolbar AND 'My computer'? And WTF is 'Download manager' in the control panel???

The search system is laughable. 'Filter by file system, floppy, harddrive or CD drive'?. What use is that? Why not just search on the medium after clicking on its icon? And you may also have noticed that the round shape of the search fields is blatantly copied on iTunes.

Of course, all the configuration panels are STILL full of useless options and features. Nothing whatsoever has been simplified, only rearranged in flashy, different ways. It's like adding yet another layer of makeup to a wrinkled woman's face.

I know this is an alpha, but... we're talking common sense here!

[ July 12, 2003: Message edited by: Laukev7 ]

[cahult]

Do you have a screenshot so we all can feel like puking?

[jasonlane]

Laukev7 man, I expected more from you!        

Oh never mind, go here then:

You sinner

then here

feel better?

Screen shots would good for a laugh      

[ July 12, 2003: Message edited by: Zardoz ]

[ July 12, 2003: Message edited by: Zardoz ]

[Fett101]

Have you considered changing the theme and turning off the big ass sidebar?

[mobrien_12]

quote:Originally posted by Laukev7:
The search system is laughable. 'Filter by file system, floppy, harddrive or CD drive'?. What use is that? Why not just search on the medium after clicking on its icon?

 July 12, 2003: Message edited by: Laukev7 ]

This is, I believe, because MS wants to get rid of the traditional file system concept and replace it with a relational database....

More stupid stuff.

[Laukev7]

Screenshots pending. Please stand by...

(Oh, did I mention that Longhorn is crawling on my 1 GHz Pentium 3 PC?)

[Stryker]

Where did u download it from? I hear all this talk but have seen it nowhere.

[Laukev7]

eMule. By the way, the screenshots are coming soon. I am having problems sending the screenshots to my Geocities webhost (which is no wonder, given the system I'm using!)

Edit: OK, here goes.

http://members.cox.net/skyman/pics/mirror/longhorn/desktop.png

This is the default 800x600 appearance of Windows Longhorn, right before I threw up on the screen.

http://members.cox.net/skyman/pics/mirror/longhorn/startmenu.png

I think this menu's even larger than the XP one.

http://members.cox.net/skyman/pics/mirror/longhorn/wmplayer.png

Windoze Media Player, as clunky as ever. Notice that there are TWO huge top bars and TWO sets of resize/minimise/close buttons. Of course, with the usual intelligent content of MSN.

http://members.cox.net/skyman/pics/mirror/longhorn/expanded-sm.png

Things can get quite messy at 'low' resolutions. And that shot was taken on a 17" screen...

http://members.cox.net/skyman/pics/mirror/longhorn/my-comp.png

'My Computer'. Should be relabeled 'All your computers are belong to us'.

http://members.cox.net/skyman/pics/mirror/longhorn/wmplayer1024.png

This is a screenshot taken at 1024x768. Even at that resolution, thing can get very cluttered. Microsoft should copy on Apple (again); they really could use the Expos

[skyman8081]

  amn your our of bandwidth, I can't see the last
:image.      
:
:but from the first se7en images longhorn looks ugly-ass.
:MS has stooled to new lows in the shit-heap to make
:this trowl.

Edit: I am going to set up a mirror for those. (i've got the first seven from my cache and I'm trying to find the html page

[ July 12, 2003: Message edited by: [root@localhost /]$ ]

[Laukev7]

quote:Originally posted by M. O'Brien:



This is, I believe, because MS wants to get rid of the traditional file system concept and replace it with a relational database....

More stupid stuff.

Exactly, and this looks like a very unsuccessful attempt. I was actually afraid that they surpass the Mac OS with such a technology. But all they've done so far was copy on Apple!

[skyman8081]

pictures mirror

[Laukev7]

Thank you very much, root.      

But there appears to be a problem. I can't access your mirror.
     

Edit: OK, it's fixed now.

[ July 12, 2003: Message edited by: Laukev7 ]

[skyman8081]

my hon't allow dir access. so I had to put an index page in linking them all.

so it is up now.

with the exception of number 8.

[xyle_one]

ehh. longhorn is rediculous. The windows are huge and waste too much space. windows media player is poorly thought out. jesus. 2 sets of close and minimize buttons? why? dumb. eveything is definitely muddied up by being blue. way too much blue. everywhere. it is distracting.

[Laukev7]

No problem, root. I can send the last one to you, if you want. Unless you would rather wait another hour...

[ July 12, 2003: Message edited by: Laukev7 ]