another YMTC (you make the call)
well here's another installment in my "you make the call" series where I challenge the objectivity and credibility of industry trade press articles that add to the negative perception of Vista.
In my last post (Tues 1/13/2009), I referred to some current blog posts on ZDNet from Ed Bott and Jason Perlow. In particular, I’m calling out Jason’s post titled “Windows 7: Mojave, my ass” as a candidate for one of my continuing “YMTC” series where I point out prominent examples of what I think are negatively biased articles/posts around Vista (and now Windows 7). As a reminder, I do these to help my “partner” readers with some insight and thoughts on how to address some of these comments if they should hear them from their constituency. So now, on to my counterpoint on Jason’s post.
I’m not including the link to this post as I don’t think it’s worthy of a read. If you read my comments and still think that you’d like to read his post, it shouldn’t be hard to find on ZDNet. And, btw, in addition to my thoughts below, remember you can also read the Ed Bott counterpoint to Jason, which I alluded to in my previous post.
Jason decries that in Win7 you can’t select the “Classic” start menu option, and his justification is that some users have been using that classic UI since 1999 or before (this is the “backward looking strategy” Ed Bott references). But I don’t see Jason applying this criteria to other software or things (like his auto dashboard), which probably don’t have the same UI that they had 10 years ago either. Wow, what a criterion to measure an OS on. He goes on to say “to make matters worse, the “Run” option is no longer directly accessible from the start menu” and he later points out that, since this is a hold-over from Vista, “MS still isn’t learning from it’s mistakes” (wow again, so whatever Jason doesn’t like or understand is a mistake on someone else’s part - I’d be hard-pressed to find a better example of jaded and parochial). BTW, “Windows-R” is a quicker and potentially more efficient way to access the Run command, but hey, mentioning that would be objective, informative, and constructive, not a part of Jason’s game plan. Jason says later in his post “Microsoft seems to have made changes for the sake of change, which was the case with Vista and even more apparent with Windows 7” – well, this is just wrong on so many levels, Jason seems oblivious to the fact that Microsoft continues to spend a tremendous amount of $$$ on UI research year over year, and of course, since he apparently doesn’t use the Windows key or take advantage of the built-in search functionality he also has no appreciation for the benefits of those or other UI enhancements. For instance, like the ability to cycle thru “views” in Windows explorer or the fact that the All Programs menu doesn’t cascade out across the screen (which I always found hard to navigate). He also mentions that he is “greatly frustrated” by the fact that the Computer, Network, and Documents shortcuts are no longer on the desktop by default rather than point out that these things can easily be added back to the desktop by clicking the “Change Desktop Icons” link that’s right at the top of the tasks list in the Personalization page of control panel that probably everyone uses early on to set display settings or desktop background. And, yikes, I use Windows-E to get to the Computer Explorer window now and the Windows key + typed text to get to just about any part of Control Panel directly now vs going into the main CP page and drilling down, but to each his own I guess. Still to classify every technique but yours a mistake or less worthy is why I have issues with a lot of these articles. Tell me you prefer to have an icon-filled desktop and wade thru cascading menus or drill into CP icons, and tell me you think that old ways are best in your opinion, but don’t cast everything that isn’t “your way” in a negative light, this is pure bias IMHO. And, I actually think the new Control Panel is a much cleaner and easier to use, but if you like Classic then use what works best for you – at least Vista gives your that choice (although the option does go away in Win7).
So, as with all my YMTC series, I submit that the author above is adding (unfairly) to the negative perception of Vista by publishing commentary such as this, but, you make the call...
BTW, Jason did another post called “Do you use the Windows Key?” where he admits that he had no clue about the Windows key and any of the functionality that it brings to the table, interestingly, at the end he posts a poll about use of the Windows key. Sadly, over a half of the respondents said they didn’t use it at all or at most sometimes or infrequently, and some weren’t even aware of it at all. I did include this direct link in case you might want to vote in the poll (hopefully for the “yes, a lot” option if you’ve read my posts on Vista tips <grin>).
And remember, I don’t do this just to counter folks like Jason but to hopefully give you, my partners, some thoughts you can use to help folks see Vista in a more objective light, and hopefully make the move to more current technology, and then use it more efficiently. And, if you have some of the same frustrations or issues, perhaps I will have pointed out a technique or alternative to consider that might even turn out to be something you like, or can use, even if it’s not the “old-fashioned way” (and I like old-fashioned btw, just not in my technology <grin>). Cheers.