thats because microsoft are masters at making crap look like gold
just put up a nice mask, and it LOOKS good ;]
obviously an OS is the kernel and the GUI should be entirely exchangeable, like in linux distros
I thought that applied to Apple only :clue:
The underlying OSes are on thing and on the face of it I find that they’re all much the same in terms of features, performance, stability, security, etc. It’s the GUI part that I have to interact with though and that’s the bit that has the most fundamental effect on my productivity and day-to-day happiness. This is also why 99.99% of the world’s population feels the same way - they don’t care how it works under the hood. The car analogy is very appropriate. What everyone cares about is how it feels to drive. Win7 is a travesty of me-too copying Mac ideas, and the Mac is just awful to use in anger. Little things like being unable to resize windows from any corner, or the risible excuse for a file manager, or the useless waste of space that is the dock, or the menus being stuck on the top of the screen, being unable to customise the mouse pointer to a nice fat one that I can easily spot, etc. all conspire to make it a grim affair.
Cas 
[quote=“princec,post:23,topic:37250”]
Such as?
My brother has two Mac’s, and one of the largest annoyances in using them is that my productivity drops like a stone, since I’m not used to it.
[quote=“JL235,post:24,topic:37250”]
lol.
Yeah I agree Cas, and I also cannot use Mac for those reasons
I think the way linux does it, is the very best.
Now, if all windows programs and drivers would run natively, just like that on linux distros, it obviously wouldn’t be any debate anymore.
Even graphically, there are so many GUIs and combination, and you could change everything in the gui yourself if you don’t find anything suitable in the thousands of choices.
There could even be a GUI wizard that creates and/or finds a GUI according to your needs… maybe it already exists.
@princec - interesting. I hardly notice the OS that I’m current running via GUI cause I make them all look pretty similar. Specifically the first thing I do after installing a new OS is turn off - rip out all the flashy crap that (IHMO) serves no purpose other than to waste CPU/GPU cycles. Plus a lot of them waste my RL time as well…animated window and scroll bar stuff FTW? Just pop up instantly please. 10 or so years ago I never thought to myself: “Wow, I’d be so much productive if my window pane was transparent and blurred the background!”
In all seriousness windows is vastly easier to program low level stuff than other current major OSes (on the whole). Anyone that doesn’t believe me…check the documentation. It’s crazy that to perform some basic queries on unix-a-likes that you have to read text from a virtual device and parse the darn info out. The pthreads API sucks. Kernel level memory access? Yikes! I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat myself: I think all current consumer OSes suck and I’m not a MS (or anything else) fanboy. I just call 'em the way I see 'em.
[quote=“Cero,post:25,topic:37250”]
Again, such as???
Drivers do run natively, and so do most applications. There are also plenty of applications on Linux which are scripted, or built using managed code.
This is actually one of the things I really dislike about Linux. The way I see it, there is good choice, and bad choice. Good choice are the things you care about, whilst bad choice are things your forced (or encouraged) to care about. I heavily customize my Windows setup, but there are large fundamental parts which I shouldn’t have to be picking, like what login manager I’m using. It’s also very annoying that I should have to install KDE/Gnome/whatever just to use one particular application.
Linux annoys me even more than the other two.
Cas
From what I’m told, WinRT looks like a sweet API … but apparently the only deployment story there is going through Microsoft’s app store.
I’m not too keen on this trend of the manufacturers making themselves gatekeepers.
Indeed, that trend is seriously worrying.
Cas
Ok I quote myself…
Do programmers here realize that it means no Java support in Metro style?
Yeah, but that is a bit of a lost cause as it is. Just another app store, another barrier to entry on the platform. The decision to lock it down is probably very unwise.
Cas
While I wouldn’t even think of trying to convince you otherwise 
, I’d recommend Linux Mint for any XP ex-pats. I’ve used primarily Linux for 5 years now, before which I had a couple of XP machines for a similar period. Admittedly my XP machines were heavily tuned for pro-audio (so snappy), but when I got a new laptop with Windows 7 last year my only thoughts were - what the hell have they done??? It’s horrible! How have they made it sooo slow? The speed difference between the two OS’s on the same hardware is ridiculous. I never found that with XP <> Linux, I used whatever made sense for the job - now I steer clear of Win 7 like the plague.
Of course I could try tuning it again, but I shouldn’t have to (and I can’t be bothered waiting for the damn thing to boot most of the time! ;D )
Actually, that’s the one thing I always add in to my Linux setup, but then that comes from growing up with the best desktop there ever was - RiscOS - when OSX was just a twinkle in Steve Job’s butt-cheek! IMO most OS’s are still playing catch-up to features RiscOS had in the early 90’s.
Metro apps can be built using HTML, and the main aspect which is blocked is the ability to embed Flash/Java/Silverlight objects in that HTML. I wouldn’t run to open an application which then opens up lots of plugins, so I’m pretty happy it’s blocked from Metro apps. So the only real place that is affected is in Metro IE, since that can’t be used to play a Java game (regular IE 10 is unaffected). But remember that the people using Metro and Metro IE will be on a tablet, so a Java applet would suck even more then it does today.
In theory, I see no reason why a full JVM couldn’t be compiled into a Metro app, and have the Java class files bundled with it when distributes, since you can build Metro apps using C/C++. The main issue is that AWT wouldn’t work, as it uses Win32, and I believe WinRT is significantly different at handling user interaction. I’d expect there are also other system bits where the API has changed.
You can also distribute regular applications through the Windows Store, including Java applications. It is not exclusive to Metro.
AWT not working not much of a problem for LWJGL 
I bet a WinRT backend is trivial to add.
Cas
The implications for locked-down boot options are more worrying to me than anything else.
Good thing that’s not directly related to Windows 8. I have a feeling it’ll get shot down in flames anyway - definitely some suspicious antitrust like behaviour there. I can’t quite fathom how anybody could think that this specification would be in consumers’ interests.
Hm maybe it is directly related to Windows 8. Still, as long as the BIOS implementers provide a switch to turn it off it’s not too much of a problem.
Cas
I just watch a news article, that most consumers are moving to tablets and smart phones, and Windows 8 won’t be that big. That’s why Windows 8 is being set to run on a tablet better.
I never understood and liked tablets. What’s so special about them? Keyboard and mouse will always be the best way to use a computer.
+1
Nothing is gonna beat my WASD+mouse! Console joysticks are for flight simulators! Touchscreens are for perverted Japansese people!