Vista, The Start Button and Filth in the Rivers

        Microsoft (to no one’s surprise) is in a bit of a quandary. While the new kids out there in Redmond want to “improve” the now familiar Windows UI (Start button etal.) the experienced ones don’t dare. How many cars out there have “new and different” user interfaces? Sure, the radio buttons and the non-critical components change from time-to-time, but the wheel, turn-signals, wipers and (most importantly) the brake and accelerator pedals are all more-or less the same—standardized all over the world (except for the British that keep them on the wrong side).

        Windows faces the same problem. Since the vast majority of users are now comfortable with the standard Windows user interface it would be foolhardy to change it. My wife (Masters in Math and a smart lady) is not computer illiterate, but almost. She depends on the launch icons to be where they were and everything to be the same each time she starts Windows. When I installed the new version of Office, I slept in the den for a week because the Office UI changed. There are far too many people that just want the computer to work and while everyone wants it to be safer, faster and more stable they don’t want the UI to change.

        If users want anything different they want Vista to be less prone to the filth and garbage polluting the Internet. Today, the Internet is like the middle ages when everyone dumped their waste into the streets where it flowed into a common trench and flowed into the nearest river. Our computers have to pick out the “good stuff” (like our email) out of this river, shake it off and consume it. Users want a new OS that prevents this stuff from making them or their kids sick. Better yet, we all need to stop this pollution from entering the river of data in the first place.  

        As to the “Start” button, for those of you that know how to use a vacuum cleaner, there is only one button: the power switch. It’s also the Off switch too. Should Microsoft rename “Start” to “| O” to accommodate those that don’t now understand that the Start button also permits you to start the logoff/shutdown sequence? I don’t think so. It would just cause more confusion than ever. It would be as popular as the rectangular steering wheels seen briefly in the ‘50s.

Just my $.02.

bv