Comments

I thought it was a good video, I like most of the concepts he was displaying, right up until the end.  I think they have their priorities for  themes/skinning completely backwards.  Allowing developers to alter the look of standard controls to defy the standards set by the rest of the interface is a tremendous mistake.  "Triangular shaped buttons, star shaped buttons, 3D buttons..." That's NOT great!  The only thing that will do is confuse users, as consistency is thrown out the window with Microsoft's blessing and support.  One of the things I hate about XP is seeing applications sporting non-standard interfaces.  Yes, most of them are hideous, but even the attractive ones look bad because they don't fit in with the rest of the UI.

I've seen plenty of Windows 2000 users at work that change system fonts and colors to suit their own preferences, and it sounds like Vista will be as limited as Windows XP in this regard.  Especially considering the vector based interface, Vista should have the most customizable UI of any Windows to date.  Please don't make the same mistake; allow us to force standard UI elements on custom designed applications!  Allow us to change colors, fonts, themes, whatever we want!  Branding be damned, we already know we're using Windows for Pete's sake!

618mb? Damn. 41 minutes? Is it in HD? It sure would be great if this had a bittorrent link to speed this propaganda on to my machine... See, there are non-piracy uses for BT... {this post brought to by BugMeNot. I'm not hopping through all those hoops to post one reply once...}

I'm surprised that so many people here (well, OK, I guess not really) find him compelling. Ballmer seems manic to me. I also don't find him to be particularly inspiring as a developer. He is a business guy right?

Of course I got here from a Slashdot posting.

In about 2 weeks I will be purchasing a Power Mac. My first ever Apple. I have Visual Studio on every computer I use and around 3 months ago I got my company to start using C# for an application I am the lead developer on. So I'm not anti-Microsoft.

However, I think Microsoft is really missing the "average user" need on the desktop.

If Apple can find a strategy that allows them to get in more homes (the Intel switch could help) then I say Microsoft is in real trouble in the home-user market.

Backwards compatability is great, but in the home it's only useful for 3-5 years (IMHO). So, instead we get the same bloated OSes that power business computers. The home OS needs to be A LOT more nible and forward thinking. Unfortunately I'm not sure the monolith that is M$ can actually recognize this need and effectively deal with it.

I think a new strategy is needed in the home. What about a site license for the home as well? A big factor for me was when I looked at upgrades from one version of an Apple OS for 3-5 computers (which is what I normally have at home) compared to an upgrade for those same 3-5 computers from one version of Windows to the next, the cost is like a difference of a factor of 3-4. Of course there's a lot of factors there, Apple has a more frequent release schedule, but that means I can deal with the cost yearly instead of every three years. Helps the financial impact seem smaller.

Wow, this turned in to quite a ramble. I guess that's what happens at 7:28 A.M. when hurricane Dennis is threatening to take you out.

Excellent Interview. Thanks for doing this Scoble.

(Sorry for the username - which is via BugMeNot...I was too lazy to register to make a single post)

The gratitude displayed here makes me sick.

My reaction is more: "Finally, you goddam M#()$ F_#@ers..."

I've always wondered how we delude ourselves that we live in the Information Age when that information is locked up by some rich c&$*s in America. F#$& you.

Go ahead and censor this.