[dba-Tech] Skeuomorphic UIs are dead? Apple to follow MS Win8UI design principles with iOS7?

Bill Patten bill_patten at embarqmail.com
Wed Jun 12 00:15:18 CDT 2013


Hi Arthur,

I don't understand the loathing of the window's 8 screen, it's really 
designed for touch hence the large buttons. If you don’t have a touch screen 
then just use the desktop.  Before I'd go to the trouble of installing Win7 
click on the button labeled desk top a windows 7 screen with out the start 
button will appear. I just added short cuts to my screen then right click 
and pin them to the task bar.

One feature better then the start menu is to move the mouse (In the desktop 
mode) to the lower left hand corner and a short cut to the Windows 8 
Appears. Right click on it and a menu pops up that has many of the feature 
you might want like control panel task manager, event viewer etc.

One other cool feature is to when on the windows 8 screen and start typing 
like "windows defender" (or any other program you know the name of) and as 
you type icons appear on the screen and when you see the one you want click 
on it.

Yes it's different and yes MS could have given a choice of where you want it 
to open and  yes they did not have to remove the start menu but it takes one 
click to click on the desktop icon (I moved mine to the upper left corner so 
I don't have to look for it) but recently learned pushing esc. take you to 
the desk top. Place shortcuts on it, pin them on the task bar and it works.

Be brave, give it a try, you or your sister may never like it then again as 
more and more people get and want tablets your ready.

By the way I have a Surface Pro and love it. I only use one Windows 8 
application (USA today) but  I have Access 2007, VS 2010 SQL Server 2008 
(Express) that syncs with my Main SQL server and most other tools that I 
use.  the surface has Hyper-V in it so I have an XP VM on a USB drive so I 
can recompile Access programs that won't run on 32 bit machines if compiled 
in a 64 bit environment. No I would  not recommend that package for 
development but it cool when traveling and I want help a client.

I'm not in love with WIN 8 but I sure don't hate it.
HTH

Bill

Here are a list of easy short cuts one could learn if they want to,  give 
them try it might surprise you..

To label groups push - in bottom right and the groups will shrink Right 
click on a group to name them.  All groups appear to have at least 2 columns 
to reduce the size move enough to other groups to reduce by 2 columns.

If you learn just three hotkeys, learn:
•Win+W - Search Control Panel and Settings stuff
•Win+F - Search Files
•Esc - Yes, escape. No joke. If you hit the Windows Key, you can hit Escape 
to go back.  (Does not appear to work on first start up but once you've gone 
to the desktop ESC will take you back.)

Once you have those, add these:
•Win+C - Charms (right side menu) then arrows to move and enter to launch.
•Win+K - Devices
•Win+I - Settings in any app plus brightness, network and other useful 
system features
•Win+Arrows - Snap desktop apps to the sides
•Win+(period) - Alternate sides to "snap" Metro Apps. Add shift to reverse 
it.
•Win-X - Admin Stuff. I'm mentioning it twice because it's THAT useful.
•Win+PageUp or Win+PageDn - Move full screen apps to other monitors. Super 
useful for News apps and Readers. The Start Screen can be moved as well.
them to the





-----Original Message----- 
From: Arthur Fuller
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:10 PM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Skeuomorphic UIs are dead? Apple to follow MS Win8UI 
design principles with iOS7?

Time to ask for help. How can I best revert my sister's laptop back to
Windows 7? I have an installation disk and she has no data on her disc
worth keeping, other than possibly the list of her favorite web sites. She
does everything else in the cloud.

I'm guessing that I could cold-boot the laptop with my Win7 OEM disc or
several Windoes-repair discs, then format/erase the disc and then install
Windows Home and then re-install everything. But I have read about various
methods of restoring a W8 box to a W7 look.

I hate the tiles. Complaint #1: why are the tiles so huge? (Which is kind
of bizarre since my eyes are failing, due to my age, but still, the trad
Win7 desktop looks way better IMHO.)  I want a Start Button and taskbar
back.I vaguely recall reading about some software than can do that to Win8.

I guess that this new UI appeals to some people, but I and more importantly
my friend whose fancy Dell laptop currently resides on my desk, object
profoundly, So, here is the situation in brief.

It's a brand-new Dell with Windows 8 installed.
I want to fry the disk and then install Windows 7 (She;s afraid to move to
Ubuntu; I can't imagine why, since her use of various apps other than
word-processing and email is almost nil, but that is another discussion,
but I will say before departing this subject that if that's the extent of
your computer usage, why the hell would you stick with Windows? This makes
no sense to me at all. However, she is my best friend and so I must take my
footsteps carefully, so as not to ruffle feathers.

The bottom line is this: she has a fancy new Dell laptop whose boot OS is
Windows 8. She wishes to change that. Our alternatives, as I see them, are
these:

a) fry the drive and then boot from my Win7 OEM disk and install.
b) try a dual-boot installation.
c) install Ubuntu and implicently fry the drive, which contains no data
worth preserving,]

Given her extremely small list of necessities (email, docs and photos), I
can see no justification for sticking with Windows. My recommendation is to
fry the disc and switch to either Mint or Ubuntu. I don't mean to slight
the offerings by RedHat, which is pretty clearly offered to professionals
not amateurs.

In summary:

I would like to fry the current OS installation and introduce a another,
Linux-based one such as Ubuntu.
I would also like to undo everything that I did in Step 1, should disasters
occur.
She has virtually nothing of personal value on her laptop, except her email
and its treacking record, so it is perfectly ok to fry the drive and start
from Square One. She even has the original Install Disk and I have the
printed User Guide in hand.
There is no data worth saving.
So, how should I proceed? Without a little expert advice, I am ill-prepared
to proceed. But that's why I so value this newsgroup.I am 110 % confident
that someone here can guide me to a solution.



A


On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 2:18 PM, Hans-Christian Andersen <
hans.andersen at phulse.com> wrote:

> You speak the truth. I can't even name a single person I know who runs
> Windows 8 even. Only one guy at work who has it in virtual machine and he
> dislikes it. To be fair though, he's a Linux geek.
>
> - Hans
>
>
> On 2013-06-11, at 8:51 AM, "Jim Lawrence" <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:
>
> > Hi Hans:
> >
> > The whole problem with the Metro UI was that it was installed on the PC.
> That was not the environment for it. Phone definitely and tablet maybe but
> not the PC.
> >
> > IMHO one UI for everything is just plain silly. Most users of Windows8,
> just switch to the old UI and continue working which just makes Metro a
> waste as far as a PC is concerned.
> >
> > Jim
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:
> dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Hans-Christian
> Andersen
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 1:16 AM
> > To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> > Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Skeuomorphic UIs are dead? Apple to follow MS
> Win8UI design principles with iOS7?
> >
> > I think you are disregarding the fact that Metro has been a failure for
> Microsoft, because it was too much of a change for users to adapt to.
> Someone got fired for that, if you recall.
> >
> > Also, the UI/UX of iOS is in the complete control of a designer.
> >
> > The jury is still very much out - even more so than ever.
> >
> > - Hans
> >
> >
> > On 2013-06-11, at 1:05 AM, "Gustav Brock" <gustav at cactus.dk> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Shamil
> >>
> >> Skeuomorphism sure looks dead. And thanks for that.
> >>
> >> After the introduction of Metro/Modern UI, I was convinced that in a
> few years skeuomorphism would be so much yesterday.
> >> The new design of iOS settles this.
> >>
> >> Now the Linux people are the left behinds ...
> >>
> >> /gustav
> >>
> >> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
> >> Fra: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:
> dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] På vegne af Salakhetdinov Shamil
> >> Sendt: 11. juni 2013 08:54
> >> Til: Discussion of Hardware and Softw
> >> Emne: [dba-Tech] Skeuomorphic UIs are dead? Apple to follow MS Win8 UI
> design principles with iOS7?
> >>
> >>
> >> Hi All --
> >>
> >> See subj questions and the following links:
> >>
> >> http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/10/apple-ios-7/
> >>
> >>
> http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/10/take-a-good-look-at-apples-new-ios-7-with-these-early-screenshots/
> >>
> >>
> http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/10/apples-flashlight-is-why-we-cant-fund-nice-dumb-things/
> >>
> >> etc.
> >>
> >> it looks like iOS7 is preparing for iOS8 to get running transparently
> on "Apple Pince-nez"?...
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Салахетдинов Шамиль
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> dba-Tech mailing list
> >> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
> >> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
> >> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > dba-Tech mailing list
> > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
> > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
> > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>
> _______________________________________________
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>



-- 
Arthur
Cell: 647.710.1314

Prediction is difficult, especially of the future.
  -- Niels Bohr
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