Microsoft Longhorn: Aero is Ugly

[St Leo]

Flexbeta | Screenshots

Oh, jeez. Purple drop shadows on grey? Mercy me.

Also, the new icons for My Computer and Recycle Bin are awful.

The light grey titlebars are sorta decent, and the new folder icons are intriguing, but everything else is just... eew.

[Asher]

Every time a new build is out, the theme changes substantially. I wouldn't worry about it, each progression gets better.

Remember how large the titlebars were in the last build?

It's also my understanding that the builds at WinHEC are without Avalon, which means the themes on the build are the lowest quality of three levels, and uses GDI+ from WinXP instead of Avalon.

The dropshadows that I see are black...is your monitor calibrated correctly?

[Fake Boris]

Already defending Longhorn?

[Zopperoni]

It still has the Classic Windows look

[Asher]

[Q Classic]

still has classic windows

yeah, the dropshadows look black, so...

these do look better than the last developer build, whose title/menu bars were almost as large as iTunes's.

[Provost Harrison]

Doesn't look particularly different to XP, but I suppose it depends more on what is beneath the bonnet...

[Spec]

Who cares how it looks, what's important is how it works or how well it works.

But, for the sake of the thread, I think it looks nice. But I would'nt switch for looks.

[Atahualpa]

Oh no still the stupid balloon help thingie. I hate how they stay forever in XP and never go away. And everytime appear when you unplug or plug in a network cable.
So annoying to click them away every time.

But switching them off totally is no solution either... I hope they improve them. In XP they sometimes annoy the hell out of me.

[Dinner]

So why is Long horn better then XP and why should I spend money on it?

[Dinner]

I don't like that last picture with window's media 10 where it posts a warning saying the computer has been protected against use or reporduction of copyrighted material. Legally, I can make tapes of CDs or records I own for my personal use and it's perfectly legal but now MS wants to prevent me from making personal copies of CDs I already own?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Oerdin
So why is Long horn better then XP and why should I spend money on it?

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/longhorn_preview_2005.asp

Microsoft hopes to make Longhorn what it calls a "high performance, robust, and safe operating system." To accomplish this, it will need to overhaul the way user accounts work in Windows. Today, Windows XP supports Limited User accounts, administrator accounts (and others, in XP Pro and newer), but few people use anything but administrator-level accounts because the Limited User account is almost useless.

In Longhorn, Microsoft will introduce the new least privileged user account (LUA), which is basically a secure code compartment in which most application code will typically run. When trusted applications need administrator-level access, they can temporarily run in Protected Admin mode. This feature will help sidestep most of the problems home users now face with Limited User accounts, but administrators in businesses can turn it off.

As with Windows XP SP2, Longhorn will provide strong security warnings and guidance when it detects errant actions. However, Longhorn's warning notifications can occur because of local code as well, and not just because of Internet-based communications, as in XP SP2. The idea is that users will feel safe, and they will be able to undo any action, further strengthening the security aura.

Overall, the security and management advancements in Longhorn will be evolutionary when compared with Windows XP with Service Pack 2. For example, the new security policy features in XP SP2 will be expanded dramatically in Longhorn, but will work the same way. So administrators will face a shorter learning curve with understanding how Group Policy works in Longhorn.

Longhorn will support a new updating model called hot patching, through which Microsoft will be able to apply updates to any non-kernel code, including drivers, without requiring a reboot. Longhorn will still need to be rebooted after certain patches, of course, but there will be much fewer than with Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003: 70 percent less is the goal.

Additionally, Longhorn will feature a new instant-on capability that will see Longhorn-savvy systems resume from Standby in 2 seconds or less. And cold boot time should be 50 percent less than with XP on the same system, Microsoft claims.

For businesses looking at deploying Longhorn on the desktop, Longhorn will offer a number of advantages over Windows XP, reducing the costs of deployment, management and support.

Longhorn will be able to detect and eliminate spyware and malware, using next-generation versions of the Windows AntiSpyware and anti-virus products that Microsoft is now developing. Administrators will also be able to scan PCs and the network for vulnerabilities.

Longhorn will include technology, presumably a new form of the Encrypting File System (EFS), that helps prevent data exposure from lost or stolen laptops. You'll be able to forward event logs to a central location.

In Longhorn, applications will launch and load files 15 percent faster than with Windows XP.

Longhorn will feature new image creation and management tools that will make deployment much simpler. Longhorn's componentized underpinnings will reduce the number of install images corporations are required to maintain. A new version of the User State Migration Tool (USMT) will further improve state migration by taking advantage of Longhorn's native scripting environment. Additionally, Longhorn will feature a new version of Remote Assistance.

Longhorn will offer more natural ways to access, organize and use information, and is designed to improve Information Worker (IW) productivity. The key to this, of course, is the new Fast Search feature, which many people incorrectly assumed was being removed from Longhorn when Microsoft delayed WinFS to a post-Longhorn release. That's not the case. Longhorn fast search will provide near-instant searching of your PC, the local network, and the Internet. And it's designed to be intuitive to existing Windows users.

Fast Search will feature new ways to organize data, including Lists, AutoLists and filters (Figure). Search results will include data from different store types (documents, email messages, pictures, etc.), and can be sorted by custom meta-data. And Longhorn's new shell windows, which will feature a handy "breadcrumb" navigation feature, will also include instant view filtering based on Fast Search technology and file preview (Figure).

Another Fast Search feature, called Stacks (Figure), will help aggregate content by such things as authors, keywords, type, and so on. You can then group Stacks by various properties, such as name, size, modified date, type, or authors, in order to provide multiple relevant views on the same data.

Microsoft believes that Fast Search will reduce the time users spend searching for files on their PC by 80 percent. And re-directed folder synchronization will be 50 percent faster than with Windows XP.

(Speaking of WinFS, Microsoft will ship a preview of that relational storage technology when the Longhorn client is released in mid-2006. WinFS, when it ships, will enable even more powerful search than does Fast Search. However, Microsoft has not yet determined when it will ship WinFS or how it will package and distribute the technology.)

Longhorn will more reliably resume from crashes, and include better application management and back-up and restore functionality.

With Longhorn, creating ad hoc networks based on peer-to-peer technologies will be simple and seamless, opening up new avenues for group collaboration. Microsoft sees information workers creating these ad hoc networks in meetings so they can share presentations and collaborate on documents. A new domain-like networking scheme called a castle will replace workgroups for home users. In a castle type network, user credentials can move from machine to machine without a centralized server.

Conceptually, the Longhorn platform will be based on Avalon (presentation subsystem), Indigo (messaging and Web services), and the WinFX programming model, which is based on .NET managed code. Last August, Microsoft revealed that these technologies would be provided "down level" to users running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1. It would seem, peripherally, that Longhorn doesn't have a lot of unique technology to offer developers. That's not quite true.

First, by providing these technologies to existing users, Microsoft is dramatically expanding the markets for applications and services based on Avalon and Indigo, giving developers incentive to adopt these technologies more quickly. In this way, WinFX will perform the same role the Win32 API did over a decade ago. Second, Longhorn will include unique new features that are not available to XP SP2 users, making that platform more valuable to Longhorn adopters. The most obvious of these, of course, is the Aero user interface, which will make video-quality 3D effects a natural part of the PC experience.

One thing users should be aware of is that Longhorn will include a new kernel and will thus not offer the same level of compatibility with legacy 16-bit and 32-bit code that Windows XP does today.

[JohnT]

Wahhh. You make my heart bleed, Oerdin.

"MS won't let me steal, goddamn them!"

Oh, the horror!

[Spec]

Oerdin, just move to Canada. Here its legal to DL music and movies on the net.

[Atahualpa]

Install Windows 98 and you know that you'll upgrade. It's the same everytime... don't even ask why it's better... simply it IS better.
One thing I trust companies is when they do something to make money. In order for MS to make money they have to deliver something better than XP.

Ofc, you'll also need to buy a new computer