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CowboyTeal writes:
"Windows 8 is still being disputed as either the product of a genius or a nerdy sadist but that doesn't mean Windows 9 isn't in the works. That said, how would you guys improve Windows if you could change anything about it? Has windows 8 improved or degraded your overall experience of the Windows platform? If you're not a Windows user, what features would you like to see in Windows for possible assimilation?"
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Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by TheLink on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:19AM
0) get "everyone" to agree on a standard "phone support" interface.
It could work like this:
1) Phone support tell users to click the "spanner icon" (or press a standard key combination/sequence), then press Y or click "Yes/green tick symbol" to the warning message (instead of cancel/red X symbol).
2) Then a big configuration window pops up, where sections (tabbed?) are marked with coloured shapes (e.g. circle, triangle, square, star, cloud), and items are marked with letters and numbers- each section has has its own unique letter to start item numbers with.
The sections could be stuff like: OS, Network, Hardware, Applications, Remote Assistance (with scary warning, user-side configuration of the destination could be disabled for Corporate setups).
3A) Phone support tells the user to go to the "Red Triangle" (Network) section, and to read out item "B2" (primary IPv4 Address). If it's 169.254.x.x, phone support can get the user to click on the item "B1" (renew DHCP configuration).
3B) Phone support tells the user to go to the "Green Circle" (OS) section, read out the OS name and version in item A1, and then to click on item A10 (Syslog/OS log). The last 50 lines from the syslog appear. Phone support asks the user to type "unrecovered read" into the item A11 (syslog search box) and press enter. Syslog lines containing the case insensitive match appear: e.g. "Oct 26 21:23:56 kernel: [ 1900.960506 ] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error"
The user can also type "tab" "B1" "space" to go item "B1".
If accessibility for the blind is enabled and the data is suitable and not too long, the data could be read out through speech synthesis.
To edit the current item press "delete or backspace" followed by the new data and then press enter (or click on the data and type).
The side effect of this interface is "advanced users" could use it as a quick way for doing common tasks (set/request IP addresses).
p.s. the strange thing is I believe I've proposed posted something like the above years ago to Gnome or Redhat? (even got a follow-up post by someone clarifying that it's not an interface for phones) and Slashdot but I can't find the posts anymore using Google, Bing, Yandex, duckduckgo.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by TheLink on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:53AM
Now say I want to:
a) email it to someone
b) edit it with a different program (not necessarily the default program associated with it)
c) copy/move it somewhere else (USB drive)
Seems for many GUIs I often have to go through the process of looking for the file again before being able to do a), b) or c). Some applications of course support a "send as email" in their file menu, but this is not a standard across all apps.
Some applications trigger the "Recent Documents" but not all of them.
But the OS/GUI already knows the path of "Documents" that have been opened/saved/renamed by GUI applications, so in theory it could create a list of these and make them available in file dialog boxes and "file browser/windows explorer" equivalents.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:00PM
Actually, that's something that the various Linux desktops need to get fixed as well.
(Score: 1) by TheLink on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:25PM
I've actually proposed this and other stuff to them: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2011-Mar ch/msg00012.html [gnome.org]
But they're probably too busy with more important stuff like "wobbly windows" and touch UIs.
I can't find some of the stuff I've proposed any more. Don't know whether it's Google's fault (somehow the search results look very different now) or they are no longer on the sites (which may be since Bing etc don't find them either).
Then I'd get IE to support something like CSP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_Security_Pol icy [wikipedia.org]
By the way years before CSP (in 2001/2002?) I personally proposed special tags to disable active content (enclosed between the tags- you need a matching closing tag with the correct random key- to reenable active content) to the W3C and browser bunch but nobody was interested (even my crude proposal would have stopped the various worms that happened later).
I personally think there's plenty to improve for "desktop computing" and "desktop computing" has still plenty of untapped potential for augmenting humans.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by TheLink on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:07PM
And a bunch of other stuff:
Better Sandboxing - sandbox templates
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/156693 [launchpad.net]
Direct selection of windows with key combos, and quick mapping+remapping of those combos.v ember/msg00011.html [gnome.org]
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2009-No
(Windows nowadays does something similar but it is not by window but rather by app which makes it less useful if you have multiple windows open for each app).
Filesystem encryption enabled by default for at least one container.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/148440 [launchpad.net]
(the NSA et all will probably be against this)
I would also prepare for "thought macros" and wearable computing. In the future we would likely control stuff like Google Glass with "thought macros" - associate arbitrary thought patterns and pattern sequences with various actions and "objects". This would allow a more seamless brain/mind augmentation (just think of something and the relevant stuff is recalled/done). Need to also handle stuff such as user falling asleep and "sleepsurfing".
(Score: 4, Interesting) by TheLink on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:49PM
Create a decent way to rename two files/directories at the same time atomically - e.g. it either happens or it doesn't happen at all.
This allows us to rename:
NewStuff->ActiveStuff
ActiveStuff->BackupStuff
in one atomic step instead of two steps. BTW windows doesn't allow renames of stuff while they are in use (unlike unix/unixlike systems), maybe that could be changed too.
Next I'd have the windows, microsoft application and compiler people think of better ways for Intel and AMD to use some of the billions of transistors available. Stuff like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_Synchr onization_Extensions [wikipedia.org] are good. Stuff like more cores and cache are meh.
Make gettimeofday more efficient or create an alternative method for checking "is it time yet" which is very efficient, monotonic, unlikely to rollover/overflow and is not affected by someone changing the system time, or even a "wait till now is >= X or thread interrupt occurred" command.
Maybe also stuff like making it easier to do Single System Image with lower overheads and latency (yes many people prefer scaling out but I'm sure Microsoft might be able to make $$$$$ from those who prefer not to).
Lastly, no freezing of the UI just because someone stuck a disc into the DVD drive (or similar). WTF is with that?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday March 02 2014, @01:27PM
"Lastly, no freezing of the UI "
How about RTOS-like latency guarantees for the UI thru the entire system. No freezing ever. You fail to respond to a click in 50 ms your process gets killed or the machine rebooted. And by respond I'm not just talking about the "close program X" button or maybe the back button, but everything you do will have some kind of response or interaction at most every 50 ms. Never, ever, freeze up.
This latency is the primary difference between CLI and GUI programs. GUIs always are implemented with extreme latency and delay and CLIs are always implemented with a fast response UI. Very rare to ever see those "roles" reversed.
(Score: 1) by tangomargarine on Monday March 03 2014, @10:30PM
Kind of like when you load facebook after clearing your cache and it locks your whole OS for an entire minute while it waits on akamaihd.static.somebullshit.net? Good times :D
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"