The computer desktop

>>57976128
That literally looks like everything wrong with modern UIs.

>>57976128
I'm using Gnome right now and it looks great to me, what is that monstrosity?

When people became obsessed with aesthetics over functionality.

>>57976160
So when was invented the first gooey?

>>57976156
Gnome :^)

>>57976820
That looks fucking awful.

It all went wrong when iPads came out and were a roaring success (because Apple heyday) and literally every OS developer went "OMG we have to go all in on Tablets, we'll be rich, touch-UI ALL THE THINGS"

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>>57976128
Use MATE. It's gnome before it went to shit. It's the default for all my Debian installs now :)

>>57976864
Either that's revisionist history or you just don't deal with "normal" users. Any computer is complicated for the vast majority of people, specially when all they want is a facebook machine, a user friendly OS like OSX would require a mac at $1000. Windows has fame for being complicated and virus ridden by plugging it to the internet without a condom, suddenly there were tablets that were light, did "the same job as a computer", were easy to use and cost a fraction of a mac or most computers out there. Not to mention the largest application selection of the time along with a more consistent and easier to use interface than any android device of the time, and maybe even today.

>>57977163
Of course tablets have their place with your average selfiebook, I didn't say they don't.

But for those of us who need to do something more productive, we already had full desktops that worked nicely and trying to mindlessly shoehorn them into tablets because "blarg, tablets are where teh money is, port now, think later" was a shit idea that got us Windows 8 and GNOME 3. Microsoft eventually saw sense and backpedalled with Win10.
Apple and Google had the right idea with treating tablets as a completely separate ecosystem with their own custom UI and apps. And even Google are trying to mash them together now.

>>57977329
I think Microsoft has just gotten to big and to spread out to do anything right, they have been having a shit time ever since XP.

As good as XP was and as wide spread as it became, it had a shit browser, it had shit security problems and it had shit performance as security updates kept being tacked on to it, then they follow what was a fairly successful product with mixed acceptance, with the biggest pile of steaming shit that Vista is, that hurt them a lot, and just at that exact time, smartphones become a more popular thing and at the time that Windows 7 became the standard on sold systems, you have the ipad coming along.

Then what you have is millions of people who have had it with Microsoft for years began thinking they could actually jump platforms if only XYZ app existed.

Then Microsoft shoots their own two feet to entire industries that depended on them, when they literally kill backward compatibility for new versions of their new mobile OS WM7, the ones who jump ship to WM7 get a rude awakening when they're told yeah you can't upgrade your app you have to recode it. Then we have the shit show of Windows 8 and then the other shit show of Windows 10. Which if you call that backpedaling... I call it a desperate attempt to stay relevant. Microsoft is less and less required for a lot of shit to get done.

>blarg, tablets are where teh money is, port now, think later

I don't think they were even capable of that type of thought process, they just went in all directions and got nothing done, and I hate to say it because I don't care much for the guy, but if you watch that interview of jobs with cringely (Triumph of the nerds) he is totally right about Microsoft, and they're farther away from a software company today than they were a couple of years ago.

I just hate how, and this is an older problem than all the cartoonish animations and shiney (now flat) UI decisions, the OS is considered to be part of using the computer rather than a convenient way to use the parts you want to use.

This change started with XP, not OSX. Look at the bright and bubbly installer and how it talks about all the super-fun things you can do with it.

To say "oh, hardware is cheap" isn't an excuse anyone should accept because the OS should never be the biggest things on the system.

>>57977521
I've always had this question.. Suppose that you're only going to use your PC offline, why the fuck not use XP?

>>57977603
Because most computers are 64bit now.

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>>57977454
MS goes through phases of incompetency - they always have done. DOS 5, Windows 2, 95 original, ME, Vista... for the most part, every other version.

Yes for the mainstream the home desktop is dead - and thank fuck for that, as someone who was constantly being asked "you know about computers right?" and ending up on my hands and knees in the dusty corner of someone's living room figuring out why someone's Packard Bell won't turn on (usually because they knew it was an ugly thing and dumped it on the floor behind a load of old books so now the insides look something like this)

But for enthusiasts I don't think it's going away. Nor right here at work where we still have a plethora of Windows-based business applications and the workflow is still very much sitting in front of a desk with a keyboard and mouse. If we asked these people to adjust to CRM and MRP packages on tablets I think they'd just burn the place down and I wouldn't exactly blame them. Windows desktops are not going away in the workplace any time soon.

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>>57977624

>>57977635
>I don't think it's going away.

You know what.. I hope you're right, but I really think you're wrong, I really think that we are past the fork on the highway and the majority of users, including business users and some corporate, are keeping right going towards mobile platforms. The rise of web applications means any of the shit they do can be done on any device. The work I used to have is heavily dependent still to this day on Windows CE 6, because they still don't know what the fuck to do. There is a industry paper from Honeywell where they very liberally say Microsoft has told the industry to fuck off and how they're seriously considering iOS because of the ease of deployment and unified platform for the devices.

I think it is all a matter of time before businesses become platform independent.

>>57977697

Microsoft isn't going anywhere. They ARE computers. It's the same with Intel when people talk about how A.R.M. is going to be the future.

Every office building in the world will still use Office running on Windows, which runs on x86. People are not going to change, and MS is too big to be allowed to fail by government.