My 2 cents on what I'd really like for them to work on/improve, is the window management.

I like Expose a lot, it feels a lot better than Alt-tabbing. Just one idea.

Also, I hate Windows Explorer in 7. I love Chrome and I really wish there was a file explorer with a similar interface. I'd like to duplicate windows (like I can tabs in Chrome), do Ctrl+Shift+T to re-open closed windows, etc.

They should also make a better use of multitouch touchpads natively in the OS rather than via crappy 3rd party drivers; ala MacBook. ;/

Quote: Original post by shurcool
Edit: Another example, each laptop manufacturer tends to include its own crappy software/drivers for its "custom" parts; like a backlit keyboard controlled via an ambient light sensor. This should be a part of the OS, well integrated, accessible and not a "hack" as they are now imo.

I agree with this. I hate all the HP tird programs on my computer, but I'm afraid to uninstall them because I have better things to do than research whether uninstalling them will render parts of my laptop useless.

Quote: Original post by shurcool
To make newer and cleaner APIs?

An Application Programming Interface can be changed without discarding all the underlying implementation code. Microsoft can create new APIs for Windows without starting from scratch. In fact, at one time it was proposed for .NET to become a Windows subsystem (Win32 is one Windows subsystem while SFU/SUA/Interix is the other).

Quote: Original post by shurcool
For example, how often do you see a screensaver come up, or a windows update, etc. while someone's presenting. It's mainly because the _OS_ doesn't know the user is doing a presentation (and of course that he didn't prepare well enough).

This can be implemented by simply adding a new API to deactivate the screensaver for a variable duration. No need to replace the entire Win32 implementation. Again.

Quote: Original post by shurcool
Edit: Another example, each laptop manufacturer tends to include its own crappy software/drivers for its "custom" parts; like a backlit keyboard controlled via an ambient light sensor. This should be a part of the OS, well integrated, accessible and not a "hack" as they are now imo.

Problem: While PC hardware is largely commodity, there are enough variations that the operating system relies on drivers to actually interface with hardware. For your vision to be realized either hardware vendors must all develop features to conform to a narrow specification, limiting their ability to differentiate in the marketplace, or Windows must grow even larger, subsuming all the driver functions into itself. Neither option is truly tenable.

Yes, Apple can do it, but Apple manufactures its own hardware. In fact, Apple builds its operating system just to sell its hardware. Microsoft is in a vastly different position, and some of the things that people wish Microsoft would do (often based on starry-eyed idealism or comparison with Apple) are simply not practical.

Quote: Original post by shurcool
Edit 2: +1 example, each IM app reinvents the wheel to determine if the user is away. Shouldn't the OS be responsible for this and the IM apps poll OS via an API. So you have to change your auto-away time in one place rather than in every app you install.

No. Jeez. Just install one multi-protocol IM app, like Adium for OS X or Trillian or Digsby for Windows. You can't push everything into the OS.

Quote: Original post by shurcool
They should also make a better use of multitouch touchpads natively in the OS rather than via crappy 3rd party drivers; ala MacBook. ;/

Again, Apple makes its own hardware and designs its OS for a limited set of hardware. Microsoft is in a much, much more difficult position and therefore simply has to rely on the hardware vendors to provide this critical piece of software. The real point here is that PC hardware vendors need to provide better drivers.

Quote: Original post by way2lazy2care
I agree with this. I hate all the HP tird programs on my computer, but I'm afraid to uninstall them because I have better things to do than research whether uninstalling them will render parts of my laptop useless.

Heh. Yet another thing I like about my Macs...

Not to derail, but since this is game dev forum, the racer was done right, as you keep both your cash and your racer, but the filer was wrong. for those who just click next will have a hard time on the next stage, but if you keep repeating and gaining cash, the next one is simple as you purchase most of it anyway.

To keep on topic, OS and PC for me is a tool, buy the right one at the right time. Take it from someone who skip Me and Vista. Or Win 3.11. (old skool dos user until win95. then again, when most serious game didn't bother with win 3.11 (or 95, for that matter, until DX3 and, if my memory serve me, Win98.) And so some other serious app. Looking at how things are going, i'll be using Win 7 for a very long time. To quote Ramit Sethi, I don't debate minutes, I just work on the results.

Quote: Original post by Oluseyi

Quote: Original post by shurcool
To make newer and cleaner APIs?

An Application Programming Interface can be changed without discarding all the underlying implementation code. Microsoft can create new APIs for Windows without starting from scratch. In fact, at one time it was proposed for .NET to become a Windows subsystem (Win32 is one Windows subsystem while SFU/SUA/Interix is the other).

Oluseyi, thanks for pointing out the flaws in my comments. I know they're a little far fetched, but I like to dream.

About the APIs, I really like simplicity. My point about starting over would be that it's a good opportunity to make one unified, complete and non-redundant set of APIs. Adding more APIs to the existing ones is not the solution, as it doesn't make things simpler; it makes them more complicated.

I like to strive for simplicity and take unneeded things away. Why should there be many different ways of doing the same thing, it only causes confusion; one developer uses one approach, second one uses another. Next you have bloat and you have to support both paths. It quickly becomes a mess.

Quote: Heh. Yet another thing I like about my Macs...

I'm really starting to think I should get one too. I already love my iPhone. But do they have something the equivalent of MSVC++ on the Mac? Is it just as good?

Quote: Original post by shurcool
About the APIs, I really like simplicity. My point about starting over would be that it's a good opportunity to make one unified, complete and non-redundant set of APIs. Adding more APIs to the existing ones is not the solution, as it doesn't make things simpler; it makes them more complicated.

And my point is that starting over is an incredible amount of work that doesn't present any inherent benefits. At all. If the objective is simply to clean up public interfaces, that can be done through deprecation and gradual retirement - and, in fact, that is done all the time. Raw Input unified and replaced several disparate and partly overlapping window messages. XInput replaced DirectInput for Xbox 360 Controller access.

Further, starting over has significant downsides: all the existing applications from all existing vendors would be rendered incompatible in a single stroke. This is a risky move as it forces software vendors to have to reimplement almost all of their products to continue to offer them for your OS. Apple has done it twice in the last decade: it tweaked the existing API for OS 8 and OS 9, branding it as "Carbon" for OS X, and it updated the old NeXTSTEP API and dubbed it "Cocoa" for OS X. Cocoa may not have been brand new, but it was effectively so to existing Mac OS (8/9) developers. Worse, after keeping them roughly equally capable through 10.4, Apple did an about face and dropped their plans for 64-bit compatibility in Carbon - which is part of why Adobe Creative Suite wasn't (and really still isn't) 64-bit on Mac OS X.

The prime value proposition of Windows is its backward compatibility. Businesses have invested billions in mission-critical applications that run on Windows, which severely limits Microsoft's ability to change the OS in ways that would affect the marketplace built up around it. There's a pretty well-known story from some Windows engineers on the release of Windows 2000. Testing at home one engineer's daughter complained that a program of hers (from the Windows 98 era) didn't run. They then dashed to CompUSA and bought every piece of software for Windows in the store, went back to the lab and ran exhaustive tests. They even added code that would detect if certain applications from major vendors (allegedly an enterprise IBM app) were running and switch some APIs to old, buggy behavior that the apps had been written to depend on!

All of which is to say that change is a lot harder than it seems, and has much broader repercussions than you may have considered.

Quote: Original post by shurcool
I like to strive for simplicity and take unneeded things away. Why should there be many different ways of doing the same thing, it only causes confusion; one developer uses one approach, second one uses another. Next you have bloat and you have to support both paths. It quickly becomes a mess.

In abstract I agree. In practice we're sometimes forced to engineer crutches into systems, or to leave them there. Removing interfaces from APIs is one of the hardest things to do, especially as the size of your userbase grows. Apple can drop an interface in 3 versions. There'll be some grumbling, but given the limited size of its developer community it'll go fairly smoothly. Microsoft would face incredible backlash and political pressure if it tried the same.

Quote: Original post by shurcool
I'm really starting to think I should get [a Mac] too. I already love my iPhone. But do they have something the equivalent of MSVC++ on the Mac? Is it just as good?

Yes, they have Xcode, currently at version 3.2.2. No, it's not as good as Visual Studio. The 4.0 release of Xcode is due "any day now," and will bring it a lot closer to par with MSVS in the opinion of many users, but Visual Studio remains an almost unparalleled software development environment, in my opinion.

There are other caveats to be aware of. Take a good look at what you use your computer for and make sure that a Mac will actually meet your current needs before you switch. There are lots of annoyances that come with playing in Apple's sandbox (e.g. really poor OpenGL driver support), but there are some really cool perks, too.

Quote: Original post by Oluseyi
Of course, eliminating the registry after spending so many years pushing developers away from .ini files would be the kind of move Microsoft never makes, since the entire value proposition of Windows is its legendary backwards compatibility. So this will never happen. Which makes the "reinstall but preserve data" useful, but still a suboptimal hassle since you'll then have to reinstall all your apps.

Isn't xml config files distributed with application a default .NET application configuration technology. It certainly seems a step away from the registry.

As for OSX plist and config files, I'm amazed at the unix philosophy from that POV. I've worked as an OSX sys admin for the last 9 months, and for eg. the entire process of backing up users account preferences is to take the User/Library folder. Never did a system update/application upgrade, just set up a network deploy tool and did the multi cast reinstall, since the preferences are so simple to restore. And the fact that the OS disk image can boot on any device without (laptop/imac/macpro) a single change with all the apps installed. It's a dream to administer. Sending some specific configuration to all users is just a matter of copying a file in to the preferences folder. And installing new apps comes down to the same thing in the most cases.
I got to see how the windows colleges were doing it, and it was just facepalm all the way, but they are still using XP and 2003 server so it's probably not the best comparison.

On topic, I agree with Miguel on this one, Windows 8 would be best served by a nice sandbox, not as restricted as the browser but not as open as a "system application".

Quote: Original post by irreversible
They NEED to rework their search functionality paradigm.

I totally agree. And not only for the OS, but for all their products (specially MSDN).

Quote: Original post by RedDrake
Isn't xml config files distributed with application a default .NET application configuration technology. It certainly seems a step away from the registry.

Per-application settings, yes. System-global settings? Those still have to go in the registry.

Quote: Original post by RedDrake
As for OSX plist and config files, I'm amazed at the unix philosophy from that POV. I've worked as an OSX sys admin for the last 9 months, and for eg. the entire process of backing up users account preferences is to take the User/Library folder. Never did a system update/application upgrade, just set up a network deploy tool and did the multi cast reinstall, since the preferences are so simple to restore. And the fact that the OS disk image can boot on any device without (laptop/imac/macpro) a single change with all the apps installed. It's a dream to administer. Sending some specific configuration to all users is just a matter of copying a file in to the preferences folder. And installing new apps comes down to the same thing in the most cases.

Yes, it's pretty awesome. [smile]

Quote: Original post by Oluseyi
There are lots of annoyances that come with playing in Apple's sandbox (e.g. really poor OpenGL driver support), but there are some really cool perks, too.

What!? Seriously? How bad is the OpenGL support, because I really do need that for game development.

It can't be that bad if they've got all those Steam games running on the mac now, can it?

Note, I don't need anything highly complicated; my games are simple and/or 2d.