Windows 11 is getting a new start menu. EDIT: this replaces the "all apps" page by default, not the home screem
More info about it here: https://www.ghacks.net/2024/08/13/windows-11-start-menu-is-getting-a-new-layout-to-organize-your-apps/
I love how microsoft never learns their lessons.
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Looks like they're going full speed ahead towards their mobile/tablet/TV/PC unishittification.
I believe they want you to seamlessly transfer stuff from device to device, regardless of which, where and why.
unishittification, that's a new one.
I like it!
but why not use an iterface optimized for each device?
I mean, I know the answers, but I find all of them deeply insulting.
Hmm. Not a marketing person, but I'll try to make an idea that sounds only slightly insulting.
Think of it like this. You're working from home, a coworker is out in the field doing live research and your boss will be doing a presentation in front of the shareholders. The coworker in the field records data with their phone, sends it to your laptop, you arrange it for your boss, send it to their tablet and the boss just slides it over on the giant TV as they take the credit for your work.
Or a more personal example. You're at home in the mood for a movie or a game on your budget smart TV, but you're too lazy to do all the whatever to get it going. So instead just sync your phone, PC/Xbox and TV with a Microsoft/Xbox account and do everything remotely using your phone/tablet as a controller, from the comfort of your couch.
It's Microsoft NSYNC, baby! And that's why everything has to be tailored to fit your lovely, greasy fingers. Comfortable comfort. You know you want it!
okay but that's all back-end. I actually have an example like this!
okay, so, if im playing an old DRM'd game I have on my desktop, and want to switch to my steam deck, I can do that.
but the interface that works on my steam deck (controller with touch pad, but no keyboard) is maddening to use on my desktop. I know, because I tried it once-steam calls it 'big picture mode' and it feels like being crippled when I use it on a computer with a full keyboard and mouse.
but I pick up the deck, and it's nice. it functions, its interface is pretty close to perfect. and if I tried to use either of those on my phone, i would take a train up to washington and fucking beat a valve employee to death with it.
what you're talking about is back end interoperability. totally unrelated, and I agree it's good! also, doesn't really exist anywhere near as much as it should, but that's sort of a different problem. see, each of those platforms has different affordances and design conventions. now, you can run compatibility and seamless use, so the video just appears where you want it. I actually have a slightly janky (but best I've found) version of that set up on my LAN.
but I would like to be able to click around and take a broader view of the incoming shit on my desktop with multiple 4k monitors. i absolutely need gesture support on my tablet, and on my phone I need gesture support, plus ABSOLUTELY DO NOT have space to display multiple things at once.
I don't need hamburger menus on my fucking desktop. I got space, and my cursor is precise enough the 90s/00's are the best we've done with UX in that space (because we stopped trying as soon as the iphone dropped). having ONLY ONE THING displayed at once on my desktop is fucking annoying. I have 7680 horizontal pixels over a few feet of space on my desktop, no one thing takes up that much fucking space, nor should it, and I like the ability to click and drag shit from different apps and move shit around and do all that good crap. it's great! and on my phone or tablet, that doesn't really work. I should be able to click and drag to my tablet, if I want to set that up (my tablet is air gapped because that's easier than degoogling and I mostly read+music on it) but my tablet needs a totally different interface, and anything that DOES work for my tablet, where im only ever really doing one thing I need to look at at once, is going to be frustrating as hell on my desktop.
Thanks for the in-depth reply and for correcting me.
And you're right to be dissatisfied, but the tech savvy might not be the intended audience. The burger crowd might be instead. They outnumber the tech crowd by the billion. It's just more profitable.
they outnumber the 'tech crowd' because we use technology to infantilize outselves, of which this is a prime example.
It's bad for us, but it makes them money, so they are incentivised to not care.