In the April issue of Redmond magazine, Doug discussed the impact of Microsoft's ribbon interface and asked your thoughts:
I think Microsoft's ribbon is a disaster. All the products (Microsoft Office) for which the ribbon was introduced are failures. A product is a failure when users go shopping on the Internet looking for add-on tools to make the new ribbon looks like the classic interface.
The human brain prefers productivity; previous tasks -- such as cut, copy, paste, bold, italics -- now requires several clicks of ribbons. That is unproductive and inefficient. Microsoft doesn't get it. With all the money they have, they can not hire PHDs in artificial intelligence to tell them how the human brain works.
Microsoft have completely lost its credibility. Its new product launches are taken with a grain of salt. It's almost like, as Apple's Steve Jobs put it, "They have no taste."
- Duro
I'm not sure I agree with your conclusions, based on the fact you only received 30 letters, with no statistically correct sampling.
You were bound to get more angry, unsatisfied users, and not hear from most of us, who actually like it (my opinion, not a scientific poll). From what I know, the ribbon was not created by MS alone -- it was the result of an extensive usability research. Besides, complaining that UI changed is pointless. I'm actually glad that finally something new came to the Office UI.
If people spent a fraction of the time they spend complaining in learning the new features, they would gain more. Classic menus would not be able to contain all the new features, and if you don't want to change, just stick to the old version.
- Wanderlei
When I first installed Office 2007, I thought the ribbon was a pain. I could not understand why they needed to change things again. If you remember, the ribbon has changed with each of the releases of Office since Office 1997.
One of my first complaints was that there is nothing to inform you that the Office log in the upper left-hand corner actually did something. Once you figure that out, a lot of the major issues with Office goes away. My biggest epiphany was when one of our administrative people pointed out that you can basically do a right-click on almost anything to get to the dialog boxes that you are trying to find.
One of the biggest annoyances to me is that once you get to the dialog box you are looking for, it looks just like the Office 2003 dialog box. So what did Microsoft spend all of their time on? Apparently making Word and Excel more difficult to use for the person that had experience.
The ribbon has made Word and Excel easier to use for the newbie; however, for the person that has been working with Word and Excel for years and years, the ribbon has become a big pain in the neck to deal with, as you have to go hunting down things as to where Microsoft thought they made the most sense to place them. One of the biggest complaints I have heard from our administrative people is wondering why Microsoft hid some of the dialog boxes. They tell me that there are some dialog boxes that are so well hidden that you really have to go digging to find them.
However, the biggest problem we have come across is the Microsoft implementation of OpenXML for Word (i.e., DOCX format). When you use Change Tracking Mode with DOCX, there seems to be a problem with Word determining which changes are the current changes, depending on the user viewing the document. I was editing two large reports right after we converted and had instances with both where the changes I made were not seen by the administrative person. We were on the phone and what I was looking at and what they were looking at were two different things. We used DOCX for about two weeks until we realized that Word documents were getting corrupted and switched back to DOC formatting. This seems to be a hidden secret with Microsoft that this does not work. It will sure be nice when Microsoft gets this fixed.
- Jeff
Seems to be a good idea but Microsoft introduces new technologies and leave us (old tech guys) behind. Most of users get lost and can't find what they want until tech support does the research on it.
As you mention before, how hard would it be to leave the old clunky menu with the ribbon for 2007 and then phase out the old menu on 2010?
- Anonymous
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 07, 20100 comments
Competition is a great thing. In the case of microprocessors, AMD keeps Intel on its toes and we all benefit. Competition is the thing that actually enforces Moore 's Law.
Recently both AMD and Intel have upped the chip ante. AMD released new eight- and 12-core processors aimed at high-end servers, systems that seem perfect for virtualization.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 05, 20106 comments
I Recently spoke with Alex Eckelberry, CEO of Sunbelt, about new products. Alex reminded me how I make him feel old since we first met around 1988 when he was an Amiga software exec with Aegis Development and I was editor-in-chief of AmigaWorld magazine (in the process he made me feel old right back).
Sunbelt has some pretty cool new products, but we spent way more time talking about the effort the company puts into security research and making sure its tools are truly unique. Sunbelt puts a ton of effort into security research so it can track and prevent the latest infestations.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 05, 20101 comments
Curious if Windows 7 is as good as Microsoft says it is? Under a free enterprise trial program, you can play with Windows 7 all year long -- for free. The already existing free trial offer has been extended to Dec. 31, 2010.
If you are serious about Windows 7, you might be better off just buying the darn thing. If you like the trial version and want to buy the real thing, you have to do a clean install.
Meanwhile Windows 7 RC users are starting to get shutdown notices. The RC expires June 1.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 05, 20102 comments
Tom Kemp is not just CEO of Centrify, he is also one of 12 Windows gurus profiled three years ago in Redmond magazine.
Centrify, in essence, allows IT pros to use Active Directory to manage Linux, Unix and Mac computers. The idea is that nearly every shop has Windows Servers and thus has AD. Why not use that knowledge to manage everything else? Microsoft sure doesn't mind since it makes Windows the center of the data universe. Now that it has a few years under its belt, the still young Centrify has a full suite, including two brand new tools. Here's the rundown:
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 02, 20104 comments
Kids can't resist a good April Fools' joke, and neither apparently can those that run today's top Web sites. Here's a smattering of stunts from yesterday:
You've probably heard that Topeka, Kan. changed its name to Google, prompting Google yesterday to change its name to, you guessed it, Topeka. In more Google news, the New Zealand edition of PC World claimed Google is buying Microsoft for $2 billion. If they said $200 billion it would be more believable.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 02, 20101 comments
Kids can't resist a good April Fools' joke, and neither apparently can those that run today's top Web sites. Here's a smattering of stunts from yesterday:
You've probably heard that Topeka, Kan. changed its name to Google, prompting Google yesterday to change its name to, you guessed it, Topeka. In more Google news, the New Zealand edition of PC World claimed Google is buying Microsoft for $2 billion. If they said $200 billion it would be more believable.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 02, 20101 comments
Google may have an overall great reputation, but those in the know are very concerned with how the company deals with privacy. Simply put, Google knows a lot about what we do and hangs onto that information like grim death.
Now Microsoft claims the Chrome browser is designed to collect even more of our private actions. According to Microsoft, Chrome is little more than a keylogger, whereas IE 8 takes pains to protect your Internet comings and goings. The crux is that Chrome combines the search and address bars, so when you type in a URL is goes to Google just like any other search.
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 02, 20106 comments
One reader discusses that the IE security breech patched this week may not be the fault of Microsoft:
The issue is not just with browsers, but with us Web designers and developers.
We keep making our sites to require scripts and ActiveX controls. We keep using Flash, Silverlight and any other "cool" graphic appeal we get out hands on. We throw everything, including the kitchen sink, on the front-end just because we can.
All of these add to the security problem. Most of the security hacks are not from IE or any other browser, but from the junk we add. Our sites are totally unusable if one does not allow scripts, ActiveX, etc. So users must leave their browsers open to hackers.
Don't blame the browsers, blame ourselves.
-Anonymous
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Posted by Doug Barney on April 02, 20100 comments
With Google out and Microsoft staying the course in China, Doug asks whether a company should adhere to the laws and protocols of a host country. Here are some of your responses:
It is a privilege to provide another country with our services. Google accepted and followed the business rules of China. China, in turn, did not respect their business. Had China respected Google's business, they would have taken action against the hacker (yet perhaps it was the Chinese Government).
Business is based upon an agreement between two entities. Google held up their end of the bargain, yet China fell short on theirs by failing to care about such a vital matter that provided a great service (especially since they were able to censor the searches).
So, in essence, it is respectful to follow the rules of another "household" when providing a service for them. Yet, when those rules jeopardize the very core of who you are (the core of Google's whole business in this case) and what you stand for, do as Jesus instructed his disciples to do and "shake the dust from your feet in protest against them" (Acts 13:51 NIV) and move on. Money isn't worth jeopardizing your entire business.
In the article where Microsoft vows to play by China's rules, they are not any better than Google. Just wait until the core of their business is hacked and it will be very interesting to see how they respond. It's coming; it's just a matter of when.
-Dawn
In case you are not aware, the USA owes China trillions of dollars. They buy our Treasury notes and bills. They effectively loan us money. Lots of money. They are keeping us afloat as our national operating deficit continues to mount.
Their economy is growing at a faster rate than anyone's. Their combination of communism and capitalism is unique, but is apparently effective. They have a right to run their country however they decide.
So, if your company wants to do business with the fastest growing economy in the world, then it would behoove one to do all one can to follow their rules of engagement -- their laws as a sovereign nation -- to stay in their good graces to make some serious profit. The Chinese are running things in the world, economically speaking. They have a strong balance of trade, compared to the U.S. They deserve our respect.
- C. Sam
Bully for Microsoft. It appears that they are making some right moves.
If they are operating on Chinese soil, it's a little like civil disobedience. You violate the law at the risk of having to pay the consequences -- and in a place like China, those consequences could be pretty severe.
I think what Google did was courageous -- but in the long run, the right choice. Since the "Tiananmen Square" demonstrations (years ago now) and since China decided to open its markets to the West, the days of blatant censorship have been numbered. Slowly but surely, the Chinese people have begun to stand up to their government and the government's control over information is slipping away.
Every act of resistance, even from the outside, serves the long-term interests of the people of China and, indirectly, people everywhere.
-C. Mark
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 31, 20100 comments
At a recent hacker event, it only took two minutes to break through IE 8's defenses. Rather than get defensive or ignore the event, Microsoft addressed the issues head-on, arguing that if you really want to secure your browser, you need a defense-in-depth approach, battening down all your computing hatches.
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 31, 20107 comments
An IE remote code execution (RCE) flaw is so serious that it just can't wait till April's Patch Tuesday. Instead, an out-of-band fix was released this week.
The RCE issue occurs when someone is led to a malicious Web page and is lured into clicking. The fix applies to all current forms of IE -- from IE 5 to the latest, IE 8.
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Posted by Doug Barney on March 31, 20105 comments