Remember hearing about those natives in the South Pacific who, awed by the power and majesty of the airplanes that flew overhead, thought to invoke that same power and majesty for themselves by building a mockup of the airplane for their own use as a deity? Only to find that just having the form of a substance doesn't grant you the power of the original substance?
Microsoft products can be like that. The people who design (as distinct from develop) them were molested as children by Star Trek: The Next Generation. They saw the sleek design, the ability to touch one button and have hot tea appear/phasers fire repeatedly/set course for a distant destination, and they thought:Oooooohhh. I want that. So when they grew up, and became designers, that's what they designed. Only, like those fanatics who spend tens of thousands of dollars to make their home look just like the bridge of the Enterprise, they find to their dismay that simply having that magic button on the magic console in the magic bridge chamber that used to be my living room doesn't actually grant the power implicit in the original.
So, since they can't fix that, they do what they can. Add colors, and sounds, and themes. Jazz it up. Make it funky. They redefine what 'improve' means' to be 'we changed it, and now it's allllllll different'. Mo' bettah! That airplane is sleek! Beautiful! Got all kinds of bell and whistles! Way better than before!
It just doesn't fly.
2 comments:
Hahaha I just recently learned about cargo cults.
I am a windows user and I'll have to agree with you. I'm tired of shiny new packages for something that isn't much different (just more expensive).
I haven't tried out Windows 7, so I am holding out hope that maybe something, anything will be different this time around.
As my daughter says, good luck with that! One friend says MSoft puts out a product, and the next product is that one, fixed. So W7 should be Vista, Fixed. Hope so.
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