Wow, the new version of MS Office looks HOT. They’re definitely taking a page from Apple’s book, and it’s the right decision. I might actually pick up a copy of this, when it comes out.
Space Ninja
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It looks OK if that’s the way all of Longhorn looks. If I install this on XP and the menus and windows all look different than everything else I’ll get mad. I’d rather have consistent but ugly instead of inconsistent and some-ugly and some-pretty.
Well, we already have inconsistant and ugly… This is at least a step in the right direction. If you read the article, they talk a lot about how this isn’t just a re-branding or simple skin slapped on top of the existing product.
Ala Apple, this is a complete rethinking of the user interface, and an attempt to streamline a set of programs that has literally thousands of commands, thus rendering the old toolbar-and-menu style unusable.
They also point out that this design won’t be applied to every program because not every program needs this drastic a retooling. I’m not sure I agree with that, but it does fit with the logic they’re presenting about only reworking the programs that have become too cluttered to use.
Windows Paint or Notepad wouldn’t get much use out of this style.