Hacker News Reader

Comment by logicalmonster | Hacker News Reader

Windows is sort of the default computer choice for a lot of normal, non-technical people, so I can understand that Microsoft wants to simplify things for them by taking some inspiration from MacOS.

The problem is that Windows is also used by many businesses, network admins, and tech enthusiasts too.

These users are in conflict.

What Microsoft should be doing in my opinion is using its Windows Home and Windows Professional packages to divide the complexity. Windows Home users can have the simplified experience, and Windows Pro users can have the full power. Wouldn't that make everybody happy?

View on HN

> Windows is sort of the default computer choice for a lot of normal, non-technical people, so I can understand that Microsoft wants to simplify things for them by taking some inspiration from MacOS.

If this is their motivation they have no clue. What messes the most with normal users is changing familiar functions and metaphors. The cost of adapting to changing UI for normal users is much higher than sticking to an older, even less-optimal, one. Sometimes this even causes a loss of function for that user as they give up on trying to relearn e.g. how to make text bold for nth time.

>Windows is sort of the default computer choice for a lot of normal, non-technical people, so I can understand that Microsoft wants to simplify things for them by taking some inspiration from MacOS.

That's a really good point and I agree with your solution. I doubt Microsoft would want to do the work involved in creating essentially two versions of Windows, though.

They did it before, and then unified it. The Win95 line had a distinct core compared to the NT line. It was unified under XP. XP had multiple editions (home, professional, a couple others). I no longer recall the major differences, but I think the big one was that professional supported corporate provisioning while Home did not (which meant if you were a nerd like me and had a home LDAP server Home couldn't use the login information from it, IIRC).

However, I don't recall the user interfaces being fundamentally different between those versions. And that's what they'd need now if they wanted a smartphonified desktop OS for the "average home user" (whatever that means) and the now over 25-year old interface for professionals.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com