it was a big struggle in the industry to shift people away from windows.
5 Likes
On the desktop the Ubuntu on Windows feature works really well for me and it’s nice to have bash and all the linux tools without needing to fire up a VM or try to do all the stuff that we used to do with cygwin or gnu ports. I’ve heard it still has some quirks that affect some people, depending on what they’re doing with it, but it’s way better than what we used to have. If I do want a full linux desktop, Virtualbox works great for that (cool with seamless windowing mode and shared folders). But for all the embedded/hardware/special-purpose stuff that ran on special versions of Windows, that wouldn’t really matter. Never understood why someone would want Windows on a system like that anyway.
4 Likes
Had a user event with Honeywell and the VP over the VMU (vehicle mounted units) stated after the number of times Microsoft has entered the mobile device market (WinCE, Windows Mobile, Windows 10 Mobile) and then dropped it. He would never look at a MS OS for a mobile device again.
6 Likes
Because they are all on legacy software that plays well with Windows. They still use IBM mainframes as their main databases.
6 Likes
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Requiring people to read certain terms to set up an account.
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Only showing these terms in a small modal dialogue box.
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Not allowing users to page down to read the rest of the terms in the small modal dialogue box.
4 Likes
I just can’t even.
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6 Likes
“You should worry about everything.”
I like that.
8 Likes
“It’s adorable how you people think that privacy still exists.” Alec Hardison (Leverage).
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I’m not sure what the reasoning behind hiding a news story behind a “Show more” button is. Like, seriously, do you think I clicked that link to not read the story? And it’s not like the content isn’t being loaded anyway, so it doesn’t save bandwidth either.
Anyway, I don’t mind clicking on the button so much. What grinds my gears is that the page waits until the content is fully loaded, and then collapses the page behind the button.
So, I’m reading the first four or five paragraphs, getting into the story, and then it suddenly disappears on me, and I have to scroll up, click the button, and then scroll back down and find the place where I left off.
If you’re going to hide the story behind a button, load the damned button first.
Is that so much to ask?
15 Likes
I got to use it!!
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Its only purpose is for proof of reading. They use it for advertising rates.
Agreed it sucks for users, but weirdly that’s not something need sites seem to worry about.
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So this afternoon during two conversations I heard a total of three falsehoods about a software application.
Two were claims it didn’t include features which it does in fact include. One was that it was “slower” to use than a competitive tool.
I know people can just be plain misinformed, but I’m trying to get a consensus here. Okay yes, I do prefer the maligned tool (having evaluated both thoroughly), but if we had to use the other tool I wouldn’t cry that much. I already work in Windows all day as it is, so I’m used to being frustrated.
The thing is, even if we pick the other tool as the standard, the tool I like best isn’t going anywhere because it’s part of a suite, and we already use parts of the suite as standards for other things.
It just drives me nuts when people are lazy about what they say about tools, especially when they are supposed to be using research for their jobs.
9 Likes
It’s sometimes interesting to find out the great lengths people will go to with convoluted workarounds to do things that they thought their software didn’t do but actually would’ve been pretty easy if they’d just known. I’ve certainly done it with the software I use.
If you’re in the business though, it’s not good when your customers cancel or don’t buy in or renew because of that. My company has someone whose job is to sit with customers, see how they’re actually using the system, where their pain points are, and make sure they actually know what it can do.
Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like a popular position, or has a tendency to lose priority or something. Sounds like a valuable role, they can provide us feedback on the design and functionality while also helping the customers and improving customer relations, increasing customer retention. But we don’t hear much from them at all except occasionally that someone new was hired for it or this year we’re actually going to do it for realsies.
3 Likes
That’s exactly the role off the person who is claiming the tool doesn’t do the things it actually does. Like seriously, they are getting to shut down A/B testing while simultaneously trying to set up testing on our software.
So you can see why this irks me. They’re on a team that’s supposed to be championing design thinking, yet they went to be experts on something they’ve obviously not done much work with.
4 Likes
I hate that.
As the Keeper of the Sanctioned Applications I will often go through the never ending catalog of software and try to minimize some overlap.
Never goes well.
I end up just having everything packaged and try to keep it current.
If you want a sisyphean task, that’s one right there.
3 Likes
content warning: racism
Techbros in their “genius” will be the death of us all. Today, at work, the mcafee removal captcha displayed a blatantly offensive captcha because 2019 is the worst… while i had a client behind me.
Even in the '80s it was possible to make a Mac crash so hard you got a command prompt and scrolling text instead of a GUI, but I only saw it once, in an actual Apple building
Google is not helping me figure out if this was something the outside world was aware of
6 Likes
Only four letters? That’s hard to prove.
Nigerians
Niagara Falls
New Gladiators
Nottingham Rangers
Ng Rhuys (this is the first thing I read)
Sometimes it’s not the prompt, but the prompted.
6 Likes