The lineage of Windows. Good bad and ugly.

[nickdalzell]

I have an LCARS UI on my GS3 and it tries to be a launcher (and includes themed mini-apps to read email, browse the web, edit documents, a calculator and, more recently, a phone dialier and SMS messaging client) but it's not complete, but the dev is constantly updating it and adding more each day or two, and he has tons of future plans for it. i am interested in how far he goes with it myself. i think the cost is like $1. the dialer add-in is free.

His disclaimer is that it's not a launcher and isn't intended to be one, but given the constantly added functionality and mini-apps, it sure has plenty of launcher-type features.

My last laptop runs Windows 8 but as i stated i use desktop mode as the primary UI and hide the taskbar, and have disabled the annoying auto-update reboot problem they seemed to have added in more recently. i was sick of being booted out of games all of a sudden.

i got that machine specifically to play games. some older games such as Star Trek: Online and Flight Simulator X were the primary intentions (despite FSX being 6 years old, to run with the graphics maxed out requires a current era machine.) but i found some other fun games mostly sims, such as Euro Truck Sim 2, which i play occasionally. i hardly use a full laptop and mostly am a tablet computing and Chromebook kind of guy now. not sure if i'll get another laptop in the future or go full-console. My other laptop is a development machine with tons of Android SDK stuff and Java, that runs Linux and dual boots between it and Windows XP Pro. it used to have Win8 but it got deleted by accident during a Kubuntu partitioning bug. it decided to, on its own, to delete everything and create partitions and only because it refused to cooperate with my custom partition setup (the 'apply' button was greyed out)

 

[Dngrsone]

Auto reboot has been an issue since Vista... one of the many reasons why I went Linux.

 

[nickdalzell]

In Vista and 7, however, you got the option to postpone. whenever Windows 8 decides to reboot your machine it waits until the last 5 minutes to alert you, but doesn't even give you the option to say no. it took a bit of Googling, hopping through the hidden crap that they placed in their UI (they make you find Control Panel via search!) and then disable it. NO ONE likes to be playing Halo: Reach and in the middle of a gunfight only to be told that they got five minutes until the computer reboots itself, and there is NO WAY you can finish to the next save point in the game by that time.

now you know why i hardly touch that particular laptop, unless i feel the need to play Euro Truck Sim. i love simulators especially those with fully-functional cockpit views (where EVERY gauge, every idiot light works and every button works) and sadly, no games of that type seem to be nearly as nice or functional on tablets or consoles at this time. i was a bit let down that Forza Horizon didn't even have the same abilities to open doors, view the outside of your cars, or even have a fully 360-degree view of your interior like Test Drive Unlimited 2 had, and like TDU2, some of the gauges don't work. very odd that Forza Motorsport 4 had all the gauges working, and even damage affecting the handling/functioning of the cars and they took both those Forza standards out of Horizon. another gripe with Forza games is their lousy cosmetic damage. shattered windows never stay shattered nor fall out, and the cosmetic damage is very unrealistic. the damage sims are real but the car never looks as bad as it should be in the end. Need for Speed has replaced Forza for me in that they simulate all of it, the accurate cosmetic damage and even driver's vision being affected if hit hard enough.

 

[jseger9000]

Is there a playable C&C for Linux, yet? Is that free download compatible with Win 8?

Sorry I'm so late to reply. Don't know if there's a C&C that's compatible with Linux.

As for it working with Windows 8... the version I downloaded wouldn't install on Windows 7 because of it being 64 bit. So I instead downloaded a version here: Command & Conquer Gold - Patched Installer for Windows 7, 8 - Released for Free By EA

It says it works on Windows 8. And the price is right

 

[jseger9000]

I have not only my own UI for my many home screens (which mixes Metro, Flat, and 3-D rolled into one, and has an inverted theme, as well) but also use the older Google Apps and i forced older Play Store to run without updating itself, because i see that as far more 'modern' than what Google's attempting. I preferred how Android was before they tried to make it work for noobs.

I'm curious to see a screenshot of your home screen.

Have you had any issues by not updating the Play Store?

Windows 8 instead looks like it was made for kids. Windows phones all have the exact same UI and look alike, and since it's locked down you cannot change that. also, Windows Phone doesn't interest me while the app store is so bone dry. it reminds me of BlackBerry. i like customization and apps. for that it means Android.

My defense of Metro/Modern is based on usability. I wouldn't want to use Metro with a traditional mouse/keyboard setup. But for touch it's great and doesn't feel like a swipe from other touch based operating systems.

Don't forget, Microsoft tried releasing more traditional Windows on touchscreen. My wife had a Windows Mobile phone. It wasn't pretty. And there were Tablets with Windows 7. They didn't exactly set the world on fire.

I'm not in a hurry to move away from Android. But I do like what I've seen on Windows Phone.

 

[jseger9000]

While I'm championing unpopular UI decisions, I may as well say that I like Ubuntu's Unity. It was rough at first, but it improves with each new version.

BTW: is there a way in Unity to see a preview of all my Firefox tabs by hovering over the launcher icon the way I can in Windows 7?

 

[Dngrsone]

I like Unity as well. I just don't like the direction Unity is headed.

 

[nickdalzell]

Unity does away with many of the customization options often associated with Linux, apparently seen as 'dumbing down for noobs'. it seems to be spreading to all OSs lately. i worry that it will be the eventual future of computing and every UI will look like a child's toy and no further progress from there except backwards. no 3-D holographic UIs in our future. too complicated as Google often says.

As for pics of my screens, they are by no means current, as i have added things and widgets here and there, but here are a few:







Notification pull-down expanded:



I took many elements. i used a custom ROM that included the ability to change the status bar in many ways, including adding in custom wallpaper to the pulldown itself, and the ability to change fonts and colors, and the opacity of the notification cards, and toggles. for the home screens, i combined the most popular features of the Metro UI, Google's Flat UI, and the 3-D looking versions of Android Honeycomb wallpaper. i also added in some of my favorite iOS features, such as the badges, and i also hid the status bar in all apps. a simple tap at the top will reveal the bar itself, and a typical swipe from top to bottom expands the notification area as normal. it maintains the dark UI with the lighter elements on top of a darker background. the default email.apk is themed inverted, with white on black. basically it takes elements i hate and makes them work where they are not only nice to look at, but usable. i really like the category sections. i added a few extras, such as Games and Sports, and have widgets themed for the category. the Games and Sports has my games like Pinball and NBA Jam, with the ESPN ScoreCenter widget. there's a flat-text temperature widget on the main home screen now as well. got the idea from a post Funkylogic made in another thread. it also has hidden pie controls, revealed by tapping slightly onto the right hand side of the screen and holding to select options and releasing toggles it.

as for Play Store, it's fully-functional as it would be on the latest version, only it does not look like utter garbage. although i hardly use it anymore, it has yet to give me the same glitching that the newer version does.







Older Play Books with 3-D view:


Updated Home Screens:

 

[jseger9000]

Nick, your customization is a thing of beauty.

But doesn't the open source nature of both Android and Linux insure that you will always be able to tinker with and change UI decisions you don't like?

No UI is going to please everyone. I guarantee you that if Tony Stark released Stark OS, at the release of Stark OS 2, someone would be complaining about how they nerfed it.

 

[Dngrsone]

Nick, your customization is a thing of beauty.

But doesn't the open source nature of both Android and Linux insure that you will always be able to tinker with and change UI decisions you don't like?

No UI is going to please everyone. I guarantee you that if Tony Stark released Stark OS, at the release of Stark OS 2, someone would be complaining about how they nerfed it.

There will a always be limitations: hardware, infrastructure, security.

Of course, human nature being what it is, we are not happy unless we have a few complaints to voice.

 

[nickdalzell]

Since Play Store and many if not all Google apps are used often, if the UI isn't customizable (and it's not in those apps) it comes off on each device looking the same. that's Apple UI design. everything looking the same. I have often wondered if Android 5.0 will be all card based junk as well, possibly with many options left out as has been the case with their apps lately. it makes me a bit concerned. i hear this and that about a Card-based UI on the next version of Android. Google is only hinting at it currently by polluting every inch of their apps with it so far...

As for my customizations, today my GS3 just died--rebooted into a boot loop. i had to factory reset it and reconfigure everything. i'll upload some updated pics later. I don't know what it is about humidity and Samsung phones. today it got so steamed with sweat it must have shorted out and crashed the /data partition. My new theme is similar, yet, more personal.











Took four hours off my free time after i got home from work but i like this one better. it has the same stuff, Bobclock, Minimalistic Text, Metrostation Icon Pack, etc. i can't seem to find the temp widget anymore on the Play Store.

 

[jseger9000]

Since Play Store and many if not all Google apps are used often, if the UI isn't customizable (and it's not in those apps) it comes off on each device looking the same. that's Apple UI design. everything looking the same.

That's professional UI design. After all, you are talking about a collection of apps from a single designer. And not just any designer, but Google. If the UI randomly varied between the apps they would (rightly) be called amateurish. And would we be any better off as users?

 

[nickdalzell]

Google's UI had a much-more futuristic role before it got all flat and CGA-monitor looking

 

[jseger9000]

Google's UI had a much-more futuristic role before it got all flat and CGA-monitor looking

I think that it's just a fad. Like the retro car design that's was all the rage for a while. This too shall pass.

And you've gotta admit, it's still more futuristic than Apples dials and needles and skeumorphic design.

 

[nickdalzell]

dials and needles? must've missed that one in iOS. i always thought iOS looked pretty neat and 3-D looking, even if it has looked exactly the same since 2007 overall

 

[jseger9000]

dials and needles? must've missed that one in iOS. i always thought iOS looked pretty neat and 3-D looking, even if it has looked exactly the same since 2007 overall

Here's one example (though not the one I was thinking of when I wrote that post):

 

[jseger9000]

I don't dislike iOS, but I do think it is boring looking compared to Android. I love the widgets, the free-form icons and the freedom of Android.

 

[nickdalzell]

if Android ends up looking like the Play Store currently does it will look far more boring than iOS, unless iOS 7 looks as boring and has a lot of the same WebOS elements. think Google will be authentic and add the 'too many cards' error?

 

[Thatdad]

if Android ends up looking like the Play Store currently does it will look far more boring than iOS, unless iOS 7 looks as boring and has a lot of the same WebOS elements. think Google will be authentic and add the 'too many cards' error?

I can't see the whole KLP version being flat card design. But we can never know. We'll just have to see eh?

 

[nickdalzell]

Perhaps, but i would get a chuckle if, instead of seeing 'Unfortunately, Google Play has stopped' i see 'Sorry, Too many Cards'