Ken Springer wrote:

...winston wrote....
....and the person responsible for the Ribbon in Office is now the
person responsible for Windows! (link/video of her comments on
Windows 8 past and future provided earlier)

But that doesn't mean that:

1. People like it
2. It is/was a good idea.

My observation of the majority of computer users/consumers is they are
still basically ignorant about them.

Take MS Word, for example. How many users of Word have it because they
think/believe they "have" to have Word to be compatible with other word
processor users? I don't think they know that almost every word
processor these days read and write doc/docx files. Even the free
ones. And you aren't limited to Windows for this! I use a Mac, and the
free word processor I use (for a little while longer, anyway :-) ) can
read and write Word files. And the one I'm going to look at as a
replacement also reads and writes the files.

I think too many users choose Windows and MS Office products because
they are sheeple. Everyone else has it, everyone else says that's what
they need, so that's what they buy. There's other reasons too, such as
it's hard to find Mac outlets, even harder to see a Linux box, but I'm
referring to the aggregate result.

And my point regarding the Ribbon was that if the person in charge of
the Ribbon (and the entire Office program) continued on the same UI path
with three versions of Office (07/10/13)it's unlikely her(Julie) and
MSFT's path for Windows 8 and later won't be much different than what is
known today for some time. The organization is just too large to
implement change in less than 2 product cycles....thus if you use or
depend upon Windows (or Office) wysiwyg for quite a few years.

I do think the Start button may come back but primarily as a tool for
the existing and other utilities many that are present on the
'lower-left-corner' flyout menu (i.e. not for installed software or
applications)....thus a Start button but not a Program Menu.

Like it ? Good idea ? Who knows. What I believe is people accept what's
available and for the most part adapt to what they have, and as far as
Windows is concerned when then happens the built-in telemetry captured
from is MSFT's primary data set for UI feedback which in effect confirms
usage, objective, and direction. The MSFT controlled support community
(Support personne and forum moderator but not others) isn't much
different than the past...it's damage control with coached replies for
known or rising issues with possibly skewed visions of becoming or
branding it as a community....afaics, it just one big 'BOG' - a bunch of
guys hanging out, pretty much like what nntp has become.


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps