[OPINION] Re: Windows Absolute Control

[Richard Gaskin]

Stephen Barncard wrote:
 >> AT> I think that's a very user-unfriendly form of registration;
 >> but that's the way Microsoft handles client licenses... oh, right,
 >> I guess that's what you were saying...
 >
 > Yes and a major reason why I won't do a project in Windoze. I got
 > my first cheap Wintel box last year ($300) to check web pages. I
 > was shocked one can't even change a hard drive in a XP Home system
 > without checking in to Galactic Command Center and going through
 > a procedure.

While Microsoft takes a lot of justifiable flack for things like its 
anti-trust practices (an ethical lapse some say Apple is not immune to 
either), given the increasing use of "phone home" activation systems I'm 
not sure it's fair to single Microsoft out on that one.

Many companies require online activation, including Adobe and even one 
of the Mac community's most revered publishers, Ambrosia:
<http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum14/HTML/000052.html>

WebMerge uses an online activation system, and an increasing number of 
my clients are asking for it for their apps too.

Online activation is popular because it works:  being able to verify how 
many times a single reg code is in use can be valuable, and in many 
cases is the only way to prevent unauthorized use.  Done well it 
requires no additional action beyond what one would ordinarily expect to 
enter into a registration window, and the transaction itself usually 
takes no longer than the arbitrary pause most developers put into reg 
windows anyway to avoid brute-force cra cki ng efforts.

In the early days when Micro$oft first adopted it and was lambasted for 
it, I avoided it like the plague.  But after Ambrosia's widely-read 
article failed to elicit significant negative feedback, it seemed an 
idea whose time has come.


 > Hopefully Revoluton will raise the bar on Windows software and
 > interface design in general, as many of the designs I've seen
 > on common Windows programs are downright stupid, ugly,
 > counterintuitive and hard to use.

Sadly it's too late to change many of them, like their placement of 
confirm/cancel buttons in dialogs being counter to how the Western mind 
scans for information.  Their backwards decision is now so widely used 
that the world must accommodate it or risk losing the greater benefits 
of consistency and muscle memory.

Since Micro$oft has the world's most well-funded usability lab I'd like 
to believe they'll boldly recognize Longhorn as an opportunity to break 
with their past and instead actually use the information coming from 
their lab.

We'll see....

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  __________________________________________________
  Rev tools and more: http://www.fourthworld.com/rev