[OT] How long before..

[Scott Rossi]

I like this thread (and will try to keep opinions short...).

IMO, long term, I don't think the OS developers care about legacy/power
users -- as you say, they think they know best.  Many people have carelessly
tossed around some variation of the Gretsky quote "Don't skate to where the
puck is, skate to where the puck will be."  The OS developers all think they
know where the puck will be, but leave the legacy users questioning whether
they're even playing the same game.  I have no clue, but have to think there
must be *some* logic involved somewhere.

Re: Flash, I totally agree.  I've said before, I think Adobe made a mistake
with ActionScript 3 and its complexity, because they killed the
approachability of Flash and pushed it toward seasoned programmers (in an
attempt to change its perception as a "real" programming environment,
according some accounts).  Colin may have a different take on this.  Of
course, the point is now moot.

In any event, to bring this slightly back on topic, I'll also say again that
I think the Flash paradigm had it right: describe objects with low weight
vector information, and render the results with bitmap style effects.
LiveCode can more or less do this now, and hopefully, with some
enhancements, we'll be able to take advantage of this structure and continue
playing the game with the OS developers, regardless of screen resolutions or
missing menu options.

But keep it easy to use.  And get it done tomorrow.  And fix the bugs that
are important to me.  :-)

Regards,

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, UX Design



Recently, Chipp Walters wrote:

> I was talking with Chris about this base on:
> 
> 1) Mountain Lion now tries to do automatic tasks, like download stuff when
> the lid is closed and you're on battery power, thus killing your battery
> without you knowing. And now with Gatekeeper complaining about anything you
> try and install-- and wt­, iCloud is just amazingly bad. Docs in iCloud now
> automatically 'sync' but if you open a Mac doc created on on an iPad, it
> will lose formatting, then SYNC, and kill all the formatting from the
> original-- and amazingly there's no cloud backup (like DropBox does). And
> nope, there's still no "Save As.." because Apple believes they know better
> than us when to invoke that command. All in all-- stuff to be wary of.
> 
> 2) Win 8 is having similar huge issues. They're trying to 'out think' the
> users creating all sorts of problems. Reviews for Windows 8 seems to be
> more bad than good.
> 
> 3) We're starting to 'remember' the 'last great version' of programs like
> Photoshop, etc..
> 
> So, I'm wondering... how long before we quit upgrading everything and start
> sticking to a single legacy OS and/or programs? For instance, even though I
> own the latest version of Flash, I still enjoy using Flash 5 for
> diagramming, wireframing and creating 'blueprint roadmaps.' At what point
> do the OS'es get so much in the users way that they're no longer good for
> us legacy power users?
> 
> Just wondering... not predicting.. yet.