[OT] "They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know."

[Chipp Walters]

One other thing about "Ribbon." Microsoft now has incorporated it into it's
own MS Office User Interface Guidelines. So, they encourage licensees, or
actually demand they abide by certain rules or else they violate the terms
of the license the User Interface Guidelines. Which pretty much means they
can sue you if you choose to license their Guidelines, but don't use them as
they demand.

So, what's the catch? Well, if you make any program which competes with a
Microsoft program, you cannot use their Ribbon interface api or license
their MS Office User Interface Guidelines. While this is of course their
prerogative as a software application developer, it goes against all we've
ever been taught about Operating System UI Guidelines, which attempt to make
the software interface similar and thus easy to use for all users-- not just
all programs except for ones which compete against us.

So, in this case the 'Gang of Ribbon,' while certainly thinking outside the
box on one level, decidedly thought only of themselves and 'inside the box'
on another.

Seems like the Justice Department did us all a great disservice by not
breaking up this monopoly when they had the chance.