New Start button makes a compelling sell

Check out what the Sydney Morning Herald, one of the most respected newspaper medias in Austraila, said about Windows Vista.

Aero is Vista’s new graphical user interface that promises to brighten up your desktop, and will include a highly stylised Start button, redesigned program menus, intricately detailed icons and various other visual cues.

Do not buy Vista for the new kernel and framework, improved security, enhanced shell, better searching, new bundled games, new Media Center, speech recognition, better networking, and every other new feature in Windows Vista. But please, do try out the new Start button. Microsoft thinks it is their best ever. It makes a compelling sell.

Windows Vista start orb

This is why mainstream media and technology news does not mix.

9 insightful thoughts

  1. Well if the mainsteam media started reporting about things like the kernel, .NET 3.0, security, new networking stack, etc, most people would probaly stop reading half way through the article because they couldnt get their minds around the technobabble. Saying ‘Hey! Look at the pretty buttons!’ gets more attention then an expert yammering on about security for the length of the article.

  2. @Jason: I agree with what you say about technobabble in the media, but I think what Long is getting at (aside from the sarcasm) is that the they mention the new and improved looking Start button as one of the best graphical features of Aero in Vista, when it really is kind of a feature that, with all the other graphical advancements in Vista, is insignificant in comparison to, say, live thumbnails and the 3D Window Switching feature.

  3. The 3D Windows Switching feature also has a name, but that name is reserved for the technical elite. 😛

  4. I think this is taken out of context. If you read the SMH site, that is just one aspect that they mention about the operating system. I suppose the public’s first reaction with Vista is “ooh look at that start button” and so natually the reporter mentioned that.

    Then again, the last few paragraphs of the article seems to be completely taken out of context since it’s about security risks and the ‘features’ were added in for public awareness i suppose. Strange coming from SMH.

    And FYI, technically, its called Flip 3D (where’s my flip 2D?)

  5. @Anthony Tam: The next two features they mention aren’t exactly jaw dropping either, but granted they are features. My perception was, if an average ocnsumer read this, they’re going to think one of the ‘best’ features of Windows Vista is a new start button. It doesn’t sound very compelling.

  6. I’ve been using Windows Visa “Home Premium Edition” and I absolutely hate the black task bar. It is now harder than ever to quickly, visually tell which button on the black task bar corresponds to the active window. If you look carefully enough, it’s the “even blacker” button. This sucks bad enough to leave the fancy start button behind and go back to the Windows classic design for better usability. I haven’t figured out how to change the black color. Let me know if you know how.

  7. I think that the sock Leong review on the website is much more acurate than this on, please check it out before someone else does

  8. well, the new button , the new aero graphics,and lets face it, the new operating system in full is a ripoff of linux and mac.

Comments are closed.