You know, it should be obvious
by the fact that I blog here at TUMW that I really want to like Microsoft products. And in many cases I do... But
Microsoft is making it harder and harder to figure out what they're up to, and it's really starting to get to
me.
Now, it's important to note that I've never owned a single Apple product. Yet somehow Microsoft has me longing for the design simplicity inherent in Apple products. For a funny/sad illustration of this, check out this video comparing Apple and Microsoft's product packaging design ethic.
Take, for example, email. If you want an email client from Apple, your choice is, well, Mail. That's it. One choice.
Microsoft, on the other hand, just announced the release of Windows Live Mail Desktop. I know we joke about Microsoft's horrible naming practices, so there's no point pointing out this atrocity. So, let's get this straight... if you want to do email with a Microsoft product, there's Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail, Windows Live Mail and now Windows Live Mail Desktop. Granted some of these will be retired or merged soon, but this is verging on ridiculous.
And while I'm not a huge fan of Google's software, none of the email clients mentioned above that I've had the opportunity to use hold a candle to Gmail, and I'm willing to bet Windows Live Mail will be no different. I can tolerate text ads in a web application I'm choosing to use. I won't tolerate graphical ads in a desktop application. Yikes.
[via Robert McLaws]
1. Very dissapointed 'bout the graphical ads, but no biggie, give it a day after its gonna come out, and you can be sure someone will make a hack to remove the ads :)
What I dont like is that these graphical ads are in Windows Live Mail also... I mean look @ Gmail - you dont even notice the ads, they're just nice, simple and minimal; Live Mail is just plain bloated w/ ads
Posted at 7:48PM on Mar 1st 2006 by Michael La Framboise