<rant>
I just got a new ThinkPad with Microsoft Windows Vista installed. The
culture shock has been enough that I felt compelled to post this. One of
Conley's Corollaries is that "No PC software upgrade is complete until the
user interface has been entirely rewritten." Never was that corollary more
true than with Windows Vista. The interface, while visually stunning, bears
little resemblance to any Windows operating system preceding it. Standard
system utilities are completely different, and located in completely
different places. THEY TOOK THE MENU BAR! THE WHOLE F'ING MENU BAR!
(quick, somebody throw me a fifth of JD). This change alone is staggering.
The menu bar has been there for 20 years, and now poof! It's gone with a
wave of Bill's mighty hand. I can't begin to imagine how many BILLIONS, if
not TRILLIONS of dollars in lost productivity are going to be flushed down
the toilet when corporations around the world roll out this POS. And we'll
all just take it like the lemmings we are.
If a z/OS developer had ever tried to foist this much change on the
mainframe platform, that developer and their product would have died a quick
death. The mainframe environment would never stand for the kind of changes
we see Microsoft and their PC ilk routinely throw at us. IBM still leads
the way in protecting the customer's investment (except when they don't,
like killing FLEX-ES for PWD, but I digress), a concept that Microsoft has
never embraced. This is one of the mainframe's biggest strengths, and it
was really brought home for me by Windows Vista. Can't wait to see how much
PC software I have to go out and buy for Vista compatibility (yeehaw).
For those of you yet to experience Windows Vista, you're in for a treat
(not). Gimme ISPF any day. I can still run my 20-year old dialogs, but
Windows changes its interface every 20 minutes. I'll stick with the
mainframe.
</rant>
Regards,
Tom Conley
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