Please Please Please Fix...

The interface in Parallels for OS X. Seriously, we applaud your bringing software to our platform... however, you are designing software for the Porsche of the computer world... yet it looks like a Chevy Nova.

What's wrong with a nice, clean metal interfiace aka iTunes, Onyx, Safari, or any of the OTHER millions of Apps for OSX?

Please... we will gladly pay our money... just give us something that looks nice.

We are NOT WINDOWS users... and will NOT just accept whatever crap you put forth!

Thanks again for everything!

-Bill.

 

Nova vs. Porche

I gotta respectfully disagree here - the interface is fine to me, I'd much rather they spend their time working things like USB support and continue to improve stability as they have been. I actually prefer the different window look because i can FIND it on my screen - so many times I click on a window thinking it's a finder window, but instead i bring iTunes to the front or Safari because they all look alike.

 

I have to side with Bill on this one... this thing looks GROSS

I don't understand how you choose the wrong window... not trying to be a jerk... but... if you want the finder, click on the finder in the dock. If you want iTunes, click on itunes in the dock.

or... if you are doing apple+tab to switch between applications... don't know how you get confused there...

And if you are using Expose, then when you pause your mouse over the window you want... it tells you what it is... how anyone can confuse the Finder with iTunes is 100% beyond me...

yeah... guys... fix this ugly interface!

 

<< Please... we will gladly pay our money... just give us something that looks nice. >>

Yes! I propose that Parallels hire 10-20 user interface designers/programmers, that have been trained and approved by Apple, to create a specific user interface for that platform's version of Parallels -- and pass <all> of the cost on to the price of the OSX version no matter how high it drives the price. After all, we have been informed that Mac users are in the upper 5% of the population and they should be willing/able/enthusiastic to support an 'eye-candy only' effort to the fullest. I think that this thread should be made stickey so that all of the Mac based Parallels users can sign up to support this approach, and they should be billed in advance since they are already getting a price break compared to the rest of us.

 

I think that a fairly small amount of work could be done pretty easily to make the user interface in Parallels more palatable. It really does feel very out of place on my Mac.

It's still an awesome program, given how well everything works, but it would be a much more enjoyable experience to use if the interface were cleaner.

 

Two quick things. This issue has never come up for the main version. You may be under estimating the overhead necessary to maintain two distinct user interfaces on the same product.

I've never used a Mac so I don't understand your criticism, but for me it is quite straight forward, easy to use, and informative about what is going on. The words 'out of place on my mac' and 'interface were cleaner' just don't make sense to me with regard to Parallels' window. I've used all versions of windoze and nearly every desktop available on Linux at one time or another, and 100s of applications on those platforms written by numerous vendors/open source developers. But I've never been as offended as you folks seem to be about one application's window dressing.

What exactly would you change and what would you change it to?

 

This is just silly. Are you honestly saying that the interface (which you will only interact with for less then a minute a session) is going to be the determining factor as to weather or not you buy this program? Do you honestly belive that Mac users will not buy a inexpensive, high-quality virtualization application because the UI doesn't have enough blinking lights and shiny panels?

I, for one would much rather they concentrate on the substance of the program (ie USB support, full screen support, etc) and leave the perfectly fine UI as it is.

Michael

 

Kaufman,

Welcome to a more advanced world of computing. In short the answer is Yes to the above. Just because someone has the average capacity to create a possibly functional yet unique program does not mean that they've earned the right to peddle their wares to us Mac users and expect their app to grace our desktops without critique. They have to pass the aesthetic acid test first. I'll add that its not all about "blinking lights and shiny panels" but more about compliance to a higher, more humanly adaptive interface, one thats been continually defined over the course of years of use and feedback by a more refined and intellectual user base.

We really do Think Different .... its not just a slogan its a mantra .... and as time passes the word is spreading .....

"I wish him [Bill Gates] the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger." ~ Steve Jobs

 

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So being a broader person is about doing hard drugs and attending secret religious gatherings?
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Funny, I always kinda pictured OS X and MacOS in general as more being a Saab. The owners are cultish, will put up with little annoyances, quirks and at times outright counterintuitive controls because they either have never tried anything else, or just because it's not from the great evil empire...

The MULTIPLE hissy fit threads over little things like the UI are proof enough of the cultishness and undue elitism. You'd almost think it was Ikea.

Mind you, I own a G4 and a G3 iBook - I'm just not as 'cultish' about it as some others as I use them more for testing and light browsing, and get my REAL work done on a A64 3800+.

 

It is a bit like Ikea really. For those not in the know .... "IKEA is a fully immersive, 3D environmental adventure that allows you to role-play the character of someone who gives a s**t about home furnishings. In traversing IKEA, you will experience a meticulously detailed alternate reality filled with garish colors, clear-lacquered birch veneer, and a host of NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS (NPCs) with the glazed looks of the recently anesthetized."

real Mac users don't have to work though - we just do it because its fun to distract those who need to do it ....

 

I think you misunderstood what Mr. Jobs had said. A more correct interpretation would be "being a broader person is about doing mild non-addicting semisynthetic psychedelic drugs <once> OR attending an open yoga and dance gathering". I guess you could do both in an attempt to further broaden your mind but its not needed - only one is required, along with a Macintosh computer, to begin the journey towards computing enlightenment.

hope this helps bring clarity to your world ....

 

Gee, thanks for the kind welcome. And they say that Mac people are stuck up snobs. I don't know where that rumor got started.

Could you please stop talking about the "higher, more humanly adaptive interface", at least until they fix the basic problems with the Mac UI. IE, until I can

- use the finder without having to move windows around underneath it
- start an operation with the keyboard and then finish it without having to use the mouse
- Until all UI elements are tablable, not just text boxes

and my favorite

- Until the default button in a dialog box is on the left instead of the right as logic and intelligent UI design says it should be.

I like my Macbook, but please, get out a bit more.

Still, I go back to my original points

a) If - as you say - an app has to be asthetic before you care how useful and functional it is, then we part company. If you really view PW as having been created by people with "average capacity" who have created something that is "possibly functional", and that they need you "more refined and intellectual users" to tell them how to do it right, then I say you should go back to staring at your own navel for a while.

b) I needed a program to enable me to run a couple of Windows applications in a robust and high performant environment. Parallels created something that was both usable and easy enough to set up that it could be done having to figure out anything complicated during the 1 or so minute it took to set up. And they did it in a product they decided to sell for a pittance. If you need a sexy UI, before you are willing to run your Windows apps, then I suggest you go and buy....sorry, I suggest you just don't run them.

Michael

 

Someone who likes to LOOK at software rather than use it? For my money (which is what we're talking about here) the priorities should be:

1) Correct performance for correct input.
2) Reliable
3) Performance
4) Reasonable response to incorrect input.
5) Ease of use.
6) Cost
7) Whatever I haven't thought of
8) Esthetics

In other words, first and foremost, it has to work. Then it has to keep working. Then I have to be able to use it and remember how to use it. Then it has to be affordable. Then if it looks nice, that's cool, but looks won't have any influence on my purchase decision. If this means I have to give up my membership in the teenagers of the world club, so be it.

I haven't addressed maintainability only because I'm not maintaining it <grin>

So I suggest that the folks who care primarily about looks talk to Parallels about hiring a UI tweaker, and paying him/her themselves to make it pretty. Maybe a UI subscription of $100 per month for the pretty version while the rest of us just use the perfectly adequate current UI (with perhaps a few functional tweaks).

I'm both a Windows and Mac user. Both have advantages and disadvantages and I wouldn't want to give either up.

I think a demand for "pretty" while there is ANY instability in the product is a demand for misallocation of resources. It's certainly at the very bottom of my list.

 

Okay I'll get off the UI aesthetics podium and move back to functionality ....

What about supporting my Apple remote ? Surely you can't merely dismiss this as an unrealistic need. The bloody VM seems to run so fast I may have to stop it when I'm across the room.

 

Funny how you make unintelligent comments that apply to YOU and YOUR COMPUTING EXPERIENCES... yet to none of your life experiences...

I'm willing to bet that... if you are shopping for a car, you will look for things other than looks. However, if it has everything you want, yet is BUTT UGLY (i.e., Pontiac Aztek and Honda Fit, etc.), you are going to pass and buy something else.

If you are shopping for a house... you will look to see that it meets your needs functionality wise. However, if it looks like a SMURF house, you are going to pass.

If you are shopping for bedroom furniture, and find a nice set that will do everything you require, but looks like it came out of a '70's Pimp's Van... you are going to pass.

Why is it that aesthetics are important in everyones lives... and pretty much rules the world (along with the ability to perform acceptably... after all, NOBODY likes JUST a pretty face)...

but if someone wants aesthetics in a COMPUTING EXPERIENCE... they are stupid, retarded, stuck up, and generally made to feel malaise when perhaps they just are a little more civilized?

If you really think looks aren't important... I suggest you give me your address, sir, and I'll come to your house and paint everything you own pink.

After all, AS LONG AS IT WORKS... THATS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING!

Geez, grow up.

Any Application should have ALL OF THOSE THINGS. I wrote a new interface faster than most coders take lunch breaks this morning... just to see if I could do it with XCODE.

So if I can do it... I'm sure a professional can do it even faster.

I'm willing to bet that a few days on the interface would cure all ills... and would not take away from the time of coding the rest of the app...

But, I'm sure YOU KNOW BETTER.

Obviously, you are a WINDOWS USER... so you obviously know how to choose the RIGHT OPERATING SYSTEM... perhaps we should trust ALL OUR DECISIONS TO YOU!

Or not. We let a red-necked idiot in office, just because HE had opinions... you see how well THAT has turned out.

Maybe you should slam your brain against your desk until something USEFUL falls out!

Enjoy

 

Oh, and any time you'd like to compare MENSA cards...

"I'm your Huckleberry..."

 

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Well, it would take away a few days, surely.

Honest question: What is good about Mensa?
.

 

Honest Answer:

Bragging Rights

 

Which, coincidentally, is the only useful thing about Ikea.