GUIs– Mediating the Experience ATS 315

The Glass Teletype

Mac Did It Back Then, Too

Metaphors The move command “mv” is a metaphor— it makes it seem like a file is “moving”. mv a6.c /output Nothing is really “moving”—the file allocation table is just being changed…

Metaphors The file allocation table used to say that the file “a6.c” was in some directory and resided on the disk at some address. Now the table says that the file is at that same address but refers to some other directory.

Metaphors in Windows How do you move a file in Windows? Drag and Drop How it really works: –Communicates with the mouse –Fancy graphics on the screen –Triggers a “mv” command “behind the scenes”

Metaphors in Windows So there is a metaphor (icons, folders, etc.) separating you from another metaphor (mv) which separates you from the real work (changing the file allocation table).

Metaphors in Windows Control Panel The Recycling Bin The Pointer Mr. Paper Clip The Desktop And about a zillion more!

Why all the metaphors?

They mediate the experience!

Apple Saw This In 1984 Introduction of the Macintosh at the Super Bowl. Looks a LOT like current computers. Made computers something anyone could use.

Apple Saw This In 1984 No command line at all! In you couldn’t do it with a mouse, you didn’t do it at all! A one-button mouse! A sealed case!

Apple’s Culture It took special tools to open the case. Opening the case voided the warranty. No command line = no hacking. Only Apple can build Macs. How Apple makes money. Makes the computers very expensive.

Apple Family Album

Microsoft Went a different direction, selling the operating system, not the computer. –WHY?

Microsoft Windows (before XP) was really just a beautiful DOS program. When Windows crashes, you just end up in DOS again.

Microsoft PC hardware was a free-market – other folks designed it, and competition made it cheap. Cheap = good, so Microsoft took over the world! »Cheap also means ugly.

Ugly PCs

How Microsoft Makes Money By selling operating systems. Make more money selling imperfect software than they would selling perfect software! –Why?

“Mac Vs. PC” Wars The battle was about aesthetics, technology, philosophy, etc. But the real difference that changed everything: the closed hardware of Mac and the open hardware of PCs –Macs were expensive and exclusive and basically disappeared. –PCs were cheap and cheaper all the time. They took over the world.

The Result of the War Apple: Addicted to selling hardware to small, captive markets. Microsoft: Addicted to selling operating systems to the whole world. No motivation to fix problems, make it beautiful, easy, etc. (Dinosaurs) Cheap hardware: fertile ground for Linux. (furry mice)