Google Chrome, doomed to repeat history
Google's "Chrome" web browser is kind of interesting. It's one of the more popular ways to get at the webkit html rendering library, and it's pretty fast. The per-process tabs give good safety and stability. Overall, it's a neat browser.
My only question: WHY MUST THEY INSIST ON REINVENTING THE IDEA OF A WIDGET/TAB/WINDOW?!?
Mozilla tried this about 9 years ago with their "modern" look (
). The look and feel of the browser didn't match anything else on anybody's computer. The colors are all wrong. The icons don't look like the familiar icons people get to know. Tooltips may show up with a weird style. Eventually they saw reason and realised fitting in with the rest of the applications on the system is VERY important.
Why then has Chrome not only followed in Mozilla's foot-mis-steps, but taken it to another ridiculous level? Not only is the application's interface totally different from any other application somebody is likely to use (tabs above menu-bars?), but the actual window decoration, the part of the program that lets you control where the window is, and what size it is, is totally different. It makes no sense.
The way a user interacts with windows, desktops, and widgets, is the responsibility of the desktop suite's designers, and the preferences of the user. Over-riding long-studied policies on how users use their computers, and over-riding preferences that users have explicitly set is wrong.
I just want a full-featured browser that acts like a window I'd like to use normally on my system. Firefox happens to do very well in that regard. The fact that it's a slow-witted, memory-hogging behemoth just isn't enough to encourage me to trade the normal expectations of how my computer should work for faster, shinier new toy that will occasionally shoot me in the foot.
Update: A few people pointed out that this is pretty common among Windows applications. Every developer wants their app to stand out and be special, by looking different from everything else. I think this is a key part of what I haven't been able to articulate about why Chrome makes me uncomfortable: It reminds me of using stupid Windows applications. If I wanted that, I would be running Windows. Grmmblle.
My only question: WHY MUST THEY INSIST ON REINVENTING THE IDEA OF A WIDGET/TAB/WINDOW?!?
Mozilla tried this about 9 years ago with their "modern" look (
). The look and feel of the browser didn't match anything else on anybody's computer. The colors are all wrong. The icons don't look like the familiar icons people get to know. Tooltips may show up with a weird style. Eventually they saw reason and realised fitting in with the rest of the applications on the system is VERY important.
Why then has Chrome not only followed in Mozilla's foot-mis-steps, but taken it to another ridiculous level? Not only is the application's interface totally different from any other application somebody is likely to use (tabs above menu-bars?), but the actual window decoration, the part of the program that lets you control where the window is, and what size it is, is totally different. It makes no sense.
The way a user interacts with windows, desktops, and widgets, is the responsibility of the desktop suite's designers, and the preferences of the user. Over-riding long-studied policies on how users use their computers, and over-riding preferences that users have explicitly set is wrong.
I just want a full-featured browser that acts like a window I'd like to use normally on my system. Firefox happens to do very well in that regard. The fact that it's a slow-witted, memory-hogging behemoth just isn't enough to encourage me to trade the normal expectations of how my computer should work for faster, shinier new toy that will occasionally shoot me in the foot.
Update: A few people pointed out that this is pretty common among Windows applications. Every developer wants their app to stand out and be special, by looking different from everything else. I think this is a key part of what I haven't been able to articulate about why Chrome makes me uncomfortable: It reminds me of using stupid Windows applications. If I wanted that, I would be running Windows. Grmmblle.