SideBar: Vista vs. Longhorn


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right now, i'd say i prefer the old one. lots more useful information there. plus, it had content fed from external programs and all. it was cool

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I have some images of alpha versions of Longhorn stored on my computer, some of the most memorable ones are from PDC 2003. Man, those were the days. There was a period of inactivity when it came to the development of this new and exciting part of the next version of Windows, actually, it was a drought. Then in Spring of this year, it was revealed at WinHEC 2005 and in blogs across the net that the Sidebar is a goner. But it was not so, in the fall of 2005, the Sidebar was resurrected at the PDC 2005 conference. But it took on a whole new definition and direction. The focus of the sidebar sort of turned into a gimmick, instead of a tool I would say, to be honest, I'm totally disappointed. What has happened to our beloved Sidebar? :cry: I am crying as I type this, it heartbreaking really, I just don't know how to cope. Yes, Gadgets are nice, but that should not be a major focus of the sidebar. I want the old Sidebar back, which featured cool stuff like incoming e-mail messages, buddy list, stock qoutes, video/slide show, Media Player controls, and that nice looking clock (the sexy black one with the hint of blue shade on it). If I want RSS Feed I will use IE or Office Outlook/Windows Mail for that, since I have them open always. And I prefer the straight edge Sidebar instead of that funky machete looking thing.

Look at the comparison and tell me which one you would prefer to use:

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I prefer how much more defined the parts were supposed to be for the old Sidebar, and the old one in general, although the new one still hasn't had much revealed about it. I'm not too worried about the UI of the gadgets and such, other than right now they are very unvista (which will probably change, and if it doesnt it will be easy to make your own that do look right). I don't like the curved sidebar and I'm hoping there's an option to make it flat.

It's not something to be crying over, though. Its a piece of software, geez. :rolleyes:

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Are you criticizing the sidebar, the technology, or the Gadgets that were demo'd?

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A combination of both really. I'm not really dissing the gadgets themselves, I just don't think they serve any purpose on the Sidebar, except for probably the clock. But they are just big and clunky and not integrated into the ui that well, it lacks an obvious clean look that is a major principle of Windows Vista.

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A combination of both really. I'm not really dissing the gadgets themselves, I just don't think they serve any purpose on the Sidebar, except for probably the clock. But they are just big and clunky and not integrated into the ui that well, it lacks an obvious clean look that is a major principle of Windows Vista.

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I don't see how the sidebar (which doesn't have to be curved) looks any different in the two shots.

They're both docks for gadgets. It's the gadgets that make them look different. And there's no shortage of ideas about great gadgets for it.

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At first when I saw the new curved one, I thought it was kinda cool, but now that I look back at the old one, there was a lot more to it. The new one features these plastic bulky looking gadgets, what's with that? I bet anyone could design a sidebar. I made one for aston shell, on my TGL theme. :)

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has everything but the search bar... and an rss reader that actually works :(

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i like the old one much more, i think it has a few refined things about it.

But at the end of the day, i would need nor have any use for a side bar, maybe an extension on the start menu with a lower opacity which just gives a few things like new emails, and new sms / mms if a smartphone is connected.

and if i could grab track names for apps like creative playcentre / winamp that would be all nessecarry really.

o yea and news feeds if u like that sort of thing lol

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