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Authored by: albert on Sunday, December 30 2012 @ 12:18 PM EST |
Footguns, courtesy Microsoft.
As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us!"[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, December 30 2012 @ 04:35 PM EST |
I agree with those that recoil from touchscreen interfaces as the
primary console for desktop systems. But there is another niche -
as a secondary console for headless servers and those PC's that have smartphones
regularly jacked in to upload photos and download assorted
documents.
Anybody who has shopped for a rack-mount console will have
experienced a certain amount of sticker shock at the prices charged for a
display and keyboard that can be tucked away in a server rack. So why not have
the console be something like a Nexus 7 and a suitable cable that can hang from
a sysop's / sysadmin's belt ? (NB - I'm aware of remote console apps that
provide a CLI, maybe even a GUI, over wireless. But there are security and
operational advantages to a direct connection.)
In the case of desktop
systems it's taking advantage of two necessities - a need to recharge and the
speed / cheapness of hardlink uploads. There a touch-centric remote control app
would be a good fit for someone who finds a mouse awkward for part of their
work.
MB94128
Former user of pcAnywhere 4.5/5/Win.
It
was a remote control and terminal emulation (4.5 only) app. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, December 30 2012 @ 05:30 PM EST |
I wrote some software to control a number of test systems on several
production lines, and I made the buttons simple and extra large so that the
customer could install a touch screen later if they wanted to (they didn't want
to spend the money on them at the time).
However, the buttons looked
so large and inviting, that people kept trying to press them anyway even if they
knew they weren't touch screen (even the guy who made the decision to not
install touch screen monitors kept doing it). Touch screens have been quite
common in factories for at least 20 years. People without any experience with
touch screens find them very easy and natural to use. However, the
application has to be carefully designed to make use of the touch screen. Trying
to use the Windows XP, Vista, or 7 GUI via a touch screen driver is an exercise
in frustration and in fact for some things it's nearly impossible.
Touch screens are quite common in industry, but almost all of them run
single purpose applications and you never see the OS (which usually isn't
Windows anyway). I would like to see a touch oriented Linux distro (other than
Android that is) for these types of applications, but there isn't one yet.
Ubuntu shows the most promise here (and Unity is a very nice mouse and keyboard
GUI), but they have a long way to go yet.
I don't think that touch
screens are the right choice when sitting at a desk. When at a desk, you want to
rest your arms on the desk or on the arms of the chair. What touch is about
isn't for people shuffling papers at a desk however. It's for everyone else who
doesn't spend their day in a swivel chair. Just like touch isn't the best thing
for people who sit at a desk, a mouse and keyboard just don't work for people
who don't sit at a desk. This was recognised decades ago by people who design
manufacturing applications. It has just taken this long for the price of touch
hardware to come down enough for it to filter through to more general
applications.
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, December 31 2012 @ 12:51 AM EST |
Actually, touchscreen support is great for remote logins from a phone or tablet
through software like logmein or splashtop. That way you don't have to mess
with keyboard/mouse emulation though it's still not enough to make me want
Windows 8 even if Teamviewer/Splashtop now have full Windows 8 gesture support.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, December 31 2012 @ 07:51 PM EST |
Touchscreens fail Section 508 requirements in the US, and similar legislation
in other countries.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: PJ on Tuesday, January 01 2013 @ 02:01 PM EST |
Touchscreen offers new opportunity for PC brands ... - Clickie
Authored by:
Anonymous on Sunday, December 30 2012 @ 03:47 PM EST
"Touchscreen offers new
opportunity for PC brands: An interview with Acer president" (DigiTimes
article, 27 Dec. 2012) Clickie. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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