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View Full Version : When did Linux/UNIX began copying Windows' buttons?



kaldor
March 20th, 2010, 02:25 AM
Mac OS X: close window, minimize, zoom(refit)
Mac OS9: close, maximize, shade

Varied between Linux/UNIX OSes.

Windows 95-Windows 7: minimize, maximize, close

Gnome, KDE, XFCE, etc: minimize, maximize, close

You get the idea.


I'm curious as to when and *why* the whole "_ [] X" thing became so common and widespread throughout computers. It's been on my mind lately since the button layout switch on Lucid. To me it doesn't matter, because I often switch between layouts anyway (Gnome, KDE, OS X). But why did everything suddenly model itself after Windows? It's not like it's greatly superior or anything.

When did this begin happening?

NightwishFan
March 20th, 2010, 02:27 AM
Perhaps to make the interface more familiar to the majority of users, which are on Windows.

kaldor
March 20th, 2010, 02:28 AM
Perhaps to make the interface more familiar to the majority of users, which are on Windows.

Yeah, but even when Linux wasn't in its "usable" form it was like that.

NightwishFan
March 20th, 2010, 02:31 AM
Developer preference?

kaldor
March 20th, 2010, 02:42 AM
Developer preference?

Possibly; Windows was the only truly viable desktop choice in the early-mid 90's. People were probably more of Linux "enthusiasts" than users, and wanted to port some of Windows' features over. Just a thought.

AllRadioisDead
March 20th, 2010, 02:46 AM
Why fix something that isn't broken?

kaldor
March 20th, 2010, 02:54 AM
Why fix something that isn't broken?

Was it broken before peopled jumped on the Windows bandwagon?

Dharmachakra
March 20th, 2010, 02:57 AM
There's copying Windows and there's doing something completely obvious that anyone would think of. This is a case of the latter.

kaldor
March 20th, 2010, 03:01 AM
http://www.linuxinsight.com/files/images/gnome_old.png

^Original GNOME. Looks nearly identical to Windows 9x buttons.


http://www.nongnu.org/skencil/screenshots/0.6.16-solaris8-cde.png

^CDE; lots of older OSes had that same style with buttons.

d3v1150m471c
March 20th, 2010, 03:04 AM
Perhaps to make the interface more familiar to the majority of users, which are on Windows.

Exactly, and there isn't a problem with this. In fact, it's smart. Making unnecessary stretches to be "different" usually makes the system more confusing and more intimidating to green users. IE Apple's one button mouse. Wanting to be different when it disregards usefulness is a n00b error.

cariboo
March 20th, 2010, 03:06 AM
Have a look at this article (http:///primates.ximian.com/~miguel/gnome-history.html), it should give you a clue to why the buttons were placed where they are.

samjh
March 20th, 2010, 05:56 AM
Was it broken before peopled jumped on the Windows bandwagon?

I don't know about the rationale behind Gnome and KDE's placement of those buttons, but from a HCI point of view, having the close button on the far right is correct.

When GUI interfaces were becoming popular, most computer users lived in cultures where documents are read from left to right, then top to bottom. When a user from those cultures visually scans a window, their focus subconsciously drifts from left to right. For various reasons of convention and technology, windows controls have traditionally been placed at the top edge of windows, so the button which will effectively "end" the window's life would logically belong to where a user would finish their visual scan: the right-hand edge. Buttons which minimised and maximised the size of windows are grouped with the close button so that controls of similar functional group are placed in the same area (IMHO, the min/max buttons should not be with the close button -- they should be either on the top-left or the bottom-right).

Apple was one of the few organisations that didn't subscribe to that rationale. They placed their close button the top-left corner of windows for two reasons: to make accidental clicking of the close button less frequent by placing it in an unnatural position, and because of the Macintosh main menu, which was placed at the top-left area of the desktop, would be closer to a window's close button, resulting in shorter mouse cursor travel and therefore better efficiency. Personally, I think their rationale is pretty weak, but that's just me.