Re: Future Start Menu

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cowboynick
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by cowboynick »

I'd say let's go for the Windows 7 start menu. As exact as we can get it. Why? We are trying to make this a windows clone. One thing I would suggest is offering more themes for it and making it more customizable.
milon
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by milon »

That's not a bad idea, but we're nowhere near ready for that. Ultimately we're more aiming for Win2K3 compatibility, but once we've hit that far-off goal we can raise the bar even higher. (And after 4 years it's okay to start a new thread.)
naums
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by naums »

Lets keep it plain and simple for once. Give me the Win2K Start menu. Just one bar and stuff and I'm happy. Or at least give me the option to get the old one back :)
Dave3434
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by Dave3434 »

i'm with naums on this one.
florian
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by florian »

I agree with Naums, too.
BrentNewland
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by BrentNewland »

It's inevitable that ReactOS will have that start menu (by default or as an option). It's also inevitble that there will be a Distro for ReactOS that has it on by default.
darkdoomer
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by darkdoomer »

i'm tempted to post a scrot(no that's not ugly) of my start bar. the quicklaunch on windows is a good thing: simple, not taking over your windows (not osx's dock i mean) and you can throw icons down here and keep a desktop clean, or with only the files you work on currently before you sort that all out.

anyways what about just one icon for the start menu ? customizeable of course but something that has the size of other taskbar icons: 16, 24, 32 or 48 square pixels.
okay, or 64 too, but this scares me when they get bigger.

just changed them to MicroGant by Mattahan. looks shiny~
naums
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by naums »

I liked the menu of Gnome2 best, because all your apps where there, where you can find it. Sorted by what the app is doing, so FF was in category "Internet" and so on. I just loved this, because my desktop was clean of shortcuts. Just files where laying there. I loved the menu, and hated the windows way, because it was so hard to find an app you want compared to the Gnome2 menu bar.
SomeGuy
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by SomeGuy »

An interesting problem about program grouping categories is that in Linux those are usually maintained by the distro or repository creator. Under Windows, applications do not have any kind of grouping classification primarily because they are created by random third parties who would never agree on any kind of grouping.

I'm sure Microsoft is kicking themselves and wishing they could go back in time to Windows 95/NT 4 and create some standard grouping categories (like Games, Internet, Productivity, etc) but even then the categories people want/need to see can change over time or in different environments.

Of course, even if they did it wouldn't help much. Many Windows programs even today still do things the WINDOW 3.1 way! Under Windows 95/NT 4 and later your application should just have one icon located in the root of the programs menu. Instead applications typically create their own program group with their program icon, a readme, an uninstaller (which has belonged in add/remove since 95), and other miscellaneous utility icons that should be launched from within the program.

So the only way you are going to get these kind of grouping categories under ReactOS is to change all of the Windows software in the world :D
naums
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by naums »

Not just. I could think of a big repository of numerous software where you of course can't download the linux way, but where the system can get information about "firefox" or "vegas.exe". So it can put "Sony Vegas" into "Multimedia" as well as Adobe Premiere and VirtualDub, Firefox and Opera to Internet and so on. If you write your own program and want it to be put right, you have to have a way to add software later on.
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jonaspm
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by jonaspm »

the windows 7 start menu is same as Windows XP, but with some little and small changes in the interface, however, i like windows 7 one :)
lukves
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by lukves »

i vote to have choice like Windows XP have. option to have 7like and option to have classic win2000 menu like reactos have now. maybe wwould be good have something like Linux Mint Menu.
DeadDude
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by DeadDude »

Someone said 'grouping'? Easy to implement. Just add a step in the SOftware Manager repo thing when it installs... You could add a category in the repo for batch files that move the icons into categories on the start menu, or even add another field to the database defining the apps 'preferred category'.

Personally, I love the IDEA of grouping apps in the Start Menu, but the deal breaker is the fact no app seems 'aware' of it.

That's why I think the ReactOS Software Manager program would be the way to implement it... all apps installed from there could at least be shoehorned into being 'category aware'.



As far as the appearance of the start menu goes... just make it waaaay easier to mod through msstyles and shellstyle tweaks. That is one area of development I sincerely hop ReactOS takes a sharp turn away from... themes should be easy to install and 'just work'. All that 'signing' and STILL not having a working GUI (I'm talking about trying to load themes into Vista- dunno if 7 is this finicky- and the 'picker' window for theme lists them all as Vista, no descriiptive names), and then having Aero throwing a hissy fit... UGH!

Another quick note: Instead of having ReactOS mimic Aero b.s., how's about simply enabling transparent PNG files to be used as-is for theme elements? I don't care if the 'glass-look' is made 'solid' when moving a window. I've tried making msstyles in Vista that do this, and they seem to work just fine so long as the theme file itself doesn't declare itself as Aero enabled. (if it is 'enabled', weird stuff happens if I mix colors into it through the Windows built-in interface for Aero/transparency/colorization window)
jeffw
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by jeffw »

ReactOS should offer both (unlike Windows 7 killing off the classic interface) but what about copyright issues? That's going to be a problem.
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Z98
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Re: Future Start Menu

Post by Z98 »

You can't copyright a GUI.
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