Gaim 1.5 Needed

[David Woolley]

Dan Mahoney, System Admin wrote:

> 
> I don't envy what you're going through.  Windows, in their ultimate 
> wisdom, continues to drastically alter their UI, only as the people used 
> to older versions and worse at adaptation continue to age.  Windows and 
> Gaim suffer a similar problem: people altered UI that a nontechnical 
> audience was comfortable with, and I'm not sure if the need to do so was 
> there.  I would love it if every piece of software had a simple "emulate 

The need in the case of Windows is a marketing need.  Younger users, who 
also tend to have been brought up on older versions, are very fashion 
driven, and by changing the user interface Microsoft hope to get them to 
buy the next version, so that they are not seen dead with an out of 
fashion user interface.

As the user interfaces get more and more complex as well as changing, 
this makes it very difficult for an older person, who hasn't been 
brought up with computers, to learn to use them.

Unfortunately, whilst most software suppliers only pay lip service to 
accessibility, that tends to be interpreted as accessibility by the 
blind, and things like user interface stability are seen as commercially 
undesirable.

> version" dropdown menu on their main screen, that just made it look like 
> the old stuff.
> 
> Windows95 to 2000 was not a large problem for my father.  Going to 
> Vista, and trying to figure out Microsoft Office with its new "ribbon 
> bar" (which is a real pain when they're used to menus), took me several 

I hate the ribbon bar.

On the general point about availability of the old version, the licence 
requires the distributor to keep it available for several years.

Also, as pointed out, backward compatibility is not seen as a commercial 
virtue in much of the computer industry. so an old client is likely not 
to work with current services.

-- 
David Woolley
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