Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets"
-
Windows 10’s future look could be Sets, a tabbed app interface Microsoft will start testing
Microsoft is quietly testing a future look for Windows 10 called Sets, which combines apps and files into a single, tabbed window, similar to a web browser's interface.
Take Windows Explorer and the little-used Task View within Windows 10, mix in the newer “Pick up where you left off” and “Timeline” features, and wrap it all into a single-window experience. The idea is that every task requires a set of apps, and those apps will be optionally organized as tabs along a single window.
Congratulations Microsoft. You re-invented Windows 3.0
-
@el_heffe Hahaha, what.
From November 14:
https://twitter.com/draginol/status/930508251493519360
-
Groups of apps and files... how is this different from... Containers? At it's core, isn't Docker a collection of apps and files?
-
@wernercd said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
Groups of apps and files... how is this different from... Containers? At it's core, isn't Docker a collection of apps and files?
There's a huge difference here. In Docker, there are separate applications in each container. In Sets, it's a logical grouping of application state--the same application might exist in any number of sets. As I saw it explained, you could have a Word tab with a report up and all the browser tabs that are needed to support that report. When you reopen that file, you can automatically restore the browser tabs as well. As well as an image editor, etc.
From a programming perspective, it would allow a VS window + all the browser tabs for documentation + all the other pieces together, instead of spread out in possibly multiple windows. The underlying technology also allows re-opening windows in the correct spots/groupings on login.
-
@el_heffe quoted a onebox in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets" that said:
Microsoft plans to overhaul Windows 10 to combine apps and files into a single, tabbed window, called Sets.
Ah, the Joy of Sets.
-
Open apps you were using together in different tabs of one window?
So you can only see one of them at a time?
Where's the point in that?
-
Browsers did that and browsers are everything, so it must be good.
-
@pleegwat said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
So you can only see one of them at a time?
Where's the point in that?It's
Windows 8the tablet interface all over again
-
They finally found a way to get people to use Edge: by making it the GUI
-
@timebandit said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
They finally found a way to get people to use Edge: by making it the GUI
Microsoft is making clear that this is an optional feature, so if you prefer to work within a traditional Windows environment, rearranging windows and using features like Snap, you’ll still be able to.
-
Now WHY THE F**KING HELL does the PC World website reload itself every five seconds in Firefox? It has done it for me since years so I always stopped reading at the first sentence.
-
@marczellm
And it launched some background process in Firefox that was grinding the CPU at 20% plus using 1.7 GB RAM even after closing all tabs and just an empty tab open.
-
@slackerd said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
@timebandit said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
They finally found a way to get people to use Edge: by making it the GUI
Microsoft is making clear that this is an optional feature, so if you prefer to work within a traditional Windows environment, rearranging windows and using features like Snap, you’ll still be able to.I kind of like the set idea. However, I'd want each set to be a snappable group of windows, rather than a set of tabs.
-
Looks similar to tiling window managers?
-
And I just realized I recreated multi-desktop environment.
-
@el_heffe said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
Congratulations Microsoft. You re-invented Windows 3.0
Huh? I don't get it.
-
The actual video, since nobody linked it yet and you may not want to click through the article in the OP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lEjuU-XFHg
-
@marczellm No repro.
-
@pleegwat said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
Open apps you were using together in different tabs of one window?
So you can only see one of them at a time?
Where's the point in that?
Giving people more ways to organize their work space. I personally would find it immensely useful.
-
This actually seems like a nice new feature.
-
Next they'll come up with a way to embed data from one document inside another such that clicking on that chunk of data follows the link and the other app
licationshows up inside the first one!
-
@hungrier So instead of one taskbar, you can have several? Color me unimpressed.
IMO Microsoft is shopping this concept around with this article and that stardock thing. My guess is no one will care for this concept much, so MS will quietly drop it and try something else.
-
@marczellm said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
Now WHY THE F**KING HELL does the PC World website reload itself every five seconds in Firefox? It has done it for me since years so I always stopped reading at the first sentence.
I saw this and I thought....
FUCKING HELL, WHY DOES IT CLOSE TWO SETS WHEN I CLOSE ONE
-
I feel like I must be the in the minority group of people who wanted tabs for all apps years ago, not just browsers.
-
@slackerd said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
@timebandit said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
They finally found a way to get people to use Edge: by making it the GUI
Microsoft is making clear that this is an optional feature, so if you prefer to work within a traditional Windows environment, rearranging windows and using features like Snap, you’ll still be able to.Windows Update used to be optional.
-
@el_heffe said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
@slackerd said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
@timebandit said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
They finally found a way to get people to use Edge: by making it the GUI
Microsoft is making clear that this is an optional feature, so if you prefer to work within a traditional Windows environment, rearranging windows and using features like Snap, you’ll still be able to.Windows Update used to be optional.
I harbor the unpopular opinion that removing update control is a good thing.
-
@lb_ said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
I feel like I must be the in the minority group of people who wanted tabs for all apps years ago, not just browsers.
Windows had it since at least 95.
-
FWIW: while I could maybe see opening and restoring a bunch of related documents as a useful feature, attaching them all to one window is not at all useful to me. I also have no use for the moving between machines part of the proposed feature.
I wonder if they plan to support non-UWP applications (or even
CentennialDesktop Bridge UWP applications).
-
Why not just use a variation of virtual desktops?
My Linux box is set up with 8 virtual desktops because I basically group work the way they want to. That way, their "sets app" equivalent is always full screen (the basic premise is that you don't focus on anything else right now, anyway), the standard task bar is their tab bar, and you can use the usual ways to arrange windows your WM provides.
Granted, it looks like there's a lot of actually useful features in there my setup doesn't have. It might be pretty cool. It's just repeating the same windows 8 nonsense of having only one app, when they could have build those same cool features into something based on virtual desktops.
-
@parody said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
I wonder if they plan to support non-UWP applications (or even Centennial Desktop Bridge UWP applications).
TFA says eventually.
-
@topspin said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
virtual desktops
Already there. Press + Tab.
-
@el_heffe So... it's BeOS? 1993 is back, baby.
-
@wernercd said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
Groups of apps and files... how is this different from... Containers?
It's a window management feature. It's like browser tabs, but you can put any application window in the tab set. So you can put your Photoshop and your Audacity and your Vegas all in the same tab set while you're working on a video project.
And seriously, BeOS had exactly this in the mid-90s.
-
@magus That's nice and all. What I meant is: they have nice features, but built it on the wrong concept (IMO). Build all of these things on top of (the existing) virtual desktops, so you actually tile and overlap different windows.
-
@gąska said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
@lb_ said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
I feel like I must be the in the minority group of people who wanted tabs for all apps years ago, not just browsers.
Windows had it since at least 95.
The taskbar is a nightmare for me even when you can change the order. There's a reason I and many others opt for multiple browser windows each containing a few tabs instead of one browser window containing all tabs.
-
@topspin said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
Build all of these things on top of (the existing) virtual desktops,
Nobody likes or wants virtual desktops. Linux had it, people begged for it in OS X-- Apple implements it, nobody uses it. People begged for it in Windows-- Microsoft implements it, nobody uses it. Virtual desktops are a support drag, not a killer feature.
-
@blakeyrat I use virtual desktops on Windows - but only because I can't have second monitor.
-
@blakeyrat said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
Nobody likes or wants virtual desktops. Linux had it, people begged for it in OS X-- Apple implements it, nobody uses it. People begged for it in Windows-- Microsoft implements it, nobody uses it.
Virtual desktops seems like a really good idea, until you actually try to use it.
@gąska said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
I use virtual desktops on Windows - but only because I can't have second monitor.
I've had multiple monitors at home and at work since 2007.
-
@pleegwat said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
Open apps you were using together in different tabs of one window?
So you can only see one of them at a time?
Where's the point in that?
I just want Microsoft to catch up to 1990s Linux UIs and let me snap windows to each other.
-
On the one hand, cool.
On the other hand, this in no way corresponds to how any actual people use computers.
There are singletaskers who only ever open one thing at a time.
There are multitaskers who have such complex and varied workflows that they will utterly resent Microsoft trying to stuff them in a box, and will rant about it on the internet to no end until Microsoft backs out the feature.
-
@weng said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
On the one hand, cool.
On the other hand, this in no way corresponds to how any actual people use computers.
There are singletaskers who only ever open one thing at a time.
There are multitaskers who have such complex and varied workflows that they will utterly resent Microsoft trying to stuff them in a box, and will rant about it on the internet to no end until Microsoft backs out the feature.
f u l l y o p t i o n a l
-
@el_heffe said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
@gąska said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
I use virtual desktops on Windows - but only because I can't have second monitor.
I've had multiple monitors at home and at work since 2007.Me too. But then I moved to a tiny apartment with even more tiny desk.
-
@gąska said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
But then I moved to a tiny apartment with even more tiny desk.
https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=109&cp_id=10828&cs_id=1082808&p_id=13815&seq=1&format=2
-
@pie_flavor And?
The vocal minority of wanky complainers will never try it, but still insist it ate their baby.
See: Windows Vista, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, the very concept of upgrading from Windows XP.
-
@pie_flavor said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
@weng said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
On the one hand, cool.
On the other hand, this in no way corresponds to how any actual people use computers.
There are singletaskers who only ever open one thing at a time.
There are multitaskers who have such complex and varied workflows that they will utterly resent Microsoft trying to stuff them in a box, and will rant about it on the internet to no end until Microsoft backs out the feature.
f u l l y o p t i o n a l
In the same way Windows 8's Start Screen was "fully optional".
-
@tsaukpaetra They never said that was fully optional.
They just did a bad job of explaining why they did it. For me, it was obvious: The basic desktop icon interface works well for normal users, but your icons are behind your apps. Just make that fly forward as your new start menu, and you've solved a problem.
Now it's optional, but people are poisoned against it. Even though there are definitely users it would be preferable for.
-
@weng said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
On the other hand, this in no way corresponds to how any actual people use computers.
It does. You know how when you open a PDF in a browser, it now usually opens it in a new tab instead of pulling up an entirely different application with its own window? And how if you actually want it in a separate window all you need to do is pull the tab out of the tab stack?
Imagine the UX like this working with every application. It's actually pretty nifty.
-
Is this just Office 365, as a web application, integrated into Edge?
-
@blakeyrat said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
Linux had it, people begged for it in OS X-- Apple implements it, nobody uses it
What??
The OS X implementation is great. It lets you three finger swipe between desktops, automatically creates a new desktop for projectors / external monitors, and even puts maximized programs on their own desktop.It couldn't get much simpler. How can you not use that?
-
@blakeyrat said in Microsoft sees the future of Windows 10 as "Sets":
Nobody @blakeyrat knows or cares about likes or wants virtual desktops.
