I agree with the notion of using Windows for an HTPC. I personally have have a Windows box hooked up to my TV as an HTPC. The Windows Media Center interface on Windows 7 is fantastic, Front Row simply doesn't compare.
However, I completely disagree about Office 2007. I personally think it's great, as well as Office 2008 for the Mac. I really like the Ribbon interface, it's helped me use more Office features than I ever have before.
Well, at the risk of further derailing this thread, I have to quantify my statement by telling you that I am a recent Office 2007 convert at work. I am actually testing it in our environment in preparation for a mass roll-out.
I see very little logic in the way functions and buttons are grouped in the ribbon interface. Buttons that were easy to find and readily accessible in 2003 are now obscured or buried in other ribbons. I have to constantly dig to find anything I want, or consult help.
Let me give you an example - the default light blue theme is atrocious to my eyes. It doesn't gel at all with the rest of the default Windows XP theme and it was hard for me to discern active windows from inactive ones, due to the fact that foreground windows had a slightly lighter tint than background windows. So, I set about changing the theme.
At the time, the only Office app I had running was Outlook. After digging around a bit, I had to consult help (as usual). This lead me to the following steps:
1. Open up a NEW MESSAGE (can't do it from the main Outlook window, for god knows what reason).
2. Click the Office circle button (huh?)
3. In the bottom right-corner, away from all other elements of that menu, click on another button (can't remember the arbitrary name of that button).
4. This puts you in global Office options, and under the General tab, you can change the theme.
Now, if this isn't completely counter-intuitive, I don't know what is.
Microsoft had their critics for the way the Office UI was arranged prior to 2007, and I understand that this was one way to address them. But in Corporate America, users have grown accustomed to that UI over more than a decade. To completely redefine the UI, without any simple means to change it back, is ludicrous. Simple functions in Excel that would take a single button click, now take scouring through ribbons that are redundantly classified is a big problem. I understand that all new things take some getting used to, but in my opinion, the best judge of effective UI design is whether it is intuitive enough that one doesn't have to have training classes just to keep up with a product that they've used for decades.
