[toddmorey]

Seems like the modern Microsoft is willing to inject a surprising amount of humanity into their projects. Wether you agree with the new direction or not, you do have to applaud how bold they've been recently. (You could argue they have to be bold considering the computing world seems to be trending away from the business desktop towards personal devices, but it's still impressive to see these bolder moves actually emerge from a large company. The thing about Microsoft is that when they need to shift strategy, they usually can. That's why you can never rule them out.)

[sneak]

After just watching tech reviewers have to retry swipe gestures three, four, five times and also miss too-small touch zones (in that Win8 tablet video Gruber recently posted) I think it's safe to continue ruling them out, "modern Microsoft" or no.

They still just fundamentally don't get it.

[nitrogen]

I'm a Linux user the vast majority of the time, and dislike Microsoft's tactics as much as the next guy, but going from "[a few touchscreen bugs]" to "just fundamentally don't get it" is quite the logical leap. Fundamental attribution error comes to mind.

[jroseattle]

It's pre-beta.

[sneak]

"Put your best foot forward."

If they've been working on that nonstop since the iPad launched, and that's the best thing they have to show to the press in September 2011, my point stands.

[courtewing]

I don't think so. Buggy gestures or minor UI issues such as tiny touch zones are not the consequence of poor product design or direction; they're the consequence of having significantly large software in a very early stage of development.

I imagine that people who think bugs in a preview release are somehow a reflection of a company's overall vision or understanding of how their users interact with their computer probably are not going to be very accepting of anything Microsoft does regardless of its merits.

[jroseattle]

"If they've been working on that nonstop since the iPad launched..."

Sounds like you've got it figured out.

[LearnYouALisp]

I think the "emoticon" is unprofessional.

[pointyhat]

I'm not sure it's the software. It seems perfectly ok on my Sony VPCJ1 which is a proper piece of kit with a decent touchscreen.