Comment by lake99
10 years ago
Not only that, but buttons usually had hotkeys (underlined letters) that made the OS very easy to use without a mouse. Until we moved away from Windows 2000, colleagues used to be amazed at how fast I navigated. With the precedent set by XP, many UI's became HTML-like, and instead of buttons, we'd have links. Mouseless navigation became impossible with more and more apps. And now, I've lost that habit.
I don't use Windows these days, but Linux GUI programs are not as well-designed as the old Windows programs, so I find myself reaching for the mouse every now and then.
Linux GUIs follow different standards for different toolkits. Some try to use a relatively consistent core (GNOME, KDE, and xfce4 to an extent, I think), others can diverge widely. If you're old enough, or like collecting old software, you'll know several wildly inconsistent scrollbar metaphors and controls....
I find it slightly useful -- I can usually visually guestimate a tool's graphics toolkit and predict its behavior, but novice users will almost certainly get confused.
Like you I find environments I cannot keyboard control are hugely unproductive.