Microsoft, after finding that the blue screen of death wasn’t having the same amount of market “penetration”, and since the hourglass cursor had never been as successful as Apple Mac OS X’s Spinning Beach Ball of Death1 , for Windows Vista Microsoft created the spinning ring. 
What do you call it? Do you talk nice to it?
Here for your pleasure, super-sized (which doesn’t happen nearly enough these days) and superimposed onto the original size, the Flushing Blue Toilet Cleaner of Death!
Who has an animated version of this image? Thank johnbillion!
The toilet experience really seems to resonate with Microsoft’s team and their customers.
“Toilet paper is sold more effectively than Windows Vista, according to one member of Microsoft’s UK marketing staff, [Allister Frost]“. Allister wrote Why buying Windows Vista should be simpler than Toilet Paper. Allister, if you are reading this, I’m interested in upgrading to Vista Working Edition.
Paul Thurrott writes “Microsoft changed folders completely in Windows Vista, and all that work just got flushed down the virtual toilet.”
doctorbad writes “we will truly see if microsoft can pull vista out of the toilet” in responded to Chris Pirillo’s “Windows Vista Rocks”.
It prompted Microsoft to also update the sounds in Vista to this toilet theme as described in the responses to James Senior article Windows Vista Sounds:
Jane C writes “…the Empty Recycle Bin sound is a flushing toilet…”
Jack Sprat writes “the startup sound in vista is at best a flushing toilet, since thats the sound of your money going down the drain into Bills wallett as you fork over $299 for the Ultimate Vista experience.”
I use Windows Vista because you do! Help a friend out show them your Mac.
- Wikipedia article Spinning wait cursor [↩]
18 Comments
that’s a whole lot to get out of 1 icon :O .
i have yet to consider moving to vista, but i do have the aero cursors, as they’re less ugly than the xp defaults.
Adam, writing is helping vent a little of my frustrations. You will see as Vista gets adopted this will become a classic.
“Aero”, I dig your designer insights!
Windows Vista Icon Development Guidelines doesn’t seem to cover the Flushing Blue Toilet Cleaner of Death!
wouldn’t they be here? personally, OSX makes me grind my teeth just as much as windows. if i’m suggesting alternatives, i always start with SuSE.
Thanks Adam never could find anything on a first pass at MSDN, but once you pointed it out, the search terms to use seem obvious.
What is the grinders with MacOS?
I can’t afford to recommend a Linux based desktop for most of my friends and family — too much time and responsibility for me.
In my quest to be not entirely useless all the time, I present to you an animated GIF of the flushing loo icon - http://img475.imageshack.us/my.php?image=16onblackqv5.gif (on a black background) and also a long PNG consisting of each frame - http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=stockssearchingstriphm1.png. Both were pulled straight out of official Windows Vista sidebar gadgets.
Thank John! I have updated the post… and now feel a frustration welling in me as I look at that animated spinning cursor!
Who is the usability person on Microsoft and Apple’s team that thought these things were a good idea? Instead of symbolizing progress, it symbolizes, “Oh, crap, my work is lost!”
most of the grinding centers on the dock (discovering quicksilver helped), and apple-tabbing between apps, when each app has multiple windows. generally, the UI just feels like a cartoon, that’s hiding the ability to do real work.
i’m not really sure any cursor or on-screen behaviour could really de-stress-ify the situation of losing work. maybe instead of a cursor function, a warning balloon with a link to the task manager?
Adam, interesting insights! I miss Mac Exposé on either of the other platforms, and find it a much better interaction than tabbing. I haven’t ever heard the Mac UI described as cartoony, but I can see that particularly in relationship to Windows — Mac feels soft if not anything else.
I agree the cursor doesn’t really matter. It really is a lipstick pig issue, grounded in difficult technical problems — it is hard to know if and why an application isn’t responding.
I’m with Lloyd, the spinning cursors only ever make me fret about what the computer is doing to my work. I’m yet to make the shift to Vista, would prefer a Mac but have convinced myself that they’re too expensive and it’s too far from Christmas to treat myself.
Chamonix, in some categories Macs are cheaper than PCs.
It isn’t really a replacement for BSOD per-se because you can still get them in Vista (though they are far more rare in my experience with Vista). BSODs at least have useful information that allows you to figure out what the root of the problem is (and unlike what the Mac ads may say, they aren’t cryptic at all).
However, with the beach ball and ring icons, they just indicate that your computer is locked up indefinitely.
I’ll take an MS BSOD over the uninformative Mac crash screen (which simply says your computer crashed, restart) any day.
If you really want to help a friend out, get them a non-proprietary hardware machine (should any part of the last few iMacs fail, buh-bye entire computer for a while [unless you're lucky enough to live next to an Apple store]) that they can service themselves and show them how to partition it with Linux and a version of Windows on a smaller partition.
Plain and simple, Mac is no better in terms of crash handling. If anything, in my experience (at the Apple store in the Mall of America, no less!), the information given to you after a crash in Macs is worse.
If you want to promote openness, don’t recommend a Mac. It is no less closed because it is “not MS.” I think their hardware policies speak to that. There are equal amounts of open software on both platforms, but you can’t truly have the open lifestyle unless you’re using a fully open system, hardware AND software.
/probably misguided rant
Hi Daniel,
Nothing will ever replace the BSOD in my mind
You are correct that “lock ups” and crashes are different problems. Actually, Mac crash screen triggers very useful information about the kernel panic to be logged. And this information is understandable by a larger community than Windows BSOD with its assembly and memory addresses.
Yeah, the beach ball can suggest your whole computer is “locked up”. I don’t recall similar experiences on Windows XP or Vista.
Non-proprietary hardware machine? I don’t think I’ve ever had non-proprietary hardware in any of my computers. I understand what you mean though: hardware with less vendor lock in.
Still most people wouldn’t brave replacing parts. Although most parts are fairly easy, setup and troubleshooting of both hardware and the related software can be tedious. Other parts are challenging — do you have a tube of CPU paste?
Most people aren’t interested in servicing their computers themselves.
Mac is much less closed than Windows. It’s foundation is all open source. The experience is proprietary, and that sucks.
I am a freedom lover! I love to promote openness. But my first priority is helping people get done what they want to, and Linux/GNOME desktop, which I primarily use, doesn’t cut it (yet). It isn’t practical and isn’t the best help I can give to them.
While I agree that the foundation of MacOS is open, it doesn’t make up for the fact that it is still essentially closed now (with an illusion of openness). Imagine the outrage if MS did something similar. They take a nix base and then SELL it with their own additions, licensing, and modifications that stand it apart.
If the experience is proprietary, does that not trump the foundation of the OS? There are equal amounts (prolly not equal, but generous amounts) of open source alternatives and original apps for both Mac and PC.
I’m just not a fan of how Apple does hardware. They won’t let it be sold just anywhere. They integrate everything in to admittedly stylish, but all in one computers (iMac only really, the towers and laptops are good)and when something breaks (looking mainly at optical, slot-load is not preferred from an average tech-repair guy standpoint) you send in the entire iMac.
I have enjoyed playing and working with Macs, I’m not entirely a hater (playing devil’s advocate for the most part here). I just don’t see how folks think that OSX is more open because of its lower level openness. In the end, you are still locked in to Apple’s licensing, you still pay for OSX and all the upgrades, etc.
And I do have three tubes of thermal paste
One next to my tower, and the others next to my moped (the automatic choke is run by engine heat, needs good conductivity to run smoothly). Funny enough, the CPU paste I use on my moped is higher quality than what I use on my computer. I think that more and more folks are learning that replacing hardware isn’t that hard or expensive (thank yous to GeekSquad and the like for their outrageous pricing and shady activities that have led to this realization for many).
I’m not doubting your commitment to the FOSS movement in the least! You’ve always been inspiring me to be for open source software and electronic living.
Outraged? I would celebrate if Microsoft built the next version of Windows on an open platform!
Sure, some people would be outraged, and I’m happy they would be, because they are traveling a different road to free culture, and maybe that road will get us there faster, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t explore a different one.
Trumped? Apple is paying people to work on open source. These open source comrades take their values with them to work every day, and when they go home they take their Apple experience with them.
You say there are generous amounts of open source alternatives and original apps for both Mac and PC? Then why are people paying for Windows or Mac OS X?
If it’s just a matter of packaging up all the open source, you will be rich.
The reality is there is a long list of experience bugs that need fixing to connect with us rationally and emotionally.
Daniel, you inspire me too!
Daniel wrote “I think that more and more folks are learning that replacing hardware isn’t that hard or expensive”
That is a very interesting assertion? Do you have anything concrete to support it? I ask because it doesn’t support my own intuition nor probably the increasing percentage of people purchasing laptops and compact computers like Mac Minis or iMacs.
Lloyd, you’re absolutely right about what type of system to recommend to relatives. When you are the tech support department for family members, the correct recommendation is whichever system will result in the smallest investment of your time. Family members will never leave you alone. Never. They will send you emails claiming that they’re not connected to the Internet. They will tell you of the great site they’ve been reading, but disavow any knowledge of which browser they’re using. Replacing/installing hardware? Don’t make me laugh!
Oh, and beachballs are better than spinning rings.
Ironically, the reason I have not been able to respond at all is because my Dell laptop died.
I do see your points, and I too would celebrate an open Windows release.
I’ve been reading a good amount of stories on Geek Squad lately both on the internet and in print about how GS and similar company services overcharge for simple things (installing a wifi card, setting up a router, both start at 100 bucks). The point of the articles is that the internet is there to help you, and that the majority of repair that would be required by an average person can be done by that person. They then go on to show some shady practices by various shops. Geek Squad stole folders of a guys personal porn collection in a sting operation. One of the most telling pieces was a TV investigation where they unplugged an IDE cable from the hard drive and took it to local repair services. They were quoted from needing something like a new motherboard for 500 bucks by one of the big name guys to a small mom and pop repair shop looking at it and fixing it for free in under 2 minutes.
(Should my laptop be repairable, I do have the links to back these up)
While these aren’t necessarily saying that folks are learning to do repairs themselves, I think it is an effort to show people that they can do it.
It’s a bit like cars. You simply HAVE to know the simple mechanics behind a car, and a bit of knowledge and experience with the car yourself before you take it in to a shop. Monday I took my car in to a Meineke to get it inspected so I can get my Missouri plates. The Meineke mechanics came back and said that I was leaking powersteering fluid from my rack and pinion and therefore would need to replace it if I didn’t want to fail the inspection. They said the fastest they could get the parts in and the work done was Thursday (which didn’t work for me, since I had to drive 800 something miles the next day to my fiancees house for a wedding show today) and it would cost me $1100.
First, I can go to a local junkyard and pick up all the parts for a rack and pinion for about $100 bucks. New it wouldn’t cost too terrible much. It does take some time to repair, so labor would definitely play a factor, but in no way does my car require $1100 worth of steering work (maybe if I had a nice muscle car like a Vette or the like, THEN it would).
I wonder how many people are had at that Meineke (in Liberty, MO if you ever break down there). My dad was telling me that at the Goodyear repair shop the man in front of him in line was talking to the mechanic saying “So I don’t need a new water pump? Those guys at Meineke were telling me I needed one! You just saved me $600!” Unnecessary repairs at unreasonable costs (I think the most I’ve seen a standard water pump installed for is about $345) hurt folks. Same thing with computer repair.
I’m all for legit repair and support services with the skills to get the job done. I just wish people would take the five minutes to research the problem beforehand.
(Woah, tangential)
We took my car to this little auto/motorcycle shop down the road called Dan’s Auto. Dan himself came out, looked at the failed inspection and quote for repairs, and laughed. About 10 minutes later, he brought my car out of the garage, saying there was some condensation on there, and it was rusty, but not leaking in the least. Payed him the $12 for the inspection and headed off.
LOL Microsoft should concentrate on putting out a reliable OS - like Apple did instead of worrying about BSOD and other such things.