The new interface in Bitcoin 0.5.0 is BAD when compared to the 0.4.0 interface

[MysteryMiner]

I installed the 0.5.0 version and the user interface is total crap!

The startup splash screen is lame. The wallet in the picture is very similar to my old wallet I was using for 8 years. It was sticky, and the coins was falling out from it so I got a new one. The Splash screen for Bitcoin must be like in DC++.

The overview window does not allow me quickly view and sort the transactions, I need to click the transactions, but then the balance is not shown.

Transactions window does not show number of confirmations, I need to hang cursor over to see confirmations. The recieved payments who have no label attached to recieving adress is greyed out just like unconfirmed transactions in previous version, even if they are confirmed. The spacing is too large between transactions, the view can't show as much transactions as the 0.4.0 version could.

The connection status looks like signal indicator from old cellphone. I need to hang cursor over it and wait until I can see how much connections I got. In previous versions the number of connections was shown right away in statusbar. The same is for number of blocks.

The Address Book is unnecessary split in page Recieve coins (some stupid user might think that the Recieve Coins button is used for getting the coins) and Address book. The Adress book also have the same problem as transactions window - too much wasted space.

The intruduction of mBTC and uBTC is unnecesiary right now.

Overall the Bitcoin has taken the step that Skype made years earlier - soiling the interface to appeal to novice users also known as lamers. You make a software that even idiot can use, and idiot will be the only one who will use it.

Looking for way to downgrade and continiue using 0.4.0 on my main rig. And even the minimize to tray only works if I click Close button. The setting "Minimize to tray instead of taskbar" does not have any effect.

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[notme]

It has been completely revamped using a modern toolkit.  Give it a few releases and I'm sure most of your concerns will be addressed.  This was a necessary pain that will allow the developers to change the UI code more easily.

[evoorhees]

LOL OP what the hell are you talking about?

This is a vast improvement, both aesthetically (although I guess that's always subjective) and functionally (not subjective).

I heart it very much.

[MysteryMiner]

It has been completely revamped using a modern toolkit.  Give it a few releases and I'm sure most of your concerns will be addressed.  This was a necessary pain that will allow the developers to change the UI code more easily.

The key word for the problem is "modern". I prefer the native Windows API.

And I even don'y have the current recieving address displayed in main window with two buttons right to it - New Adress and Copy to clipboard.

This is a lesson for me to test all software prior deploying on my computer. I only checked the setup files signatures to be sure they are released by Bitcoin developers, and did not tested it on my virtual enviroment.

The Satoshi made the original client almost perfect from visual and usability standpoints. Just like he did the Bitcoin Whitepaper. Now Bitcoin is screwed for sure and I'm waiting for forks that uses the old toolkit or even better the native Windows API. I will run the new 0.5.0 as less as possible.

[MysteryMiner]

LOL OP what the hell are you talking about?

This is a vast improvement, both aesthetically (although I guess that's always subjective) and functionally (not subjective).

I heart it very much.

Aesthetically it's look like malware written for kids. You are probably new to computers, and you probably never used Win95 that set standart for computer interface for more than next decade. All you need is eye candy that detaches You from the program workings, such as hiding number of connections, hiding number of blocks and so on.

The Functionality is more broken than ever. Using 0.4.0 generate new address and then copy to clipboard it to paste it somewhere. Now do it again using 0.5.0 when the client is in Overview mode. How much clicks You need to done, how much eye and cursor movements?

[evoorhees]

LOL OP what the hell are you talking about?

This is a vast improvement, both aesthetically (although I guess that's always subjective) and functionally (not subjective).

I heart it very much.

Aesthetically it's look like malware written for kids. You are probably new to computers, and you probably never used Win95 that set standart for computer interface for more than next decade. All you need is eye candy that detaches You from the program workings, such as hiding number of connections, hiding number of blocks and so on.

The Functionality is more broken than ever. Using 0.4.0 generate new address and then copy to clipboard it to paste it somewhere. Now do it again using 0.5.0 when the client is in Overview mode. How much clicks You need to done, how much eye and cursor movements?

I guess if you're going for a Windows95 motif then this latest version is a regression. Personally, I think Win95 had much too much eye candy... all those corners and colors and buttons and crap. DOS was far superior, for it let you really connect with the "program workings." I'm hoping Gavin and Co. will just scrap the GUI entirely. THEN Bitcoin will really catch on.

[notme]

It has been completely revamped using a modern toolkit.  Give it a few releases and I'm sure most of your concerns will be addressed.  This was a necessary pain that will allow the developers to change the UI code more easily.

The key word for the problem is "modern". I prefer the native Windows API.

And I even don'y have the current recieving address displayed in main window with two buttons right to it - New Adress and Copy to clipboard.

This is a lesson for me to test all software prior deploying on my computer. I only checked the setup files signatures to be sure they are released by Bitcoin developers, and did not tested it on my virtual enviroment.

The Satoshi made the original client almost perfect from visual and usability standpoints. Just like he did the Bitcoin Whitepaper. Now Bitcoin is screwed for sure and I'm waiting for forks that uses the old toolkit or even better the native Windows API. I will run the new 0.5.0 as less as possible.

Then fork the client... it's opensource.  In the mean time, the other developers will focus their efforts on one toolkit that supports all platforms.  AFAIK QT can be made to look like Windows, but I've never tried.  To ask them to support 3 different toolkits for Windows, Mac, and Linux is insanity.  You probably don't care about the non-windows platforms, but many do, including the developers.  There are several other clients as well, and if you look around a little you might find one that suits your needs.

[notme]

I guess if you're going for a Windows95 motif then this latest version is a regression. Personally, I think Win95 had much too much eye candy... all those corners and colors and buttons and crap. DOS was far superior, for it let you really connect with the "program workings." I'm hoping Gavin and Co. will just scrap the GUI entirely. THEN Bitcoin will really catch on.

LOL.... seriously dude, screw the gui, run bitcoind.  It's really not that hard.

[Transisto]

Good work, I really like the new client but I must agree in part with OP

To me it's like if the software contain dozen of section to be filled in the future.

From my previous post, :

   The HELP button provide no help whatsoever,
   The setting/option pane has one page "MAIN" ,,, why have this at all ?
    Seeing   "FILE / EXIT" would puzzle-out any non-geeks. (why file Huh)

It is not clear to me what is "reveice coin Vs. addresse book"
What I suggest in help tab is "Enable ballon help when mousing over items"


I have 77 connection and the icon is one small red bar with tree yellow. That does not look positive to me.

[MysteryMiner]

I guess if you're going for a Windows95 motif then this latest version is a regression.

I don't need particular motif, I can use almost any software. But the original Bitcoin client was so lightweight, minimalistic yet it contained all that was needed for operation. Original Bitcoin was few of the recent software that sticked to oldschool UI principles. Other examples I can give are TrueCrypt, Exact Audio Copy and WinRAR.

I'm hoping Gavin and Co. will just scrap the GUI entirely. THEN Bitcoin will really catch on.

The Bitcoin will really catch on if they rewrite it in Java and add Facebook support just like Skype did, so lamers can see each others bitcoin adresses and update they statuses when they send bitcoins. This really will get Bitcoin wide userbase.

Then fork the client... it's opensource.

Yes, it's opensource that means I can get the source code. But this does not mean that I can get the developmenet team or spare time to develop the code further.

AFAIK QT can be made to look like Windows, but I've never tried.

I don't hate Qt, I know software that uses Qt un Windows and it have good UI. The Vidalia is excellent example. The only thing that is native to Windows is native Windows API.

To ask them to support 3 different toolkits for Windows, Mac, and Linux is insanity.  You probably don't care about the non-windows platforms, but many do, including the developers.  There are several other clients as well, and if you look around a little you might find one that suits your needs.

I personally will dump support for any other OS than Windows, but Bitcoin is not that case. Bitcoin have more users who are using *nix platforms than average population, partly because they are overparanoid, partly because there is challenging mining rigs setups.

There are several other clients as well, and if you look around a little you might find one that suits your needs.

My perfect client looks just like original Satoshi client, are written in C++ and ASM, have native 64-bit support.

LOL.... seriously dude, screw the gui, run bitcoind.  It's really not that hard.

For some special purposes I already do that. For my own desktop computer I prefer the GUI version.

I have 77 connection and the icon is one small red bar with tree yellow. That does not look positive to me.

This is not so big problem, the icon might be fixed. The problem is that there is no numerical values written in the statusbar at all, I need to aim my cursor and wait for a second to know how much connections I have, instead of just taking a quick look on Bitcoin client to see if the router is working properly and I'm contributing to network.

[tvbcof]

I guess if you're going for a Windows95 motif then this latest version is a regression. Personally, I think Win95 had much too much eye candy... all those corners and colors and buttons and crap. DOS was far superior, for it let you really connect with the "program workings." I'm hoping Gavin and Co. will just scrap the GUI entirely. THEN Bitcoin will really catch on.

LOL.... seriously dude, screw the gui, run bitcoind.  It's really not that hard.

That's all I've ever done.  I've never seen the old or the new GUI and don't give two shits about it personally.  My main bitcoind runs on a headless machine which is currently a few feet away from me (I will admit) but could easily be on any VPS anywhere in the world so the last thing I want is a lot of graphics shit getting in my way.

I also only run someone else's binary only in very rare circumstances.  As it happens, I need to tweak the code a bit at the moment to get bitcoind to compile.  Even if I was interested in the GUI, it would be extra grief to get it to work.

@MysteryMiner:  I must say that whining about the GUI is not exactly good for your resume to my way of thinking.  Just FYI.

[Therilith]

I posted a list of what I disliked about 0.5 in the development thread a while back. That was in Technical Discussion though, which is generally used more for discussing the tech aspects than subjective opinions of the GUI.
Since I'm posting here to agree with some of the OPs points, I'll add a copy of my previous post:

Good:
1. Hate modal windows. Send/receive on tabs (or anywhere that's not a freaking modal window) is an improvement.
2. Every other change I noticed but did not complain about.

Good-impaired:
1. The old icon/logo looked better.
2. Don't see the point of the "overview" tab. Everything presented there could (and should) be available in the transactions tab instead.
3. Your total balance should be available on every tab and in the same location (top left IMO).
4. Not a fan of tooltip-heavy software.
5. Should be able to see the number of confirmations without hovering.
6. Should be able to see connections and block total without hovering.
7. Any way to disable the -Transaction Received- tray message?
8. "Minimize to tray instead of taskbar" doesn't seem to do anything. When it's on, the program (when minimized) "disappears" from the taskbar and then instantly reappears there again.
9. I think it would be more convenient if all the buttons were in the same general area. Right now three of the tabs have buttons at the bottom of the window. Seems like a minor issue, but things like that can get annoying pretty quickly (especially if you run the GUI client maximized).
10. Splash image looks a bit cheesy.

[notme]

I personally will dump support for any other OS than Windows, but Bitcoin is not that case. Bitcoin have more users who are using *nix platforms than average population, partly because they are overparanoid, partly because there is challenging mining rigs setups.

I personally have used only Linux for about ten years now, and it has nothing to do with paranoia or bitcoin mining.  I am a programmer by trade and working on windows is painful for me.  It's the simple things like middle-click to paste the most recently highlighted text that really make the system nice.  Windows terminal can't even handle tab completion properly.

[notme]

I posted a list of what I disliked about 0.5 in the development thread a while back. That was in Technical Discussion though, which is generally used more for discussing the tech aspects than subjective opinions of the GUI.
Since I'm posting here to agree with some of the OPs points, I'll add a copy of my previous post:

Good:
1. Hate modal windows. Send/receive on tabs (or anywhere that's not a freaking modal window) is an improvement.
2. Everything I didn't complain about.

Good-impaired:
1. The old icon/logo looked better.
2. Don't see the point of the "overview" tab. Everything presented there could (and should) be available in the transactions tab instead.
3. Your total balance should be available on every tab and in the same location (top left IMO).
4. Not a fan of tooltip-heavy software.
5. Should be able to see the number of confirmations without hovering.
6. Should be able to see connections and block total without hovering.
7. Any way to disable the -Transaction Received- tray message?
8. "Minimize to tray instead of taskbar" doesn't seem to do anything. When it's on, the program (when minimized) "disappears" from the taskbar and then instantly reappears there again.
9. I think it would be more convenient if all the buttons were in the same general area. Right now three of the tabs have buttons at the bottom of the window. Seems like a minor issue, but things like that can get annoying pretty quickly (especially if you run the GUI client maximized).
10. Splash image looks a bit cheesy.

Nice list, constructive presentation.

[Transisto]

...Looking for way to downgrade and continiue using 0.4.0...

Installing v0.5 only add bitcoin-qt.exe, the original bitcoin.exe is still here.

[FlipPro]

I really like the direction that we are going on this new wallet release. Does it need a bit of work?

Sure, but still looking a hell of alot better than before. Great job guys!

[MysteryMiner]

@MysteryMiner:  I must say that whining about the GUI is not exactly good for your resume to my way of thinking.  Just FYI.

The other things are working good for me, except GUI. As I said, I can use almost any software, except software that requires command line in chinese language. If the Bitcoin will look like that from begining, I will be silent. Not the good interface is replaced with a bad one, it's like something is stolen from me for sake of eye candy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmXL6-F3vZQ

1. The old icon/logo looked better.

True also. But it's not so important, thay are similar enough.

2. Don't see the point of the "overview" tab. Everything presented there could (and should) be available in the transactions tab instead.

Yes, like it already was in 0.4.0

3. Your total balance should be available on every tab and in the same location (top left IMO).

Yes, that was in 0.4.0. In new version it might be the status bar with balance, but it will not be good visibility.

4. Not a fan of tooltip-heavy software.

I'm not also, the basic operation of Bitcoin does not require tooltips on basic functions. Maybe configurable on/off tooltips will do the job.

5. Should be able to see the number of confirmations without hovering.
6. Should be able to see connections and block total without hovering.

I also said about that and it was available in 0.4.0

7. Any way to disable the -Transaction Received- tray message?

This might be easily configurable in options when implemented. But I recieved transactions and did not seen the baloon message. Something wrong?

10. Splash image looks a bit cheesy.

Cheesy was my old wallet who looked almost exactly like one in splashscreen. It smelled also like swiss cheese. The splash screen reminds me about that every time!

I can make two images that contains my vision about how things should look in 0.4.0 and 0.5.0 versions. You will see that some improvements that are hyped in 0.5.0 can easily be implemented in wxwidgets based 0.4.0, and how Qt based 0.5.0 can be improved by rearranging the layout. Anyone interested?

[mjcmurfy]

... add Facebook support just like Skype did, so lamers can see each others bitcoin adresses and update they statuses when they send bitcoins.

That's actually a good idea.

[notme]

Sure, show us your mockups.  Just remember, talk is cheap and code is not.  Maybe you'll get lucky and someone will do the hard work for you and you can sit back and learn how to get what you want by whining.  I agree there are some regressions, but you are bringing a lot more emotion to the situation then is necessary.  Simply pointing out your preferred improvements is helpful, but hyperbolic language like saying a theft has occurred is not constructive.  Plus, as had been pointed out, the old GUI is still available.

[sadpandatech]

... add Facebook support just like Skype did, so lamers can see each others bitcoin adresses and update they statuses when they send bitcoins.

That's actually a good idea.

  You know, as much as the thought of anything relating to social media makes me want to gag on a spoon, this is actually an excellent idea...