Figured I'd point out this is originally an SMBC comic. http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2388[^]

Most of those people who like apple and the such doing animations are probably not high-end users. I prefer having all my information present, easy to get to (text wise), and have my computer accessible. I'm starting to get annoyed that the newer OS' (especially the phones) use these animations instead and sometimes don't even present me with error codes/useful ones (intelegisync error, no number or other reference, listed as one of 50'000 possible errors on their webpage). So I can understand disdain to microsoft doing this.