I disagree. We've got four corners of the screen. Windows are almost always used mazimized
I also find that's a novice way to use Windows. At least I only ever see it done by my ex girlfriend and my wife. I can see running something like Photoshop or Illustrator maximized, maybe even Excel, but not an Explorer window and not something like Word or a web browser. Unless of course you're rocking a 640x480 or 800x60 screen.
Every window always maximized. Then to move between windows, the person will click the minimize button, then click the other app on the task bar, and repeat every time they need something else. Fun times.
thus, upper left -> file, upper right -> close, lower left -> start, lower right -> status. The corners are the easiest places to find with the mouse, thus, using each one for one thing increases usability.
You're correct that it's easy to throw the mouse pointed to an extreme and be on target. That's why Mac OS has its menus at the top of the screen. And it's why in Windows you might feel it's better to maximize the window. Unfortunately in Windows you're left trying to make up for the deficiencies of MS' UI design in this way. In Mac OS it's a lot easier to run individual windows un-maximized, which allows better inter-program usage, all while still taking advantage of the top display edge for your menus. It's consistent over all apps, whether maximized or not. The Apple Menu or Spotlight are the Mac's equivalent to the START menu (recent items sub-menu and Spotlight allows you to find anything regardless of where it is).
But, MS made it configurable for a reason, and you're welcome to have it wherever you want.
Of course. They couldn't very well leave it locked to the bottom knowing fully well it was the incorrect place for it. The other issue is that I find the task list portion of the bar rather useless, so I always allow windows to go over top of it. But that will then also allow hiding the Start menu.
When I made the original observation some posts back, I meant it as a bigger dig against MS rather than users of the OS. Most people don't even know you can move the task bar nor have any idea why it's on the bottom or why it should be on top. They just continue through life clicking individual form fields with their mice as Bitt mentioned. Because they also don't know what the TAB key does, nor Enter/Return for that matter.
Mention Alt-Tab and you'll really blow their minds.
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