Article: "Leopard looks like … Vista"

For things like the transparency that is true .

EDIT: The rest of the article is very ignorant though.

It's a ZDNet blog, I don't usually take the time to pick it apart as they're written to do this. It's Mary Jo Foley, so I usually take even less time even looking at it. But I'll just do it this once:

The new Leopard Coverflow viewing capability looked almost identical to Vista’s Flip 3D to me.

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Uh. What?

3. QuickLook: Live file previews — just like the thumbnail preview capability available in Vista.

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Uh. What? It's more than thumbnail preview. As Steve Jobs spent half his time on the subject showing.

Core animation: ... The WWDC developers attending the Jobs keynote didn’t seem wowed with this functionality.

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Spaces: ... I haven’t seen anything like in in Vista, but the audience didn’t seem overly impressed by it.

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Because they saw it before.

Dashboard with widgets. Isn’t this like the Vista Sidebar with gadgets?

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No, it's like Dashboard with widgets for Tiger, which is like Konfabulator (Yahoo Widgets), which is like Desktop Accessories.

Vista has built-in automatic backup (Volume Shadow Copy).

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Not in every copy of Vista.

So I’m sure I’m glossing over some subtleties regarding what’s new and cool in Leopard.

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Then don't write an article about an Apple developer's conference when you're this uninformed and asleep.

So, Apple folks: What am I missing?

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A brain.

"Looks like" I guess is the operative term. I must admit that some things look similar and the background at the Keynote and the online demos could be less "Vista-like". Not really sure why Apple marketing chose it.

The article is pretty ridiculous, the sheer lack of research is unbelievable from a "reporter"

This guy's an idiot.

Lixivial said:

.... A brain.

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Pretty much. She probably doesn't even know the name of 10.4.

That article was b-r-u-t-a-l.

Benjamindaines said:

This guy's an idiot.

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Yeah with a name like Mary the guy must be an idiot.

When I read the line about widgets looking and sounding an awful lot like gadgets, I almost soiled myself in laughter. I haven't read a reply to her terrible view of the OS wars, as enough people have done that for her to get the message. But.... wow.

I liked this response

Yes, we can tell that by the shallow, incomplete and flawed information you present


Here are some of the gems:

"Not a whole lot different from"
"Many of the same capabilities"
"Just like the thumbnail preview"
"it seems like a good idea to offer 32-bit operating systems"
"Not sure what the Vista comparison is here"
" I haven’t seen anything like in in Vista"
"Isn’t this like"
" (Volume Shadow Copy)"

Non-stop confusion ... please stop, it hurts.

Steve

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Still great article for a good laugh.

ZDnet.com seriously need some people who actually know something about OSes outside the Windows domain, I thought by now they might have some decent Linux people working for them.

I already saw that. Everyone on digg was making fun of her. Apparently, she never heard of Tiger.

Gotta think that she found 'Ballmer's' Grape kool-aid stash.. Because she thinks that MSFT is the Innovation Company ..

8. Dashboard with widgets. Isn’t this like the Vista Sidebar with gadgets?

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Well to be fair guys, she's kinda right. My first impression from seeing the video yesterday was "wow, it sure looks like vista now". Obviously her statement about the widgets is completely ignorant and off the mark. And yes I know 10.1 had transparencies before vista. But really, the new OS does look similar to vista.

Not enough to start screaming "OMFG Apple ripped of M$!!" but enough that saying they look a like is fair.

dornoforpyros said:

Well to be fair guys, she's kinda right. My first impression from seeing the video yesterday was "wow, it sure looks like vista now". Obviously her statement about the widgets is completely ignorant and off the mark. And yes I know 10.1 had transparencies before vista. But really, the new OS does look similar to vista.

Not enough to start screaming "OMFG Apple ripped of M$!!" but enough that saying they look a like is fair.

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I tend to agree, I think this is because of the way Vista has been designed and the fact that Vista has been released before Leopard I do believe people are comparing Vista's design to Leopard. I remember when the first screen shots of Vista was released people were comparing it to Tiger, but since Leopards initial release people were expecting a lot more from the continuity and dynamic design Apple has always released.

I still think Microsoft's philosophy to design is now becoming more in tune with the look of Mac OS and Linux not the other way around.

Very similar articles are appearing around the net, either the other writers are just copying what she wrote or are posting information + the article written for them by MS.

sure there're going to be some similarities. OSes have always had that. and they're evolving in a similar fashion in terms of appearance. its the functionality thats different and sets OS X way ahead of the curve, imo.

Hummm ...

I thought Vista was an attempt to copy Tiger

Yup Apple totally copied Vista that is why 3 years ago I was running Panther at work and having better luck then anyone with the Vista computers that are coming in now.

Oh course the IT department decided to pull the drives and replace then with XP pro. They sighted streamline compatibility. Funny thing is they haven't even noticed me on the network as I must just look like a UNIX server.

Ha, really the only thing I was like "Oh, no ,Vista" was the menubar.

I think it is rather stupid to let someone watch a keynote and with out any prior research pump out a rather sad attempt at reporting. Mary Jo should find another field to work in. Like maybe an Apple Genius, as she seems to know all there is about the new OS called OS ex 10.5.

I think I will buy her a copy of 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4.

Leopard doesn't look like Vista. The dock has always been transparent, so I really don't see how it copied Vista in that sense. The menu bar is similar to vista, but I don't care. It looks great, IMO. Leopard looks better than Vista, and Tiger looks better than Vista.

As was stated before this woman has no idea what she is talking about which is painfully obvious in her uninformed and unintentionally hilarious "article".

Here's the thing that frosts my buttocks. Vista looks (and tries to act) like Tiger because MS ripped it off. I think that much we can agree on. So when Apple goes back to refine the look of Mac OS and build on preexisting features or add new ones, people like her bitch about them copying MS since Vista came out before Leopard, so Vista must have been the source of this idea.

Thats the exact ignorance that MS is hoping the average person will have. They bring these features to market which then become mainstream. MS gets credit for their rip off since people have short memories, and Apple gets attacked in articles like this one from this broad for copying the geniuses in Redmond.

Duh, that Leopard looks like Vista. It should, Vista ripped off its predecessor pretty hard so of course they will look alike.

Lixivial said:

Because they saw it before.

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This was a HUGE contributor to the mehness of WWDC 07.

People looking in, like this...um...person, who hadn't seen things like Spaces and Time Machine previewed before an audience will have left thinking the audience really wasn't into much of anything announced. We know it's because they've seen it before. That Time Machine was met with whoahhh! and Spaces, especially when dragging apps between them, was met with whoahhh! the first time around.

Re-announcing these things at the biggest developers event was, imo, a disaster. A disaster because it meant they had nothing else up their sleeves and a disaster because those great features of Leopard; Time Machine, Spaces, etc were met with a luke warm response as it was the second time around.

This, added to no secret features, and a questionable GUI (taste thing...mainly but yeah), all added up. Throw on a Vista desktop and yeah, I was left dumbfounded.

Mary Jo Foley has never been a credible and knowledgable source for Mac or Windows information.

Uh. What? It's more than thumbnail preview. As Steve Jobs spent half his time on the subject showing.

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I think she was thinking of the Vista Explorer's Preview Pane which allows you to page through documents, preview video and audio files, and so on. MJF is just a dumbass and doesn't know the name of the correct Windows feature.

No, it's like Dashboard with widgets for Tiger, which is like Konfabulator (Yahoo Widgets), which is like Desktop Accessories.

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Dashboard Accessories is simply not very similar to the current day widget/gadget concept. There's a reason why no one was reminded of desktop accessories when they first saw Konfabulator... they simply aren't related. It was just something DaringFireball create in an apologetic response to Apple ripping off Konfabulator after giving them an award for best Mac application.

Anyway, Microsoft did have Active Desktop and the Sidebar (which comes from the MSN Dashboard circa 1998) in Longhorn long before Apple showed anything publically.

Not in every copy of Vista.

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What difference does that make? Clearly Microsoft released and showed off Previous Docs first. FYI, Volume Shadow Copy is to Previous Docs as Quicktime is to Quicktime Player. The former is just the framework underlying the system. Shadow Copy is present on all versions of Vista, Windows Server 2003, and XP since SP2.

Hummm ...

I thought Vista was an attempt to copy Tiger

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Apple has their Mac Fanatics buying that crap because they keep them ignorant. Vista is obviously influenced by the look and feel of the Mac. Microsoft openly admits this. Tiger was an attempt to copy the functionality of Longhorn/Vista.

For instance, Spotlight is a response to the instant search and saved search abilites that Microsoft showed in 2003 (and before that if you count Winsupersite.com). Dashboard is a response to the Longhorn Sidebar. FrontRow was a response to MCE and so on. iTunes 7 is a response to WMP11 and MCE.

Apple, in general, has far better visual design than MS, MS knows this and adjusted their features to look like the ones mentioned above. So instead of Vista's explorer having the search box on the left side they moved it to the same place Apple put there's... even though Microsoft had the fast search box in the Explorer first (2001). They moved the system wide-netorked search from the sidebar to a popup menu like Spotlight even though they had that first too (2002). They changed the Sidebar tiles (1998-2002) to look like Dashboard (2003), Microsoft changed their color platates to something more-Apple like.

Basically Apple copies technical features from Microsoft (Spotlight, Dashboard, Time Machine etc.) and Microsoft copies Apple's look and feel.

It's somewhat of a symbiotic relationship lol.

the fact is:
they both copy each other.

1. transparent menu bar existed in linux last century.
2. shadow copy in windows 2003
3. animated max/min first in OSX

etc, etc

the difference is:

apple knows how to accuse of other ppl copying apple. while M$ doesn't see that as a big deal, which I agree. copy this, copy that, how about looking back and see how much apple copied from others.

how much of OSX/Safari's code is written by apple? who dare to say M$'s shadow copy didn't give any inspiration for time machine? "sorta ZFS" isn't from SUN? resize text input field in safari 3? why do I find it already in Netscape 9?

This world is getting better by helping and learning from each other, not from making accusations with double standard. apple, get a life and grow up

Well said, BGil. I think that's one of the most honest, well-put responses I have read thus far in regards to Apple ripping off Microsoft and vice-versa.

Nonetheless, Mary Jo Foley is an idiot. No doubt about it.



irmongoose