Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

They Ripped Off Our Dock.

C

cheesegreater

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 27, 2008
9
0
picture1gw5.png

Hell froze over. Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system features multitouch support and a new taskbar which suprisingly shows resemblance to our OS X dock. They have taken this to a new low, guys. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipg6ltIZRw0
:(:(:(:(:(
 
You mean the way Apple ripped off the dock concept from someone else? And Windows ripped off Apple who ripped off Xerox PARC for the GUI idea? Please...
 
Enough with the righteous outrage. If you actually watched the video, MS Windows 7's taskbar behaves differently from Leopard's dock in how it groups minimized Windows by program. (However, it's nice that Leopard's Apple-Tab is by program instead of by window).

And so many Mac users give snooty arguments about Windows, saying "Yuck" about the interface as if that is a sufficient argument in of itself. Do you have any actual criticism from a useability or design standpoint other than that it superficially resembles the dock?

Oh, and the real shameless rip-off of Leopard's dock is RocketDock.
http://www.rocketdock.com/
 
Tibbar said:
Enough with the righteous outrage. If you actually watched the video, MS Windows 7's taskbar behaves differently from Leopard's dock in how it groups minimized Windows by program. (However, it's nice that Leopard's Apple-Tab is by program instead of by window).

And so many Mac users give snooty arguments about Windows, saying "Yuck" about the interface as if that is a sufficient argument in of itself. Do you have any actual criticism from a useability or design standpoint other than that it superficially resembles the dock?

Oh, and the real shameless rip-off of Leopard's dock is RocketDock.
http://www.rocketdock.com/
Click to expand...


Thanks for the link. Pretty cool. I might download it on my Vista partition in bootcamp.
 
Thanks again. I'm not a Vista and/or MS hater like many on here. I wouldn't mind customizing my Windows side of things. I like OS X better of course, but Vista is pretty good.
 
Interesting video. I was impressed with how smoothly everything appeared, disappeared and moved around. It looks pretty slick. I guess we'll know just how slick and how intuitive it really is in 2010.
 
Hmm, interesting, I still feel like the Mac is a few steps ahead in that department.

I wouldn't say rip-off, because then we have to trace our roots all the way back, but it is awfully funny when MS puts more importance into the "task bar" aka Dock.
 
hogfaninga said:
Thanks again. I'm not a Vista and/or MS hater like many on here. I wouldn't mind customizing my Windows side of things. I like OS X better of course, but Vista is pretty good.
Click to expand...

Me neither. I care more about the programs and games I can run than the operating system. And the Mac and PC both have programs that are exclusive to each, so I use both systems with contentedness.
 
br0adband said:
You mean the way Apple ripped off the dock concept from someone else? And Windows ripped off Apple who ripped off Xerox PARC for the GUI idea? Please...
Click to expand...

Ermmmmm, Actually Steve Jobs had the idea of a Dock since 1986, implementing it in NeXTStep In 1988, applied for a patent in 1999 and was awarded it at the start of this month, almost 10 years later.
The Dock was always going to be the central point of OS X, and now he has this in writing.

You could argue that the Acorn Archimedes had the idea first, but come on, can you really compare the Icon Bar to The Dock?
 
But it really looks like the copying situation is getting worse. I guess that's a good thing. More mac users for us. :D
 
McDughf said:
Ermmmmm, Actually Steve Jobs had the idea of a Dock since 1986, implementing it in NeXTStep In 1988, applied for a patent in 1999 and was awarded it at the start of this month, almost 10 years later.
The Dock was always going to be the central point of OS X, and now he has this in writing.

You could argue that the Acorn Archimedes had the idea first, but come on, can you really compare the Icon Bar to The Dock?
Click to expand...

Agreed. Thats really what I was referring to.
 
This new taskbar is pretty sweet actually.

NeXT had NeXTSTEP 1.0 on the market before Linux existed, let alone had any decent window managers. The idea Apple stole the Dock from Linux Distros in laughable. When Apple brought NeXT they inherited all their IP, that's how it works.

Apple didn't steal (well if you call paying them $1 million US stealing) as much from XEROX Parc as many of the anti-Mac crowd would like to make out. There were no drop down windows in Xerox's system, windows couldn't overlap etc.

Read this article for more info.
 
cheesegreater said:
Hell froze over. Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system features multitouch support and a new taskbar which suprisingly shows resemblance to our OS X dock. They have taken this to a new low, guys.
Click to expand...

I'll give them credit. If they can do that on an average machine, great. Window management -- on Macs and PCs -- needs to be improved.

And personally, I think the task bar is big improvement over the Dock ... I don't like how the Dock is a layer on top of the desktop. Stuff (icons, window edges) keeps falling behind it. It's like a desk 1 inch from the wall and all the crap that tumbles to the floor.

mt
 
mysterytramp said:
I'll give them credit. If they can do that on an average machine, great. Window management -- on Macs and PCs -- needs to be improved.

And personally, I think the task bar is big improvement over the Dock ... I don't like how the Dock is a layer on top of the desktop. Stuff (icons, window edges) keeps falling behind it. It's like a desk 1 inch from the wall and all the crap that tumbles to the floor.

mt
Click to expand...

I love how the dock is in Tiger. I can't stand leopard's dock. ;)
 
They might have ripped off the Dock but remember this is Microsoft everything they copy or make is full of bugs.. and half of the time they dont even know where they went wrong lol.. I guess we know how Apple will ruin the reputation of windows 7 :)
 
EricNau said:
It is ironic, however, given how many Windows users I've heard criticize OS X's dock.
Click to expand...

Gotta love it. I find it more entertaining how many of my friends dislike Macs, but then actually use one/buy one and love it.

One friend even turned into a Mac fanatic because I convinced him to buy a MacBook Pro over some Dell.
 
EricNau said:
It is ironic, however, given how many Windows users I've heard criticize OS X's dock.
Click to expand...

This is the part I love most.

Today: Hahahaha! You call that an operating system? That's such a stupid, useless feature! Nobody would ever want to do that! Only idiots do it that way! Windows does it so much better!

After the next Windows version: Hey, check it out! Now my Windows PC can do it too! It's just like yours! You're not so special anymore! Who's laughing now?

:rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back