What exactly did Microsoft "copy" in Vista?

[dotdotdot]

Everyone on internet and in print is saying Microsoft is clearly copying Mac OS X's ideas for use in Vista, but they all mention the same things, search and widgets, primarily.

Don't people realize Microsoft had "Longhorn" versions in 2002, which included this search and a sidebar which had widgets on it? How is that copying OS X, which came out in 2005?

Everyone is basing their comments on products that were RELEASED - if Mac OS X had it in 2005 and Vista will in 2006, Microsoft is copying Apple. But if you do it in terms of beta - in 2002, Microsoft had Search and Widgets, but Apple released Jaguar and Panther without them and then waited until 2005, then technically Apple is copying Microsoft.

But how is it really "copying?" If they all try to improve on eachother, its taking ones idea and improving upon it - the foundation of the world we live in today (I hope you all enjoy driving your cars and using your phones, watching your TVs and eating your foods - which were all invented beforehand but improved upon.)

So im giving you all an opportunity - explain what exactly is being copied here as no one else seems to be able to.

 

[PlaceofDis]

search was inevitable for both companies.
the look and feel of OS X is what MS is trying to copy. they are attempting to look as polished and streamlined as they can, and in my opinion, they fail horribly.

the thing is, these features have been usable by the general public on OS X for longer than they have on Windows, and you still can't use them on windows because Vista still isn't out yet. That is the key. being in beta doesn't mean anything. being released to the general public for use does.

 

[BenRoethig]

search was inevitable for both companies.
the look and feel of OS X is what MS is trying to copy. they are attempting to look as polished and streamlined as they can, and in my opinion, they fail horribly.

the thing is, these features have been usable by the general public on OS X for longer than they have on Windows, and you still can't use them on windows because Vista still isn't out yet. That is the key. being in beta doesn't mean anything. being released to the general public for use does.

Everything save the start menu.

 

[homerjward]

Everything save the start menu.

they're replacing it with a windows logo. the apple menu has an apple logo. hmm....

 

[DeepIn2U]

Wow, something so small can have drastic change, and confusion. I noticed it but it just didnt register.!

homerjward, thanks for pointing that out.


For the thread starters information when Apple announced that quick search would come almsot 1 year before Tiger came out (it was still an Alpha yet they demonstrated it); at that time MS hadnt even wanted to do index searching thy thought it was useless at the time.

Of all the power and corporate experience that Microsoft has its strange how core productivity feature set is still 1 year behind the Mac's! A new polished GUI oooh that makes you scream even more insanely and louder at how much wasted screen realestate is being wasted.

 

[maya]

MS kept mentioning "screen clutter," however they have they gadget bar on the right of the screen taking up so much space, and also the task bar at the bottom. I am sure you can auto hide the task bar.

The stack window browsing looks like a roll-a-dex, and its a poor implementation to expose. The expose tab option they have is the only useful thing I found out of the entire Vista demo.

The gadgets they have, also fails as if you have too many gadgets you have to scroll up or down in order to view various information. Much like the dashboard dock. Dashboard does this by a simple push of the button and keep it clean.

The glass windows at first look great, however using it over time will get annoying.

Preview in task bar has already been done in Mac OS X for sometime now.

To the author of this thread, even though Apple previews an OS in a certain year and releases it another year, does not mean that when they preview the new OS that is when development started. It usually starts 6-12 months in advance. So when MS noted that they would have meta-search, etc... in 2002 and Tiger was demoed in 2004, given a 12 month span you would have Tiger development in 2003. However the same team that coded Jaguar 10.2 was the same team that coded 10.4. Have you noticed that 10.2 was faster than 10.3, and now 10.4 seems faster than 10.3, however very similar to 10.2 with extras.

The team that coded 10.0 also coded 10.2 and 10.4, soon to be 10.6

The team that coded 10.1 also coded 10.3 and next 10.5.


Apple does this since the Mac OS 10 is developed at a rapid rate without the same delays that MS has with its OS.


The two Mac OS X for PPC was mentioned a while back when 10.2 was released.

To make things interesting Apple also have Mac OS X for x86 and PPC. That just goes to show you how much Apple invests into its OS.

So as you can tell 10.4 feature set was in development way before 2002, however Apple does not mention this to anyone yet as its internal. So you ask why could they not have meta search in 10.2 or 10.3, as you can see there are two teams and they had to release 10.2 rather than delay it from hitting the market. 10.3 had other things to accomplish. Meta-search was being implemented slowly by putting the pieces in 10.2 and onward.

 

[Blue Velvet]

The team that coded 10.0 also coded 10.2 and 10.4, soon to be 10.6

The team that coded 10.1 also coded 10.3 and next 10.5.

Now I'm pretty sure that both teams were going to be merged from and including 10.5 onwards... think this was actually publicly stated by Apple.

 

[maya]

Now I'm pretty sure that both teams were going to be merged from and including 10.5 onwards... think this was actually publicly stated by Apple.

You might be right, since I know they are now focusing they efforts on x86 development while still having a PPC version just in case. Plus they have decided to prolong the OS update cycle.