Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Apple
Vista very OS X like
Our good friends at Lifehacker installed the latest beta of Windows Vista and experienced deja vu. Where had they seen these UI elements before? A focus on search? Gadgets?Oh, right, OS X. Check out the full post for a side by side look at some OS X like features of Vista.
Personally, I hope that Microsoft comes up with some really sweet new features in Vista to give Apple a run for their money (competition is good for the consumer).
Get a WordPress.com Blog
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Alexander Dimitriyadi said 12:13PM on 6-13-2006
Quite frankly as much as I'm an Apple fanboy, I have to give credit to Microsoft on something. They were the ones who showed off their "spotlight" search technology first, when they first debuted longhorn back in 2003. Microsoft showed this off, 2 years before Tiger would be released, and they [Apple] were the ones who copied Microsoft.
Reply
Dustin said 12:13PM on 6-13-2006
Im also trying out Vista and it is similar to OS X but it is so so much worse. The layout is somewhat similar but they screwed it up pretty badly.
Reply
Mark Thomas said 12:15PM on 6-13-2006
Competition -- true competition -- is good for consumers. But brainless copying isn't. Competition is supposed to inspire innovation, but for the majority of corporations, all it really does is create zillions of crappy knock-off products. Sure, this drives down prices, but it also drives down quality, innovation, and actual choice (for is it really "choice" to be able to choose between 20 pieces of identical crap from 20 different vendors who all copied one good idea rather than coming up with 20 of their own good ideas?).
Reply
Jon said 12:17PM on 6-13-2006
The thing is, MS is copying Tiger's features and by the time Vista is released, Leopard should be out, so they will still be behind the times.
Reply
Dan Uricoli said 12:47PM on 6-13-2006
I installed Vista myself, and it has a very good resemblance to OSX, the side bar is the only cool thing though honestly...I sold my pc yesterday and now have a macbook pro and an 20in imac...I made the full switch..
Vista is really buggy to me, you need a REALLY high end machine to run it, so emachines may have to step it up a little...
Microsoft took a lesson from apple maybe...they realized apple is going strong through inovation and microsoft, well...just kinda sucks. Not only that Microsoft products are ugly...
Reply
Chris Murphy said 1:00PM on 6-13-2006
"I hope that Microsoft comes up with some really sweet new features in Vista to give Apple a run for their money (competition is good for the consumer)."
Um...you do know that Microsoft still has about a 90% share of the OS market, right?
THAT'S NOT COMPETITION.
Apple has great products, but they are nowhere near competing with Microsoft. I, for one, hopes that Microsoft falls flat on its face.
Reply
narco said 1:14PM on 6-13-2006
I could be mistaken, but wasn't the "spotlight" technology that Microsoft showed off in 2003 based on something totally different compared to what is in Vista?
Most of these other similarities are kind of pushing it. I mean, is there really a million different ways to redesign a calendar?
Fishes,
narco.
Reply
tim said 1:20PM on 6-13-2006
You should search YouTube for windows vista movies. They do this thing where Bill Gates is talking at a conference about all the cool "new" features but the video is of some guy operating OSX. And the voiceover of Bill Gates goes PERFECTLY with all the features that have already been on OSX. It is quite humerous!
Reply
Wheels said 1:21PM on 6-13-2006
The graphics Vista's UI still look like a child's toy when compared to the polished finish of OS X.
Reply
Alex said 1:24PM on 6-13-2006
Tim, it's The Real Windows Vista
http://tauquil.com/archives/2006/01/06/re-introducing-the-real-windows-vista/
Reply
Greg said 1:28PM on 6-13-2006
Why does the graphic attached to this post look more like a tampon ad than an OS ad?
Microsoft marketing weirdos up to more crack-brained idiotic schemes?
Reply
macsterdam said 1:42PM on 6-13-2006
What always surprises me, in regards to Vista's 'inspired-by-others'-look, is Microsoft's own DRM strategy. They're always going on about how they want to protect the intellectual property of artists, etc, yet they themselves blatantly copy and steal other companies innovations. Don't get me wrong, Apple isn't saint-like either in this respect, but the way Microsoft's behaves is scary to say the least. As for Vista, I was shocked to see so much OSX-like stuff. I can't believe they're going to get away with this.
As for Spotlight. People tend to forget to Spotlight-like technology was long before available in BeOS. The guy who programmed that was hired a long time before by Apple, so, although Apple already had Spotlight before Microsoft's demoed their version.
Reply
Liquidmark said 2:06PM on 6-13-2006
@Chris Murphy
Um, Ever heard of a comeback?
Microsoft is a smart enough business to know that competitor innovation is dangerous to their survival. Right now, Apple is fighting back for the Mac and Apple's Market GROWTH is accelerating. In the big picture, Market Share doesn't mean very much. Market GROWTH does. Apple had almost NO growth during the mid to late 80's to late 90's period. That's over a decade of stunted growth.
During that time, Microsoft gained a great amount of growth.
In the EARLY 80's, Apple had about 50% of the total market share. The other 50% was split between Microsoft and various other OS developers that powered the clone PC market. Apple's setback was caused by corporate types that didn't understand the computer industry and chose to sell Mac's like they are used cars or something. A shame really.
You see what I am saying? What goes around comes around. Just because M$ is powerful now, doesn't mean they always will be. Considering that there are numerous Clone Manufacturers and the number of other OS Makers still out there, Apple is doing great in the grand scheme of things.
Reply
Doug said 2:08PM on 6-13-2006
Sure Vista 'looks' like OS X (somewhat), but it definitely doesn't work like it.
My rule of thumb is, that as long as there are legacy 16 color icons of MS Paint in the OS, Windows Whatever will still suck.
Reply
Jabbar said 2:20PM on 6-13-2006
I think people tend to forget the fact that the widgets on your dashboard are a ripoff of Konfabulator's Widgets. Saying that Vista is taking the dashboard idea is wrong- Apple stole Konfabulator's idea and didnt even give credit.
Reply
Falsoman said 2:22PM on 6-13-2006
Well, i'm trying windows vista and i like a lot of it's features, but it really feels like a Beta... many things are working good, but letting the old ways of doing things in windows left out un less you take out the other features...
One thing i really like is the part of the Explorer's show options where you can change the size of the icons without opening a new dialog box, this gives you a good way of dealing with pictures and movies. I would like OSX to do something similar... or if it is already on 10.4 i would like to know how to do it without opening a new dialog box.
One thing i really really dislike is the fact that an f-ing dialog box each time i do a new thing or a "potentially dangerous" one like turning on messenger or installing something... This thing makes my screen go dark and presents me a dialog that tells me how dangerous it might be if i do anything... so i have to click Continue or Cancel or something to continue using my computer... it is really anoying.
I do feel this beta way more snappy and stable than XP... but that shouldn't be hard to acomplish...
Reply
Steven said 2:43PM on 6-13-2006
"I think people tend to forget the fact that the widgets on your dashboard are a ripoff of Konfabulator's Widgets. Saying that Vista is taking the dashboard idea is wrong- Apple stole Konfabulator's idea and didnt even give credit."
Not this tired old argument again. Apple had a "dashboard" back in the pre-OS 8 days. Go do a Google search on Konfabulator and Dashboard. You'll get tons of argument threads.
Reply
ganzhimself said 2:47PM on 6-13-2006
I have to say, after a few days with both the 32 and 64 bit versions of Vista, I'm not that impressed. First off, I had to turn off the "feature" that brings up the authentication dialoge box each time I attempt to do an administrative task. If they were trying to be more OSX or Linux like requiring "root" authentication when you're trying to do something potentially dangerous, then just bring a dialoge box up, don't change the display mode, causing my monitor to go black, then to a greyed out desktop with a warning box, then black, then to the task I was trying to accomplish in the first place... A simple dialoge box is all you need... That is by far the most annoying thing aside from having to press F10 to get file menus to appear. Does anyone know if there's a way to them to appear for good? Nice try, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be buying a MBP or iMac soon to make the full switch to OS X.
Reply
Ken said 3:36PM on 6-13-2006
"We have the advantage of being in 90% of computers worldwide... let's ruin it!"
Apple is all about "we do less, but we do it exceptionally well". Windows is quite the opposite, trying to do everything in the form of "let's add a little of this, a few more of these, some of that and put it in the oven".
Windows can run on any custom made PC, it has tons of software titles and tons of tiny (or not so tiny) problems. Microsoft could focus on improving security, fixing bugs, driver support and system stability, and we'd be happy with Windows.
Don't include a Windows Calendar, a Sidebar, an iTunes-like Media Player and other eye candy, unless you have previously fixed the most important stuff. And even worse, don't force all of us buy new machines in order to be able to experience Vista.
And a last thing: Don't bring glossy buttons when I'm already tired of them! (but mostly because you can't make them look right)
Reply
Philip Hounsham said 3:50PM on 6-13-2006
Your all missing the Point :) We all want what the packaging says. And in my Experience Apple delivers a much more reliable solution. I still find it hard to believe that MS did not see all the security implications coming, but then again maybe that was market driven rather than research. Ithier way MS was and still is unreliable and what can clearly be seen is a grasping at straws approach. Sorry MS most valliant effort, but still does not cut with me.
Reply