After months of speculation, Microsoft plans to give developers their first hard look at the next version of Windows in October,” reports Ina Fried for CNET News.com. “The Redmond, Wash., company expects to release a ‘developers preview’ of the new operating system, code-named Longhorn, at its professional developers conference in Los Angeles.”
Fried reports, “As for the new user interface, it’s unclear just how much of the design, code-named Aero, will be shown. Microsoft did preview some user interface features at its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in May. One concern is that if the look and feel is revealed too soon, it could be copied by others well before Microsoft ever ships Longhorn.” Full article here.
Here are some QuickTime movies of the “Aero” UI preview from ExtremeTech.com – you’ll have to let them download fully before they will play:
Windows wave (3.6 MB)
Stars Wars rotate (3.5 MB)
Aero dizzy (7.1 MB)
MacDailyNews Take: Whoops! Longhorn’s “Aero” UI look and feel has already been copied due to a dastardly act by Apple Computer, Inc. The Cupertino Mac maker seems to have employed some nefarious method of time travel; jumping forward to 2005 to steal Longhorn’s “Aero” UI look and feel, then jumping back to March 2001 to release a copy known by the unoriginal (and obviously Aero-inspired) name “Aqua” and employing a so-called technology named “Quartz.” See the results of this obvious act of copying via time travel here. Apple also seems to be intent on building upon the copied “Aero” look and feel with their own “innovations,” including Expos
RP, you seem to be devoid of any factual knowledge concerning Apple so please give it a rest. You only show yourself to be an idiot.
“The Mozilla group was pissed that they didn’t use Mozilla.”
And the Opera group actually threatened to stop developing for the Mac if Apple didn’t use their engine. Ohhhhhhh, they seem to be even more ignorant than RP!
note to editors:
no wonder i never visit your site.
those links are of the Avalon 2d/3d real-time windowing model for Longhorn, which was designed for 128+mb VRAM, unlike QExtreme.
Here’s the “Aero” UI:
http://winsupersite.com/showcase/longhorn_aero.asp
also, these “effects” are all demonstrations of the underlying technology, not intended to be “features”… so much misinfo out there.
From WordNet (r) 1.7:
irregardless
adv : in spite of everything; without regard to drawbacks; “he
carried on irregardless of the difficulties” [syn: regardless,
irrespective, disregardless, no matter, disregarding]
http://www.apple-history.com/frames/?
An Interseting dialogue bettween Bruce Horn & Jeff Raskin (both worked on the Macintosh project & both worked at Xerox Parc) about Apple, Xerox & the development of the GUI….I’m tired of hearing the BS about Xerox Parc from PC centric users. Do some research the story is out there. There also used to be some very good articles at Mackido.com about what was developed when & by who…I’m not sure if they are still there.
re: erik
is it for Windows 70’s?
Even windows is not for ‘graphic’ people, at least they should hire someone who knows something about design. It’s not that expensive actually. And it can make windows looks good. Like OSX.
re: bezier
okay maybe i didn’t fully explain things in my last post. the “unusable effects” that some of those movies show are for demonstration. the movies are from win hec 2003 where they demoed the capabilities of the new model.
however, the underlying functionality will be applied in Longhorn.
“Examples of visual effects that will be enabled in Windows Longhorn include: Windows tumbling onto the screen. Rotating windows. Warped windows. Alpha blending between windows. Threads. Events and other synchronization objects.”
“The Windows Longhorn Driver Model allows for the visual effects seen on a user’s desktop to scale relative to the available graphics hardware. For example, the experience of viewing Windows Longhorn on hardware with capabilities equivalent to a high end DirectX 9-compliant graphics chip will be much richer than Windows Longhorn displayed on baseline legacy graphics hardware.”
trex:
ir?re?gard?less ��
adv. Nonstandard
Regardless.
[Probably blend of irrespective, and regardless.]
Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.
^from dictionary.com
So sorry, because I didn’t believe that the Mac is the paragon of innovation – I must be an idiot. A little hard to refute facts sometimes. However, occasionally I am wrong; I should not have said ‘stolen’ in reference to PARC, ‘copied’ or ‘borrowed heavily’ should have been used instead. After all, Aero stylings (based on Wininformant screen shots) are obviously ‘stolen’ from OSX. When Windows takes a feature, it called ‘stealing’, when Macs derive a feature it’s called, ‘we thought of it first, but hadn’t had time to implement it yet’.
Irregardless (sic), the point of the posting was not get everyone all buggered up, rather to point out two facts:
1. As stated before, Macs are not the paragon of innovation (see previous two examples). Innovation does not begin or end with pretty effects.
2. Anyone purporting that Aero is based off of OSX doesn’t have a clue – unless of course they have managed to get more than a couple screenshots from an OS that has yet to see public exposure with final stylings. Not likely. I am sure that as soon as it is released we can hear all about how the Mac ‘innovated’ all of the features first…
I find it funny that Apple/Mac users and supporters love to chastise MS for “stealing” the GUI concept, look, and feel from Apple, but refuse to acknowledge that Apple stole it from Xerox. Or did you not know that fact? I can’t wait to hear the excuses and BS as to why that is not true.
all of you… get a life
Apple paid for Xerox’s technology through stock. M$ did not. Apple used that technology to create/invent the mouse cursor, and icons. M$ did not. Apple also used this technology to create the menubar. M$ did not. Apple inovated. M$ stole.
still two years away. OS X will be closer to OS XI by then.
The original programmers at xerox ended up WORKING for Apple. Not to mention that the Xerox GUI was basic and Apple built upon the idea and added a lot of features to it.
This is not a new idea, UNIX has had this for a WHILE. The only difference is that GUI has been slapped on.
Have any of you actually used a Mac for serious work (in my case web development?)? Apple make so many assumptions about how you use a computer, it makes it difficult to take seriously. The basis for many of Apple’s recent “innovations” stem from the GUI. The underlying OS is Unix, and employs many well established Unix elements, Samba being a good example. The effectiveness of the GUI is of course a matter of taste, although I find it too much myself.
I personally believe Macs are pretty much for not very bright housewives, people who need WiFi products branded as “Airport Extreme”. And that seems to be Apples great strength, marketing. Lets not forget that up until a few years ago the fastest Mac ran at 800MHz and despite the hype, they really were slow. Although people keep telling me that MacOS X runs fine on Macs 2 or 3 years old, it really has to be seen to be believed just how dated the entire process feels, even with their eye candy. Many of the GUI elements very quickly get in the way, and the Dock itself has limits as an interface for just about all interaction with the machine.
The best example, and I believe the biggest insight into whom Apple see their customers as, is the fact that they ship with single button mice. And don’t bother flaming me about elegant design, and well thought out interaction metaphors, any serious user beyond age 6 needs more buttons on their mice.
Apple, in my view, have missed the point. They are a dwindling minority selling specialist software and hardware. They are appealing to the same market that is really impressed by annoying Flash splash screens. Microsoft seem intent on killing the desktop and speeding the shift towards alternative interfaces, Media Centres and the like. The days of sitting in front of a box to send mail and do your finances are drawing to a close. Many of the pro Mac comments above revolve around the kind of interaction with a computer that will die within the next decade or so. I personally think the appeal of bouncing widgets and ropey Flash-like animations will dwindle. Given Apple’s shrinking market share, it can’t be good.
ir·re·gard·less (ĭr’ĭ-gärd’lĭs) pronunciation
adv. Nonstandard.
Regardless.
[Probably blend of IRRESPECTIVE and REGARDLESS.]
USAGE NOTE Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir– prefix and –less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.
http://www.answers.com/irregardless&r=67