“The first day of WinHEC 2004 (the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference) in Seattle had, as expected, a major track on Longhorn. It focused on the new user interface and what Microsoft is planning for its next-generation operating system,” Richard Fisco writes for PC Magazine in his article, “Longhorn Tastes the Apple.”
“Demonstrations of the new GUI showed it to be much more animated than Windows XP. 3D effects, animations of icons, and test boxes that can vary from transparent to opaque will all make for a livelier user interface,” Fisco reports. “Microsoft’s demonstrations were interesting and somehow familiar. After looking at some images and icons that grew bigger or flipped when chosen, I couldn’t help but think of the dock on Apple’s OS X. There’s more to Longhorn, of course, than just that dock. Microsoft is looking to have applications add useful, related information in bars alongside open documents, like upcoming appointments and related cases if you’re in a law program, or favorite-show information if you’re in a TV search tool. Overall, though, Longhorn still had an Apple look to it. I suppose imitation is a form of flattery, after all. It’ll be years before Longhorn launches, but it should be fun to watch it develop.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We expected nothing less from Microsoft. Same old, same old. Moo.
Longhorn is just the vinyl siding covering a termite infested house.
The vinyl looks good, but it’s not the real thing; underneath it lies a host of problems that’s only solved by buldozing the whole house and starting over.
Holy crap! Shlonghorn looks like it takes all the worst design cues from the horrific Windows Media Player and then adds some of its own.
Redmond really is just full of a bunch of tasteless nerds, eh? Pathetic.
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
They should have patented that dock (cough) behavior.
>Microsoft is looking to have applications add useful, related information in bars alongside open documents
Glad to know that M$ is sticking to its philosophy… what next? “When you last viewed this document you started a search for [url=http://www.xxx]http://www.xxx[/url] — shall I pull up those results again?”
Hey, I didn’t mean for that link to go active… someone take it down… I guess it’s just MDN being “helpful.”
Hate to say it, guys, but what will happen when Longhorn comes out, current Windows users will think it is great, compared to what they have to look at now.
Why? Because they, even then, will probably not know OSX exists because no one will have told them it exists.
Hate to sound like a broken record (sorry, old technology analogy)
but until Apple tells them what they can have in OSX, little will change.
You won’t compare something to something you don’t know exists, and you really cannot be blamed for not knowing about something you have not been exposed to.
Longhorn’s GUI has more in common with Sun’s project Looking Glass:
http://wwws.sun.com/software/looking_glass/
But c’mon guys, none of this is truly innovative–its the expected evolution of the modern GUI.
Plus the UI Design community is so small that frequently the designers jump from Sun to MS to Apple, and they take all the R&D and trends with them. Everyone has the same ideas…the question is who will produce and market the ideas?
PS: To say that MS is ripping off Apples dock is ignorant. We all know that the dock/task-tray concept was first seen in Windows 95, and a famous example of Apple actually ripping off MS.
“We all know that the dock/task-tray concept was first seen in Windows 95, and a famous example of Apple actually ripping off MS.”
I don’t agree at all. The Windows tray shows programs that are running – it’s not a launching pad for your favorite applications. Instead, as well know, Windows has the nightmarish Start menu…
Correction for “cg”:
Notwithstanding the obvious differences between the Win Taskbar and OSX Dock, the Dock was taken from NeXT’s OS, which first appeared in the late 80s or early 90s.
Guess who bought NeXT and all associated technologies?
So speaking from a legal perspective (though I’m not a lawyer), since all assets transferred from NeXT to Apple, if anything MS once again ripped off Apple, albeit after the fact.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue wink” style=”border:0;” />
Correct, the dock/taskbar was first featured in NeXTSTeP so MS actually ripped off NeXT in that instance.
yes english is my 2nd language
This is really funny, courtesy of C/Net:
“Longhorn is also expected to add a number of laptop-specific features designed to make portable machines both more powerful and at the same time as easy to use […]. Other possible enhancements include improved support for multiple displays and the ability to create ad hoc wireless networks. […] Longhorn still at least two years away”
ROFLMAO: do people realize these portables are already available and are called Powerbooks running OS X?
Micros**t: what a bunch or retarded (literally, two years at least)
FAO MOSSMAN…
“Correction for “cg”:
Notwithstanding the obvious differences between the Win Taskbar and OSX Dock, the Dock was taken from NeXT’s OS, which first appeared in the late 80s or early 90s.
Guess who bought NeXT and all associated technologies?
So speaking from a legal perspective (though I’m not a lawyer), since all assets transferred from NeXT to Apple, if anything MS once again ripped off Apple, albeit after the fact.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue wink” style=”border:0;” />”
AND GUESS WHO CREATED THE NEXT COMPANY IN THE 70’s!!! – ‘STEVE JOBS’!
Umm. Longhorn doesn’t look like any Apples I know. Must be variety of fruit from Chernobyl
The makers of ‘Longshot’ and Sun’s ‘glass’ OS (or whatever it’s called) will be very happy to learn that Apple has patented the translucency effect and “other features”.
http://www.macobserver.com/columns/devilsadvocate/2004/20030513.shtml
I’m glad I’m using a Mac…I love staying 5 years ahead of the herd, I mean curve.