“Do you have any idea where you saved your last file? Both Microsoft and Apple Computer are betting the answer is no. And their newest operating systems bear uncannily like-minded search tools as a result,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News.
MacDailyNews Take: Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is due in 10 days. Microsoft’s stripped-down Windows ‘Longhorn’ is due by Christmas 2006, or well over a year and a half from now. If you’re going to compare “newest operating systems,” how far out in the future can you go? This is ridiculous. In no other industry would this stupidity ever happen. Do you think Car & Driver compares this year’s Mercedes to what Ford has on the drawing boards for their 2007 model? Of course not. If Microsoft were a car maker today, they’d be promising power door locks and cruise control “real soon now” while breathlessly — as though theses features were something new and different — showing the world animated models of how they would eventually work on their cars. And CNET would have the scoop, we’re sure.
Fried continues, “The Longhorn preview Microsoft gave reporters last week revealed that with the new OS, the software giant is introducing composited graphics for the desktop, something Apple has had since Mac OS X’s debut. The result is that Longhorn’s windows can be see-through, revealing the contents of other windows or the desktop below.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple previewed Mac OS X on January 5, 2000. We searched CNET and the Web and couldn’t find a single article that pitted Windows 2000 against Mac OS X. Articles that compared Mac OS X to Windows did not start appearing until Mac OS X was shipping and available to customers.
Fried continues, “‘You can imagine videos on top of videos and even translucency,’ said Jim Allchin, head of Microsoft’s Windows unit. In one application of the new technology, windows that are maximized or minimized spring to life in a way similar to the ‘genie effect’ through which Mac OS X windows are sent down to the Dock.”
MacDailyNews Take: Thanks, Jimmy, but we don’t have to “imagine” it (and neither did Microsoft, apparently), we’ve had translucency and the “genie effect” shipping since September 2000.
Fried continues, “Both companies’ OSes have a search window, identified by a magnifying glass icon, in the upper right-hand corner. Users of Tiger–the new Mac OS–can save a search query as a ‘smart folder,’ while Microsoft has its yet-to-be-finally-named “virtual folders” that offer a similar function. But similarities–and the issue of who copied who–aside, there’s a key difference between Tiger and Longhorn. Apple is coming out with Tiger in two weeks; Microsoft hopes to have Longhorn out by the second half of next year.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ should be compared to what’s available from other vendors. In Microsoft’s case, that would be Windows XP SP2. Comparing Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ to vapor from other companies is patently idiotic and seems to us to be the only method Wintel-centric media outlets have left by which to continue prop up the Wintel hegemony as customers wait and wait and wait for something that, as promised today, won’t even be able to measure up to what’s been in their local Apple stores for years. Stating that one OS is due in days and the other in over a year and a half at the end of an article after treating them both as concrete products throughout doesn’t suddenly transform the article into something meaningful.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn will bear more than just a passing resemblance to Apple’s Mac OS X – April 15, 2005
Analyst: ‘Microsoft’s Longhorn is going to have hard time upstaging Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger’ – April 13, 2005
Analyst: Apple in ‘position to exploit Microsoft missteps, claim leadership’ with Mac OS X Tiger – April 13, 2005
Apple’s Schiller: Mac OS X Tiger ‘has created even more distance between us and Microsoft’ – April 13, 2005
Will Mac OS X Tiger add fuel to Apple’s recent momentum in the computer business? – April 13, 2005
Why doesn’t Apple advertise Mac OS X on TV? – April 12, 2005
Analyst: Tiger proves ‘Apple is light years ahead of Microsoft in developing PC operating systems’ – April 12, 2005
Apple to ship Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ on Friday, April 29; pre-orders start today – April 12, 2005
Apple Announces Mac OS X Server ‘Tiger’ to ship Friday, April 29 with 64-bit application support – April 12, 2005
Analysts: Apple’s new Tiger operating system could really impact Mac sales – April 12, 2005
Piper Jaffray raises Apple estimates on Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ release news – April 12, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ vs. Microsoft’s Windows ‘Longhorn’ – March 31, 2005
New Microsoft Longhorn chief was former Pepto-Bismol brand manager – March 18, 2005
Microsoft’s Longhorn fantasy vs. Apple’s Mac OS X reality – September 14, 2004
Is Microsoft’s stripped-down ‘Longhorn’ worth waiting for? – September 10, 2004
Silicon Valley: Apple CEO Steve Jobs previews ‘Longhorn’ – June 29, 2004
PC Magazine: Microsoft ‘Longhorn’ preview shows ‘an Apple look’ – May 06, 2004
Microsoft concerned that Longhorn’s look and feel will be copied if revealed too soon – August 25, 2003
Windows ‘Longhorn’ to add translucent windows that ripple and shrink by 2005 – May 19, 2003
Mike Barros says:
“If Apple had actually written its operating system instead of borrowing a UNIX core (the real hard stuff to write), we probably would have to wait until 2010 to see the fancy transparent windows in MacOS.”
That’s right, cores are projects unto themselves. There have been three cores over the past 25 years that have amounted to anything: DOS, MacOS and UNIX. For robustness and ruggedness UNIX has clearly been the superior system. Now Microsoft is going to hammer us over the head with their new core saying it’s an improvement over everything that ever has been. I think it’s just an improvement over DOS. But because Microsoft has everyone’s mind it will be easy for them to convince you that it’s the greatest thing since the wheel.
They’ve been successful at rewriting history before. Let’s see if they can pull it off again this time.
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I admit DOS sucked (although it served well in its time) and Win95-98-Me sucked BAD! But you can’t just ignore Win NT->2000->XP->2003-> (soon to be) Longhorn. I think it’s fair to say that it’s a pretty successful core. Remember, David Cutler who designed VMS (an industrial strength OS) while working at DEC was the main designer and partially wrote NT, and I think it’s fair to say he’s no slouch.
Most of the security problems that plague Windows come from crap (ActiveX, even IE) that MS planted in a hurry on top of a good core. Everyone knows MS arrived late to the Internet world so many early design decisions were made in a hurry and weren’t properly thought out. They had to move fast. Unfortunately, those decisions had nasty repercussions.
In terms of stability, I bet 90% of Windows’ problems come from badly written device drivers. It doesn’t matter how good the OS core is; if you have a buggy kernel mode device driver the system will crash, period. Performance seems to be the main concern in writing drivers instead of stability (in graphics cards, for sure), so there’s consequences. Also, Windows has to deal with tons of different hardware from hundreds of manufacturers, so problems are bound to exist. Having said that, I find XP a very stable OS, it never ever crashes on me.
In a world where 15 years ago you had special video card drivers for use with AutoCAD, I’m glad that someone came up and standardized a lot of stuff in the software/hardware landscape. That someone just happened to be MS, whether Apple fans like it or not. Personally, I wouldn’t give a shit if it were Apple instead, as long as things worked. What I do know, is that this industry needs a strong leader and that leader is unquestionably Microsoft.
Oh yes, only MS copies. That’s why finally OSX gets file indexing and quick search! No, wait, that was already in WINDOWS NT4 IN 1996!!!!!!!!
And how Apple invented Fast User Switching and file encrypting. No, wait, those were in XP and Win2000. Well, memory protection? NT 3.1. Shadows and transparency in windows? WinBLinds and WinFX (shareware for Windows, available already when Win98 was out, and was also available for OS/2!!!).
Also, Google DeskTop Searsch, MSN Search etc have been available (for free) for Win2000-> for a long time already.
So, to sum it all up, almost all of the “new” features in toothless Tiger are actually a) copied from Windows, b) copied from third party Windows shareware or c) copied from third party Apple software.
So what’s actually new in toothless Tiger…?
How come hot dogs come in 10-packs and bread comes in 12-packs?
This is like the fight between J2EE and .net.
I know .net is an immature piece of junk, but it works for me. I know Java is wonderful, and it works for me. The same happens with horny windoze and MacOSXKitten. they both work, each one of us will use each os as needed anyhow, so, why keep fighting over things that are ok?. this is bulls**t.
Quote:
Oh yes, only MS copies. That’s why finally OSX gets file indexing and quick search! No, wait, that was already in WINDOWS NT4 IN 1996!!!!!!!!
And how Apple invented Fast User Switching and file encrypting. No, wait, those were in XP and Win2000. Well, memory protection? NT 3.1. Shadows and transparency in windows? WinBLinds and WinFX (shareware for Windows, available already when Win98 was out, and was also available for OS/2!!!).
Also, Google DeskTop Searsch, MSN Search etc have been available (for free) for Win2000-> for a long time already.
So, to sum it all up, almost all of the “new” features in toothless Tiger are actually a) copied from Windows, b) copied from third party Windows shareware or c) copied from third party Apple software.
So what’s actually new in toothless Tiger…?
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Oh wow… is that a joke? Oh man, that is so freaking funny. Did you just say that a 3rd party app like Google search is evidence that Apple copies?
Are you blessing Windows NT? THE Windows NT? And XP? Holy crap!!
This is the same company (MS) that lets viruses in THROUGH A FREAKING CLIP ART ADDITION IN WORD!
Oh man – MS shoved a pair of horse blinders on you years ago. You’re stuck. You continue to use WindowsNT and XP while having wet delusions of Longhorn. You and your friends can get together and use your amazing Google search tool to find other die-hard dorks to sit around and stroke MS…
Copy that. I don’t give a sh*t who copies who, as long as I get the best platform, at the best price, on the nicest hardware. It must be secure, fast, reliable, and fun to use. The ONLY choice I have is Mac OS. Linux desktop needs more work. And MS doesn’t make a product that reflects life in 2005.
Maybe if I wish REAL hard, Longhorn will be *almost* as good as my Panther is, and has been for some time. I can look forward, in late 2006, to DOWNGRADING my hardware and OS to something alot closer to what Panther was – while the Mac community pleasantly skates by at 10.5.
I love to hear from Windows users like this chump. People like him don’t deserve to use a mac. Windows NT?!?! yeah, alot of people are still using that – mostly at home too, right? Yep. Alot of people are finally making the switch to awesome, forward thinking Windows NT, 1996 version no less. I hear it has MSN search on the desktop (download required.). nevermind the download will allow malware, trojans, viruses, etc… think of the search possibilities!
140,000 viruses for Windows.
ZERO for the mac.
Longhorn is the most direct copy of an OS I’ve ever seen – they’re evening copying crap that’s been around on the Mac since 2000. 5 years ago. I said… 5 YEARS ago.
Even with them copying, I can tell by glancing at screen shots it’s still Windows. They don’t GET it. They can’t see through…
Simple copying isn’t enough – you have to understand what you’ve copied and improve upon it. Apple stole protected memory (not from MS, this was around LONG before Windows NT – you dork), but they IMPROVED it. They borrowed fast user switching, but they made it BETTER.
I could go all day… I read the article about new Longhorn features – “The ability to make roaming from one wireless network to another easier!”
WOW. That’s GROUND-BREAKING. Really amazing.
Maybe if I wait around long enough MS will even be able to properly handle and print PDFs without needing a 3rd party app. I bet Longhorn may even be able to handle fonts better… I’m so EXCITED – 2006 is right around the turn!
Quit being salty, Windows boy. You’re on the losing team. You have been for awhile – you will continue to be in 2006 and beyond. You won’t understand, the Mac is beyond you. It’s beyond alot of people. I, for one, am fine with that. Not everyone needs to know life with a Mac… Windows users like you that refuse to see what Apple has developed will always be in the dark. Always behind. Always less productive. Always spending time service packing, and restoring, and clearing problems. The Mac side of the world will always silently look at people and computers like yours and laugh…
because it’s just fun to know something that some other people don’t. It’s just fun to not have the problems. It’s just fun to get people like you all fired up over defending an OPERATING SYSTEM that does nothing but cost you time, money, and productivity.
It’s fun to watch you squirm with issues – it really cracks me up! Please – never discover the Mac. Windows needs shining beacons like you.
Hilarious, get a life man…
RE: Armaggöth \
“hey both work, each one of us will use each os as needed anyhow, so, why keep fighting over things that are ok?. this is bulls**t.”
Because Mac Heads are Fags with nothing better to do than bash everything not (cr)Apple.
I think every arrogant, fanatical Mac user should be taken to the (MW) Range and shot.
Quote:
Because Mac Heads are Fags with nothing better to do than bash everything not (cr)Apple.
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So true! I mean, really, what else DO we have to do as Mac users? We certainly don’t have to spend time on problems with our machines…
Might as well use that time to laugh at a few ‘Start Button Commandos’!