Paul Thurrott is writing about what he’s seeing at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2005 over on the Windows IT Pro website (he even brought his Apple Powerbook to the show – that should go over well).
Though the Longhorn demonstrations Gates and his minions provided were interesting, they were visually unimpressive, falling short of the graphical excellence found today in Apple’s Mac OS X. However, various Microsoft representatives told me that the Aero Glass user interface demonstrated during the keynote was not the final user experience and would instead by dramatically nicer looking in later beta releases. The Aero Glass interface that Gates demonstrated did support OS X-like transparencies, translucencies, animations, and other effects, however. Gates also showed off application scaling, which will help legacy applications display correctly on the high DPI displays of the future, and a sample media-oriented sample application that takes advantage of Longhorn’s display features.
Longhorn will feature a search box directly in the Start Menu because that’s where people start doing things in Windows, according to Microsoft. Longhorn will support virtual folders that collect links to documents into logical groups. For example, Longhorn will ship with virtual folders called All Documents, Authors, Keywords, Rating, Recent, and Types by default.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft promises Thurrott “a dramatically nicer looking” final user experience in later beta releases. How long can Microsoft keep up the charade of promises of better things to come in the future? “Later beta releases?!!!” Hello, Microsoft, anybody home? Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ships on Friday. That’s this Friday, not the last one in 2006. Looks like even Thurrott is underwhelmed. Probably because he’s delving into Mac OS X Tiger by covering a feature per day on his Internet-Nexus blog here. Looking at Longhorn next to Mac OS X Tiger is like comparing Bea Arthur to Evangeline Lilly. Sorry, Bea. If Thurrott, of all people, remains unimpressed, Microsoft is doomed. What’s next, John Dvorak’s Apple “Switch” commercial?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Thurrott: Longhorn ‘has the makings of a train wreck’ – April 26, 2005
Microsoft employees leaving due to (and blogging about) malaise smothering company – April 25, 2005
eWEEK Editor Coursey: Longhorn so far ‘looks shockingly like a Macintosh’ – April 25, 2005
Due in late 2006, many of Windows Longhorn’s features have been in Mac OS X since 2001 – April 25, 2005
Apple’s Tiger debuts Friday while Microsoft’s Longhorn is burdened with one delay after another – April 25, 2005
Nearly every segment of the PC food chain needs Longhorn to succeed – April 22, 2005
Microsoft’s new mantra: ‘It Just Works’ ripped straight from Apple’s ‘Switch’ campaign – April 22, 2005
Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Microsoft’s Longhorn: ‘They are shamelessly copying us’ – April 21, 2005
Apple shows off Mac OS Tiger in Microsoft’s backyard while Microsoft previews Windows XP ad push – April 19, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X reality vs. Microsoft’s Longhorn fantasy – April 19, 2005
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
Yeh-hessss, it’s fun to watch, isn’t it? I mean, look at these parasitic pundits start to cave. It’s like rats fleeing a sinking ship. I swear, these guys are running for cover faster than kids with brittle-bone disease caught in a hailstorm.
Face it, all you Windows dorks — Microsoft is dying. The death throes of agony have begun. Yeh-hehessss . . . I hereby suggest that we begin the Official Microsoft Death Knell Counter right here and now. I mean, come onnnnn, it’ll be even more fun than watching Woody Allen’s career tank! Or Star Jones waistline expand.
Heyyy, I keed the jewish . . . and the gluttonous.
well fsck me, thurrot finally says something intelligent!
Turdrrot is joking right? Windows is losing credibility fast. Won’t be long before the ship starts to sink at a faster rate!
” . . . the Aero Glass user interface . . . “
Ohh, how brilliant! “Aero Glass”. Well it took Redmond long enough, but . . .
. . . hopefully the Aero Glass on these new Windows will enable more of the mindless drones who use this operating system to see clearly through the “computer pane” — all the way to Mac OS X.
Bah… Who writes this MDN commentary crap? You sound exactly like a Windows fanatic talking about .dll hacks; no better and certainly no less. This site is getting incredibly childish.
So maybe we need a sticker which says “OS X inside”?
Jobs-ian Savior: Good one!
Bah: Humbug.
“[…] ‘Aero Glass’. Well it took Redmond long enough […]”
Actually, what even funnier is that shortly after Apple introduced “Aqua”, Microsoft showed “Aero.” Now that they’ve added translucency, they’ve stuck “Glass” onto the end.
Oh, and Tiger begins support for high-resolution displays–part of the reason they are “discontinuing” QuickDraw…
Get a load of the comments on that thread. Hilarious. Particularly from the Windows fanboys. They’re so dissapointed and embarassed by MS inability to make a decent OS.
Translusent windows came out in 2001 with Mac OS X v10.0.
iPod 2001
iTunes, what, 2002.
5 years later MS introduces, what, transluscent windows and a music store…..I’d be embarrassed too…..pathetic.
Thurrott, overall, has been pretty kind to Macs lately. If Microsoft continues to stall and sputter, he may just switch for good! And then MDN will be much kinder to him.
After all, would YOU want to run a “Super Site For Windows” with nothing to report but the latest delay of the release of vastly inferior vaporware or the latest, greatest security patch? Keep in mind, he’ll have to do this for the next YEAR AND A HALF. Methinks he’s gonna be using that PowerBook a LOT.
MDN Magic Word: become
Thurrott will become disenfranchised with Microsoft.
By the way, MDN take: hahahahahahahahaha
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Can somebody explain to me, please, the use of an “authors” smart folder? Unless it automatically filters out documents that I created, it’s just gonna show me every single document on my computer.
There must be something pretty obvious here that I’m not getting.
Paul really hasn’t proven he’s warmed up to Macs… one does not convert (or switch) just by declaring it or by writing few favorable comments about OS X. I’ll believe him when he FULLY switches over. Methinks he’s experiencing very slow stream of news from MS these days, well, with Longhorn being such a vaporware and all.
MDN Magic word: church
As in “Paul hasn’t been baptized at the church of OS X.”
I like the way he calls the people here children for accusing microsoft of taking the “it just works” slogan, he counters that it has been mentioned in reference to microsoft for many years. He fails to realise that saying something just works isn’t the same as actually just working.
And it took them 10,000 hours of meetings to all agree on adding the Glass to the Aero!
The release of Longhorn will just push back the release date for the next Duke Nuk’em.
Bea Arthur? I’d tap that.
Thurrott’s “Tiger Feature of the Day” mini-reviews are worth reading.
Magic word: economic – as in, ‘Bill Gates is being economic with the truth when he claims Longhorn will ship in 2006’
Guys.. when you run a search in spotlight.. you just start typing.. dates, characteristics, anything you can think about the file..
BILL GATES WANTS YOU TO ATTACH KEYWORDS TO YOUR DOCUMENTS..
*groan
If you have a file in mind, say a word document, and you remember NOTHING ABOUT IT.. ARE YOU GOING TO REMEMBER THE KEYWORD you chose for the file (here’s a thought.. if you could remember a keyword, youd’ be able to remember the file name, or a cluster of words in the document.. or the name of ONE OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY”
Bill Gates thinks he’s being clever by going 100% applying iTunes interface to every single aspect of Windows.
The end result is some pretty redundant features.. yeesh..
BTW..
Here’s an example of MS just NOT GETTING IT..
see the toolbar.. notice how it’s see through? You may say to yourself.. that’s annoying to look at.. if i had a detailed wallpaper, the buttons would be hard to see..
yup. in fact, there’s no conceivable advantage to having see through toolbars.. see how they have to gradient around the actual buttons.. because.. of course, they would IMPOSSIBLE to see without a background..
Gee .. can you tell MS wants to show of the graphical capabilities of.. Aero.. or whatever.. but has no clue what the practical use of this technology is???
Oh well I can think of one: making money.
And to think.. when Exposé came out.. Windows Lemmings were crying EYE CANDY…
Wake me when M$ becomes “beleaguered”
Thurrott is sounding more schizophrenic every day. I wonder if he holds verbal debates with himself over Windoze and OS X…
Didn’t he just write a column last week saying Tiger was a disappointment and that Longhorn has much higher potential? Now this week he’s saying this? Why do you fools even read this tools drivel is beyond me….
The comments from his page are funny, but typical and very real. I think many people are used to fixing Windows– it seems machine-like. Harley-Davidson’s used to need a mechanic right out the factory door. Their buyers loved it. To tinker and fix meant something about the owner– a real do it yourselfer. Over time, though, many people began to appreciate better engineering and they had to step it up a bit.
Same phenomenon is going on here, but they haven’t exactly made that quality leap yet. They are trying, though. No one should be complacent. Windows has always been inferior, yet it still dominated.
There is work to do to teach the unwashed masses…
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RE: M.N.X.N.T.4.1
SINCE WHEN HAS THE SLOGAN -‘JUST WORKS’ EVER BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH MICROSOFT????
Windows has NEVER worked – period!
Their new slogan should be – ‘IT MIGHT WORK – THEN AGAIN IT MIGHT NOT’.
You have NO idea of what is about to hit you…Longhorn will leapfrog over OS X in such a dramatic way that your tongues will reach the ground!