Microsoft copies Apple's Innovation to create Windows 7

Microsoft Corp.'s next version of the Windows operating system is almost ready for prime time. That's one message Chief Executive Steve Ballmer delivered on the eve of the official opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show.

The new operating system — which could be available for purchase on PCs within a year — uses much of the same underlying technology as its predecessor, the much-maligned Vista. But Windows 7 aims to resolve many problems PC users had with Vista. For instance, Microsoft pledges to make it easier to install peripheral devices and to have the software pump out fewer annoying warnings and notifications.

Ballmer also pledged that Windows 7 will boot faster and drain laptop batteries more slowly.

Sometime in October 2008 At PDC, Microsoft gave the first public demonstration of Windows 7. Until then, the company had been uncharacteristically secretive about its new OS; over the past few months, Microsoft has let on that the taskbar will undergo a number of changes, and that many bundled applications would be unbundled and shipped with Windows Live instead. There have also been occasional screenshots of some of the new applets like Calculator and Paint. Now that the covers are finally off, the scale of the new OS becomes clear. The user interface has undergone the most radical overhaul and update since the introduction of Windows 95 thirteen years ago.
These UI changes represent a brave move by the company. The new UI takes the concepts that Windows users have been using for the last 13 years and extends them in new and exciting ways... More towards the User Interface as on a Mac with a OS X Lepoard. Windows 7 may not change much under the hood, but the extent of these interface changes makes it clear that this is very much a major release.

User Interface Changes

See how the new features/changes resemble more like what's on a Mac OS these days.

Improved taskbar and full-screen previews

Windows:
The taskbar at the bottom of your screen is what you use to switch between the applications you've got open. In Windows 7 you can set the order in which the icons appear and they'll stay put. They're easier to see, too. Click once on the new large icons or bigger preview thumbnails and you're ready to go. You can even see a full screen preview before switching to the window.



Mac:
Apple Mac users can instantly relate this new taskbar of Windows to the existing Dock in Mac OS X Leopard. The Dock in Mac OS delivers a single, simple mechanism for launching apps, storing minimized open windows out of the way, and providing fast access to files and folders. The Dock gives users an obvious location for dropping anything: apps, files, folders, and open windows: the right end of the Dock. The Dock displays a subtle indicator which looks like a glowing blue LED to denoting running applications. Users can rearrange Dock items using drag-and-drop, dropping new items into it, and dragging unwanted items out.




On a Mac if you want to see previews of all open windows of the same application, just click the Finder's (Mac App) icon in the dock, or just click on one window to bring it forward, and then double-tap F10. When you do, all Finder windows will open shrinking their appearance so they all fit on a single screen.







New ways to work with Windows

Windows:
To see all your desktop gadgets, just drag your mouse to the lower right corner of your desktop. That'll make all the open Windows transparent—making your desktop, and the gadgets on it, immediately visible. Want to minimize all your windows? One click and it's done.


Mac:
On a Mac, you can set keyboard shortcuts (Assuming F12) to allow the user to see the Widgets (Gadgets) instantly. Once set, you don't need to drag your mouse anywhere, just hit F12 and viola, all the current windows will move off the screen and your Dashboard which holds the Widgets (Gadgets) will be displayed.



You can also set screen hotspots (left, right, top, and bottom corners of the screen) to allow the user to see the Widgets (Gadgets) instantly. Once set, you just move your mouse to one of the configured corners, and viola your Dashboard which holds the Widgets (Gadgets) will be displayed.



Want to minimize all your windows on a Mac? Just set a Keyboard shortcut or a Screen Hotspot and poof, there goes all your windows in an instant. The feature moves all windows off the screen, with just the edges of the windows visible at the side of the screen, giving the user clear access to the desktop. (In the default preferences, this can be activated using the F11 key or by pressing Command F3 on newer Apple aluminum keyboards and the Macbook keyboard.)



Extended battery life

Windows:
Performance improvements are about more than speed. For example, your laptop battery lasts longer with power-saving features, such as adaptive display brightness, which dims the display if you haven't used your PC for a while.


















Mac:
Adaptive display brightness! Now where have I heard that? Hmmm. oh yes, on my MacBook Pro. You can adjust the system to have the display dimmed after the system has been idle for some time. Microsoft... is this what you mean by adaptive display brightness which dims the display if the PC has been idle for a while? Any news about adaptive display brightness using ambient light sensors?







My MacBook Pro includes an ambient light sensor using which, the screen automatically changes brightness according to the light falling on the computer. In the screenshot above you can see I enabled this option below the brightness slider. In fact, with the ambient light sensor enabled, the dot on the brightness slider pulsates gently as a subtle reminder that brightness will change automatically. Kinda like on the iPhone. Microsoft should copy this feature too.









Windows Touch

Windows:
While great for a lot of tasks, using a keyboard and mouse is not always the easiest way to do things. If you've got a touch-screen monitor, you can just touch your computer screen for a more direct and natural way to work. Use your fingers to scroll, resize windows, play media, and pan and zoom. Large touch-sensitive areas on the Start menu and the taskbar make it easy to use.

Mac:
Duh! Touch is the feature of an external device. If a screen supports touch, then any Operating System will work in the same way as long as the screen sends the new coordinates to the Operating System. Maybe what Microsoft is trying to say is that it has some cool GUI capability to allow the user to pan and zoom, scroll and resize windows. Guess they must have copied this idea from iPhone's Touch Innovation. Microsoft, any news on Multi-touch technology or pinch and unpinch technology coming for the windows?


Gadget Placement

Windows:
Remember where the Gadgets used to be earlier? yep, the sidebar. Guess what, Microsoft have now scrapped the sidebar and decided to put the Gadgets on the desktop. People are increasingly using laptops, taking up a big chunk of space for the sidebar isn't really viable; hance Microsoft has responded by scrapping the sidebar and putting the gadgets onto the desktop itself.











Mac:
Hmmm, is it just me? Or do i see a snicker on every Mac owners face? Mac has Widgets(Gadgets) on the desktop just like they should have been on Windows in the first place. What's more, Mac gives you easy and instant access to Widgets by hiding all open windows on the click of a button or the move of your mouse into one of the specified hotspots... something which Microsoft could copy for Windows 7.







Windows Explorer & Libraries

Windows:
The other significant part of the Windows UI is Explorer. Windows 7 introduces a new concept named Libraries. Libraries provide a view onto arbitrary parts of the filesystem with organization optimized for different kinds of files. In use, Libraries feel like a kind of WinFS-lite; they don't have the complex database system underneath, but they do retain the idea of a custom view of your files that's independent of where the files are.

Mac:
Does anyone see any similarity between the new Windows Explorer and the existing Mac Finder(Explorer)?




What about similarity between the new Windows Explorer and the existing Mac Finder with Coverflow?



What about similarity between the new Windows Explorer and the existing Mac App iPhoto?



Need I say more?

Social Networking & Multimedia Utilities

Windows:
Windows (Steve Ballmer) also announced major partnerships with Facebook, and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) Wireless, deals that will help Microsoft further its cloud ambitions.

The Facebook-Microsoft deal will let Facebook users feed the digital content they post on Facebook into feeds on Windows Live.

Windows (Steve Ballmer) Ballmer also announced updates to the Windows Live Essentials suite of client applications, which includes Windows Live Mail, Live Messenger, Live Writer, and Live Photo Gallery. Windows Live Movie Maker remains in beta.

Mac:
Guess what? Mac has already come out with built in apps (iPhoto) which links with online social networking site, Facebook. On can directly upload geotagged pictures with Facebook with the click of a button. Sharing on Flickr is just as easy: Just click the Flickr button. When you share your photos on Flickr, the locations you added using Places appear on Flickr photo maps.

What's more, iWeb Site (iLife Suite) allows you to create a website and it will even notify your Facebook friends when you update your site. Simply link any iWeb site to your Facebook account. Following an update, iWeb adds the changes to your profile, alerting your friends and providing them with a handy link.

iMail, iChat, iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, iWeb... don't they already do what would be included in Windows Live suite of client application like Live Mail, Live Messenger, Live Writer, Live Photo Gallery and Live Movie Maker (Movie Maker is still in beta)?

I guess Microsoft is doing great work out there. They have found innovative ways to copy innovation from their competitor... I.E. Apple. Anyways, tomorrow Microsoft will be releasing a Beta version of Windows 7, and I for one would love to see how many things they have copied from Apple. Let us know if you figure out any....

15 comments :: Microsoft copies Apple's Innovation to create Windows 7

  1. I am glad that I moved over to Mac OS X about a year ago. Now I don't have any of those crazy Issues that Vista has. Wish I had my work on Mac too. Windows really sucks... Just glad I can still make money outta Windows.

  2. "Mommy, Microsoft is copying OS X" - grow up man

  3. How bizarre! You are stretching as far as you can for comparisons! I'm glad MS is improving it's interface, and quite possibly going beyond Mac's interface with better usability and flexibility. I use both Macs and Windows machines every day (they are all PC's) and I prefer the Windows interface (Vista and XP) 2 to 1. I'm not a Mac hater or a Windows fanboy, I just appreciate the flexibility and ease of use that Windows brings. My brand new Mac crashes several times a week. My Vista computer hasn't yet - with HEAVY usage. If we're getting all out of sorts over vague copy catting, let's be fair and mention the multi-button mouse and Intel processors. ;)

  4. And Mac OS took these ideas from other people as well.
    Wow.

  5. actually microsoft copied taskbar from windows 1.1 http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/11/20/happy-anniversary-windows-on-the-evolution-of-the-taskbar.aspx

  6. Actually, the Widgets are a straight copy of Konfabulator, which later became Yahoo! Gadgets, and was primarily a PC program.

    Neither Apple nor MS were the originators of that idea, and lets face it, the widgets/gadgets are worse than useless.

  7. oh im in drugs the have a cospiracy

  8. It was Apple that copied Windows 1.01's taskbar.

    Widgets were not invented by Apple.

    Gee, both file explorers seem to be...displaying files! ::shock!!::

    iLife is not free, derp de derp dum (free as in freely downloadable)

    Do I sense jealousy...?

  9. its a good thing that microsft is improving, some are really useful, but it's better if they didnt copy ideas from, apple ,3rd party.
    anyway,
    apple copied the taskbar,and didnt' "invent the dock, BUT it was them who first applied it to a OS and made it useful.

    both files explorers are great but i prefer finder. its has a cool quicklook, coverflow etc.

    and hey, displaying gadgets on the desktop and in the sidebar in vista seems to be taken right off
    Konfabulator (but mac actually opens up a HUD to display em)

    as for ilife, its shipped with every new mac.

    and many features of vista are copied too. in mac osx tiger (years ago), it already has instant search spotlight on the top right. vista(and future versions of windows) is real innovative by putting it bottom left.

    im not a windows hater9well, maybe a bit) im just pointing out stuff. anyway one of the real big things M$ stole from apple is the PC market and thats about to change.

  10. great article first of all.

    But wait a sec cause people as per usual are distorting reality, people from Microsoft that is.

    Ms had a similar technology that they never evolved and never made good use of and instead opted for an inferior (to the dock) way of handling things, and apple evolved used and developed it to a dock. Now they come here and in a their usual deceitful way say look we copied it from ourselves back in so and so version 1.2029292 whatever, not apple. Does that make sense? Of course not. One car issues for a year a concept vehicle with electronic steering wheel, then never EVER again uses it and opts for a hydraulic while their competitors (apple) make an electronic one and sell and market for years, then the first guys tout their new thing with an electronic wheel saying hey we brought it here first. If you bozos got it first why then for more than twenty years did you use another technology while your competitors, apple, used it to a great effect? Way to misconstrue the truth.

    Similar argument for konfabulator, ok sure, apple isn't the originator of all the ideas and they borrow some or buy some, so? Ms issued the tragic vista with one way (their own) of implementing vista as a sidebar and now in their touted product they AGAIN copy apple's implementation of having them free flowing via a shortcut? What does that tell us about their previous implementation? It tells that even themselves do not stand by it?

    How may times for example has apple changed the top horizontal menu bar? NEVER.

    Yet ms keeps copying apple and putting its inferior products out as the constant pc tax...

  11. Microsoft products are not inferior.
    You said yourself that Apple has never changed their main features. Maybe that's because they have a very small slice of the market compared to Microsoft and aren't willing to risk anything. I implore Microsoft for experimenting and trying to make thier products even better, at least they're trying!

  12. Jackie: Your the one distorting reality.
    As the previous person said Microsoft are the ones with the biggest market share.

  13. Why is Windows 7's taskbar even compared to the dock on Mac OSX? As far as I'm concerned, Its an evolution of the Quick Launch bar ..which is NOT anything like Apple's dock and has been with Windows for a LONG TIME.

    Wow, you can hide everything on your screen. Remember the "show desktop" icon in XP? Same thing.

    OMG the monitor fades to save power/battery life! Wow, I think I've seen this feature on phones, my old dreamcast, my xbox and even my old mp3 players from way back in the day. Apple didnt "invent" that feature, they simply made it availiable on their computers. Big Fucking Deal.

  14. You should probably play around with Windows Seven somemore, because a lot of the things you say are not true for the current build of Windows Seven. For instance, I can hit Win+g and all of the gadget will come to the top of the z-order, just exactly like you claim Windows can't do.

  15. Apple's innovation to the GUI includes 'drag and drop', having over lapping Windows, and aliases (what Windows later called 'shortcuts'). None of those things were conceived at Xerox PARC. Apple also invented having video on a computer via software (Quicktime), before that a PC had to have installed expensive hardware to do the same thing. The Mac as the first multimedia PC, having had audio soundboard since 1984, a feature that was not standard in the PC world until 1995. The Mac supported dual monitors as far back as 1987. Windows supported dual monitors 10 years later, with Windows 98. Someone said 'widgets' were not invented by Apple. The company that first had widgets actually copied a Mac feature from 1986, and called them 'widgets'. Virtual Windows were not invented on UNIX or Linux, they first appeared on the Mac around 1986 by Berkeley Systems. The Mac was the first to adopt 3" floppy. Apple machines first adopted CD ROM and could boot from a CD ROM in 1990. The Mac was the first to get rid of the 3" floppy (1998) with the introduction of the iMac. Intel's Andy Grove credits the iMac for the popularity and explosion of USB. The Mac was the first company to adopt gigabit ethernet (2001). The Mac was the first to have wifi, beating Dell by 13 months. The World Wide Web was inspired by Apple Computer's Hypercard. The World Wide Web was invented on NeXTstep, the forefather of OS X. Sir Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, is a "Macfanboy".

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