Microsoft rebukes employee who claims Windows 7 was inspired by OS X
Microsoft rebukes employee who claims Windows 7 was inspired by OS X
By Yoni Heisler on Thu, 11/12/09 - 8:00am.
No matter how you look at it, the release of Windows 7 has gone off without a hitch compared to the headaches that accompanied the launch of Windows Vista. Not only that, but reviews of Microsoft's new OS seem to be universally positive, with both critics and consumers liking what they see. Windows 7 is Microsoft's most eye catching OS to date, and the similarities to OS X are undoubtedly there.
Still, one doesn't usually expect a Microsoft executive to say that OS X was the inspiration for Windows, but that's exactly what happened yesterday when partner group manager Simon Aldous said the following in an interview with PCR.
When asked about Windows 7, Aldous responded in part:
One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it’s very graphical and easy to use. What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics. We’ve significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it’s built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance.
Wow.
You might often hear the Mac faithful complaining about Microsoft "borrowing" design elements from OS X, but it's not too often that you hear a rival company openly admitting to using a competitors product as inspiration for their own.
Aldous' comments made the rounds yesterday across the web, and not surprisingly, it wasn't too long before he was taken to task by Microsoft for his comments.
Writing on the Windows 7 blog, Brandon LeBlanc writes that Aldous' quote was completely off base.
An inaccurate quote has been floating around the Internet today about the design origins of Windows 7 and whether its look and feel was “borrowed” from Mac OS X. Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed.
Ouch!
I certainly wouldn't want to be Simon Aldous walking into work this morning. But in all seriousness, LeBlanc may insinuate that Windows 7 borrowed nothing from OS X, but many reviews have pegged Windows 7 as the most "Mac-like" release of Windows. And to be fair, it's not as if Apple has never "borrowed" design elements from Windows. One thing's for sure, though - you'll never hear an Apple employee ever praising Microsoft Windows.. at least not while Steve Jobs is in charge.
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- About iOnApple
- Yoni Heisler is a technology writer and Mac nerd who's been using Apple products for well over 18 years. He actively covers a wide variety of Apple topics, from legal news and rumors to current events and even Apple related comedy and history. When not writing about Apple, he enjoys basketball, music, and writing in the third person. Got an idea, comment or suggestions? You can reach him at iOnApple1@gmail.com.
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Who cares?
Yeah, and so what? All this article does is feed into the completely lame "OS Wars". Posts such as this are a sure fire way to generate buzz and blog traffic, but really don't contribute anything of value to the world. An amusing read, easily forgotten in 3 minutes.
Somebody didn't drink their
Somebody didn't drink their coffee this morning...
SO WHAT!
God this is like the battle between Holden and Ford cars in Australia, BMW and mercedes in Germany, Saab and Volvo in Sweden! Two players constantly getting their respective fans to belittle the competition. FFS these are "tools" to getting form one place to another....much like our PC's.
Why Microsoft windows is more prominant had little to do with how good (or not) the product is; it was Bill's savvy business hopping into bed with IBM all those years ago!
For the record though:
I have both a Macbook (snow leopard)and a Lenovo (Windows XP sp3)laptop, both have exactly the same intel processor, ram, hard drive capacity and specs, etc etc; I am not a Windows basher, nor a Mac freak, but, and this is a very obvious but, the Macbook works more "cleanly", it has never had issues, it does what I want when I want it every time. The Lenovo on the otherhand is a PITA! Windoz I call it, slow to start, forever wanting to update something, "Windows has encountered a......error) regularly, yad yada. I have toyed with the notion of following the Windows 7 hype and upgrade but at nearly AUD$200 W7 basic for the priviledge (Snow Leopard cost AUD$39), I don't know if I can be assed. MS will have my $200 and I might not have a Windows experience much better than I already have.
R U Kidding?
Do you really think Apple gave you a deal on your computer because the OS was cheap? So you have comparable hardware you say... Im going to venture to guess you paid much more than the difference in OS in the hardware so you could be "approved" to use the OS... Not like "Mac" hardware is any better, so why the huge price hike?
MS Steals from Mac All the Time
Finally, someone from MS had the guts to admit it.
I drank my dam coffee this morning!
Mac Os will always be a second rate op. sys. when it is compared against wind 7.
haha, OS X second rate....?
haha, OS X second rate....? clueless
Mac Snow Leopard with the latest upgrade
Not on my watch, mate !
Snow Leopard is lightning-fast - even faster now with the most recent patch, too
All the M$ OSs crawl on all 4s, by comparison
And the poor hardware creaks & groans, too
No such pb. on the apple hardware
Smooth as Bristol Cream, it is
Uh Huh...Its easy for MAC to make claims....
Got news for ya...Have Snow Leo on a mac mini and with nothing else on it and it has crashed 3 times in one day while in Safari (with all updates applies). Speed is somewhat dependent upon hardware so and if it had not been for XP OS X would not exist. M$ drove Jobs to change from a OS9 platform to OS X and base variant of an OS core thats been around since the DARPA created Unix. So let be clear - all MAC has done is narrowed down the hardware type, configured a UNIX core to run on that narrow set of hardware and then put a shiny coat on it. M$ support about a billion more pieces of hardware THATS why its the way it is (partly). I enjoy the Apple platform but its easy when over half the effort to get you there was done by other long ago.
Mac OS will always be second rate to Windows 7?
I know you drank your coffee this morning, but what have you been smoking?
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