Windows 7 Taskbar Not So Similar To OS X Dock After All

cremou brulee writes "Redmond's photocopiers have been unusually busy for the last couple of years, with the result that Windows 7 copies a lots of Mac OS X features. First and foremost among these is the Dock, which has been unceremoniously ripped off in Windows 7's new Taskbar. Or has it? Ars Technica has taken an in-depth look at the history and evolution of the Taskbar, and shows just how MS arrived at the Windows 7 'Superbar.' The differences between the Superbar and the Dock are analyzed in detail. The surprising conclusion? 'Ultimately, the new Taskbar is not Mac-like in any important way, and only the most facile of analyses would claim that it is.'"

Comments

Astroturfing

[Taxman415a]

I mean everybody has their fanboys, but what is up with all the Windows astroturfing lately? Not just random blogs here and there, but on slashdot, the last bastion of journalistic integrity and safety from MS shills. (for the sarcasm impaired, yeah, it's in there.)

Re:Astroturfing

[couchslug]

"I mean everybody has their fanboys, but what is up with all the Windows astroturfing lately?"

Vista is like George Bush, so awful that any alternative seems wondrous fine by comparison.

Windows 7 is like Obama before the new wears off.

Re:Astroturfing

[bit01]

By 'astroturfing', do you mean 'having a differing opinion to the groupthink'?

No, he means astroturfing.

M$ has a multi-billion dollar incentive to astroturf all the major computer discussion sites. Unlike some companies they have the alley cat ethics and they've been caught astroturfing several times in the past. Only a small percentage change of opinions in places like slashdot can lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales and it's no accident that every time they spam some propaganda like this story that lots of people pop out of the woodwork to support the propaganda. Follow the money. They are currently spamming slashdot with content-free drivel on a daily basis about their Windows7 vapourware, something that doesn't even exist as a product yet, and they are doing everything they can, ethical and unethical, to get mindshare at the expense of anything else. They also appear to be using sock puppets to mod up content free posts that they particularly want to support the M$ propaganda.

If you want to see the true meaning of groupthink head over to microsoft.com or any number of microsoft astroturf web sites. Even if slashdot had bias it only adds a tiny bit of balance to the many millions of dollars of incredibly one-sided propaganda flowing out of Redmond.

Here are some fraudulent ideas that M$ marketing and their astroturfers and sock puppets like to push:

• Anybody who disagrees with the M$ party line is a zealot. No, actually no more than any business that chooses to be an exclusively M$ shop. M$ is not the center of the universe and reasonable people don't have to use any of their products at all. Calling somebody a zealot is just M$ marketing's scummy way of trying to marginalize opinions that don't toe the M$ party line.
• Choosing non-M$ products is religious. No, actually only people who can't think for themselves might think that. Again another way M$ marketing tries to marginalize alternative points of view.
• M$ is treated unfairly in discussion forums. Gee, I'd like to be treated that unfairly. They reap what they sow. If they were truly honest and open and didn't try to manipulate and gouge everybody in sight then they might have a point.
• Open source licensing has mysterious dangerous properties making them somehow different from commercial licensing. FUD. No, they don't, all licenses need to be checked for the intended purpose. Whether closed or open is irrelevant.
• People helping each other is communist. Yeah, and breathing shared air is communist also.
• M$ has the interests of their customers at heart. No they don't, particularly because they are a virtual monopoly and because they have alley cat ethics, they only care about perceptions.
• etc. I'm sure others could add more.

Oh, and concerning "M$". It's to add some balance to M$ continuing to put their marketing drivel on general purpose PC keyboards. Personally, I'll be happy to stop when they stop.

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Astroturfers use very creative definitions of what an astroturfer is so they can say with a straight face "I'm not an astroturfer".

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:so, to summarize...

[EMB Numbers]

Mac OS X used to be called NeXTstep, and NeXTstep had a dock which Windows 95 copied to create the task bar. The Windows 95 look which came to be called the Windows classic look which was in fact a shameless but inferior copy of the NeXTstep look from 1988.

Think Windows 95 copied from NextStep, starting with the "Recycle bin" and the recycle logo, the use of a square and a X in the title bar, bezeled window borders, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Dock
http://homepage.mac.com/troy_stephens/OpenStep/screenShots/
http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/applicationmanager

Re:The real difference is that

[stewbacca]

This can be a bit counter-intuitive to those of us more familiar with X11 or Windows, but I can see where Apple is coming from.

I'm a technology trainer (mostly Adobe and Apple stuff), and I can tell you Windows ego centrism is one of the largest roadblocks to learning there is. Just because something doesn't work the way YOU are used to, doesn't mean YOUR way is better. Furthermore, quit using that as an excuse to being completely un-trainable.