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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.'"
'Ultimately, the new Taskbar is not Mac-like in any important way, and only the most facile of analyses would claim that it is.' Only the most facile readers would give a shit about an Ars Technica article spread across several pages so full of adds, its not even worth bothering.
I always wondered how they turned photocopies into code.
Plus it plays games.
The article is BS. The taskbar is a complete copy of OSX and it gives pure excuses that are mostly based on need from MS to support existing application behaviors.
The _visual_ similarities of how they work and the way the user interacts with them, gives more than enough proof that it is a copy that needed to maintain existing software happy.
The only think I can get from the article is that if Windows had to be redone from scratch, they would do what OSX got it right the first time.
Please oh please mod the parent up.
Still #1 -- Lonely Gay Geek
the way it looks, feels and acts
If you mean sluggish and bloated, then yes. Microsoft Vista and 7 ARE copying Apple's OS X.
THL phish sticks
Fancy that, a content free post that accuses slashdotters of groupthink is modded up to +5, whereas a post that exposes some of the dirty tricks being done gets mysteriously modded down. And associated with twitter. Guilt by association you know. Just for the record I have nothing to do with twitter.
To those reading: they're trying to marginalize any viewpoint which doesn't happen to toe the M$ party line. When similar viewpoints become established in the general population, viewpoints that treat M$ as just one option amongst many that they will lose much of their $40,000,000,000+ per year gravy train.
Perception is everything, particularly in software. People buy based on perception, not reality, and M$ will go to considerable lengths to retain that "M$ is the only option" tax.
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Anonymous company communication can and should be highly illegal. Company legal structures require accountability.
... OSX is not some holy friggen grail of OSes that everyone copies you know.
Then why has Microsoft been copying Apple since the late 1980s? Hell, even Vista is a shameless knock-off, right down to the "Aero" (aqua) interface and "Gadgets" (widgets). And hell, let's not have a trash can, let's COPY the trash can but be more enviro-friendly and call it a Recycle Bin! When's the last time you've reused something you put in the recycle bin anyway? Talk about a horrible misnomer! Can MS claim ANY UI innovation?