Microsoft Responds To "Like OS X" Comment
Z80xxc! writes "After a comment by a Microsoft employee claiming in an interview that 'what we [Microsoft] have tried to do with Windows 7... is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics,' the Windows 7 team has issued an official rebuttal, saying that the comment came from an employee who was 'not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7,' and that it was 'inaccurate and uninformed.'"
Random person thinks he knows everything, grows an ego and tells "juicy" stuff to press to boost that said ego while actually knowing nothing.
Nothing to see here. But I suspect lots of Linux/Mac OSX fanatics will be coming in 3.. 2.. 1..
... unemployed.
Bill: "STEP INTO MY OFFICE!"
Idiotic Microsoft Employee: "Why?"
Bill: "Cause you're fuckin' fired!"
For sure the prime source of inspiration and functions for Windows comes from Apple's work! And maybe now and then from somewhere else. So I'm more inclined to believe the interviewed employee than the higher-up managers refuting it. Of course they can not admit they simply copy Apple, after all.
Pretty sure on the list of 'Things not to do if you like your job', admitting you're inspired by the competition and complimenting their design TO THE PRESS has got to be in the top 3.
Apple and Microsoft attack the problem of user interface from two completely different points of view. Microsoft wants things to be orthogonal, logical, menu driven, hierarchical, and otherwise fully featured. Apple takes the approach that the user doesn't want to fuss with all sorts of menus and submenus (no two button mouse for years!) and just wants to do what they need as simply as possible. So you end up with two completely different interfaces.
Apple's interface is elegant but inflexible. Everything fits into the existing scheme and runs perfectly within that scheme.
Windows' interface is flexible but clumsy. While this has gotten much better in later versions, we're still looking at deeply nested menus, and applications which do not necessarily have any UI themes in common with each other.
However the key point is that Microsoft is gradually becoming more user-centric. As far as that goes in their own perspective. They are making changes to the OS that were implemented in Mac years ago, and now that they are here, they make Windows a better product.
Aesthetics is a major theme with Apple, and it is one that Microsoft hadn't fully embraced until Vista. Listen to the users. Let the users tell you what is good and bad. Build the interface to match the user.
In a sense, the MS employee was right. Microsoft is doing a lot to emulate Apple. And frankly, it's about time.
So a Microsoft employee says something out the top of his head. In a normal discussion between me and you, this would be just an opinion, something along the lines of "I think that...". But change the speaker and all of a sudden it's along the lines of "BIG SECRET REVEALED!!!1111" kind of thing. Even worse, for most people it becomes one with the company's official PoV and this simple statement grows so much that the company must spit out a rebuttal via an official channel/spokesman. :)
We are living in a twisted, perverted world, where one can't express an opinion without being beheaded by both the press and the company he's working for. God help us all!
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
I'm a Mac and Windows 7 was MY idea
...coming to the guy in 3... 2... 1...
and no longer has a job
they seem to go the other with iTunes.
I still see no reason for Apple to not allow sizing windows from any corner, let alone hiding/moving the Apple bar at top.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
They gave official publicity to the comment... No duh! Now they need an unofficial rebuttal to the official rebuttal so they don't look stupid.... er... wait a minute.
Dear
Well, considering that I had no idea what that guy said until I read it here, I'd say MS is putting more fuel on the fire by saying that. Would it have ended up on slashdot even if MS hadn't issued the denial? Maybe, but by denying it, it ensured it ended up on slashdot. In any case, this guy has the title, "partner group manager" which sounds like not only is he a manager but, suspiciously, in marketing too. It is funny though that MS periodically has these guys go off the reservation and start spouting not tactful, but perhaps true comments.
But anyway, considering that Apple has put a huge amount of effort into streamlining their OS and making it more responsive to the user, just in general I think that's a good thing to emulate in your OS. For example, I can remember waiting on 10.0 and 10.1 for what seemed like eternities for the spinning beach ball to quit but that's gotten a lot better with recent releases. (Don't get me started on if you were trying to log onto an ftp server that wasn't responding.)
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
Then they did a terrible job copying OSX. Windows 7 is still clunky, slow, and unstable. It's nothing like OSX at all.
Microsoft has issued an official rebuttal: "We never used OS X as a source of inspiration in the design of Windows 7. This is completely uninformed. We used KDE 4 instead".
that's a plan! microsoft should change the windows API and sell windows 8 in limited numbers, say, only 5 pc every 100 is allowed to run windows 8, that way malware writers will stick on writing programs targeting the win32 api, and presto! we have a secure windows version.
Apple has a lot of good ideas that Windows and Linux copy. Likewise, Windows and Linux generate a lot of good ideas that the other two copy. It's not surprising that Windows is mimicking some OSX features (and it obviously is). It would just be nice if Microsoft and Apple stopped getting patents on every damned thing (sudo) and acknowledged that other can have good ideas. Personally, I think Windows would do better to take pages from the KDE book, but maybe that's just personal taste.
So if this is the future...where's my jet pack?
... and Windows 7 was my idea!
Weve taken everything thats good about Vista, along with the core infrastructure of the operating system, and weve made it faster and slimmed down the code to make it more effective.
Weve also tried to listen to what customers want in terms of a much slicker user interface and the ability to engage with it far more intuitively. Thats the product that were delivering.
Why are the reviews saying 7 is completely different to Vista, and will be a success? I can only see more disaster for MS. I checked with a few retail outlets in India; and the feedback is that customers are removing 7 andloading Pirated XP instead. I feel this means Corporates will 'up'grade 7 to XP for the time being then.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Bad choice of words by the Microsoft guy - definitely spoken like someone who wasn't directly involved in the product's development. It's like he'd never heard of Apple v. Microsoft.
Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
The employee specifically said they copied the Mac's "look and feel" which is a determining factor for infringement lawsuits. So as far as lawyers are concerned, he basically said "We stole some of Apple's work."
They ain't trying to save face. They are trying to save a lawsuit loss (i.e., money).
From the MS intercom system... "Paging Mr. Balmer. Your expertise is needed in HR for some water boarding! And bring a chair too."
Conservative, mod down for violating
Sounds to me like the "Liar, liar, pants on fire defense"
I'm a Mac, and Windows 7 was my idea!
And in 2003:
And in 2005:
It is truly bizarre that average people allow the shills to make noise promoting such incompetence. Look at their search engine payment bug and you are reminded yet again what kind of people they must scrape the bottom of the barrel to get. Not just known-nothings, but fresh-out-of-school ones at that. Sadly that scam has gone on for a generation. What happens if they get into schools or colleges and start posing as staff or faculty??
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
FTA: "When the sun is shining there’s no incentive to change the roof on your house. It’s only when its raining that you realise there’s a problem."
Ahem....um...so I guess by rain, you mean some sort of Katrina like attention getter? Sheesh...
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
Always a classic screw-up.
Who cares about them, though! For the rest of us, it's a non-issue. Lets face it - the best thing about the Macs *is* their interface. It certainly isn't the overpriced hardware and its limited capacity for upgradeabiity. If Microsoft can sell me a similar interface without these issues, then that's a plus for me. Yay! Capitalism!
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Considering Apple's litigious nature and the fact that it once sued Microsoft for allegedly infringing on the MacOS "look and feel", I can easily see why Microsoft would want to distance itself from this guy's statements. Apple has always wanted to have exclusive rights over Mac-like graphical interfaces, damn the negative consequences to the rest of the industry.
This guy's statements are fodder for Apple's bloodthirsty lawyers. Should it turn out he's lying about Microsoft's intentions, firing him would seem to be the best course of action.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
From the article: "it’s built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance."
Apple's development model, for years, has been to perpetually tweak and improve on their existing operating system code. Not to mention it's Unix, which has been around since the dinosaurs. He even says in the article that XP was completely rebuilt for Vista, which was then gutted again for this new Vista2. He wants to talk about stability? Why am I surprised?
sounds like someone doesn't want to get sued by apple for defamation.
So some clueless employee in a company of tens of thousands of employees made a comment on the record. If this was an employee on one of the design teams, and it was a comment in an email to their manager and said email leaked, there would be a story and a lawsuit. However it wasn't, it just happened to be conjecture by someone that pulled their comment out of their ass.
The employee should have known better to make such a comment to begin with and is likely now /very/ aware of Microsoft's press policy.
What the employee did was no different from a factory worker for Ford that spends their day driving new cars into the parking lot making a comment about the design inspiration for the F-150. To be frank, I'll be surprised if the employee doesn't get fired, they certainly have cause.
evolution. Then the chances of a random chain of events leading to Windows 7 looking like OS X is possible. It might even be the only explanation.
Man, I miss GeoWorks. Especially that pushpin on menus. Anybody else remember and miss that?
"We never used OS X as a source of inspiration in the design of Windows 7. This is completely uninformed. We used KDE 4 instead".
That's not far from the truth.
Or at least, if you tell people KDE4 is Windows 7, they believe it.
MS innovations have always been in Marketing themselves.
Besides the EULA that Microsoft actually invented. Serious question, not trolling. What new technology, not just old tech with a new name, has Microsoft actually invented? To me it seems that their contribution to the software is the EULA, not the underlying tech itself.
Hope is the currency of fools
If Microsoft hasn't been copying Macs the entire time they would be shipping 5-Star notebooks and Bic pens rebranded as MS office. Aqua vs Aero? I think the jab there is fairly obvious. Dashboard vs Sidebar? They are like the same damned thing, except Dashboard is less irritating. Apple makes iPod, MS rushes to make a Zune? I realize their products are very different under the hood, and how they behave, but on the surface MS spends quite a bit of time copying Apple to make "original and innovative" things for Windows. I haven't used Win 7 myself yet, but I have watched people show it off and the first thing I thought of in many of the new "shiney" is "Hey, Mac was doing that a year or two ago".
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
Ummm... Windows Vista and onwards is more secure out of the box. I mean, Mac OS X hasn't even really implemented ASLR yet. That Mac OS X is more secure is a common misconception.
Read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/hack-windows-security-snow-leopard,8704.html
Charlier Miller covers why he thinks Windows is more secure than Mac OS X.
Oh man, the number of times I've heard one of the BD/marketing guys spouting off about some shit he has only been paid to sell, not understand and I've thought, man, seriously hope no one he is talking to has a clue, because, really, if they do, we are going to look like dicks right now.
This shit happens a hundred times a day all over the world, BD/marketing guys spout shit, what we pay them for, apparently, just happens this time someone wrote it down where people who know better could see.
Nothing MS specific about this, except this particular waste of space happens to work for them. Or at least, he did :)
there's a app 4 that
I often wonder at what point the fans of both sides will stop and realize that both OSas are convergently evolving? We can all see how both OSs have slowly been drawing closer and closer together. Additionally, where do you draw the line between a company's "property" and a "good idea"? Both OSs use a window driven interface, both have close and minimize buttons, both use a mouse, et cetera... Heck, even Linux OSs have a window's-ish GUI. "Can't we all just get along?"
Some people say genius is achieved in a work of art when there is simply nothing more to add, others say it's achieved when there is nothing more to take away.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
life DOES follow art.
(Using a liberal definition of "art" to encompass advertising.)
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
What did you expect Microsoft to say? Did you really expect them to officially acknowledge that Windows 7 is an OS-X rip-off?
A few years ago before Vista came out I went to the local Apple store with her and glanced at one of the desktops. I clicked around for a minute saw the sidebar, "Aero" interface, how the icons jumped around smoothly, etc. I said to her "That's what the new Windows interface is going to look like; they are always copying from Apple". Now keep in mind I hadn't seen a preview of Vista at this time. Sure enough Microsoft's interface looked and acted like the one in the Apple store. I pretty much only use Microsoft products...but I thought it was very funny.
They're the same face! Doesn't anybody notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!
Apple takes the approach that the user doesn't want to fuss with all sorts of menus and submenus (no two button mouse for years!)
That is simply not the case. Macs have ALWAYS HAD two button mice, in that you could always use a keyboard modifier to access the context menu even with just one button - you are basically claiming Macs for years had no context menus which was never, ever true. If you bought a two button mouse, it would ALWAYS activate the context menus - from the very first version of OS X.
I agree with your point about aesthetics but that doesn't mean Apple does not also provide layers of menus and commands (just try using XCode sometime and you will see). They do try to align application layers more (UI, and underlying frameworks used).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Lipstick on a pig.
~Just as a thing fails if it lacks a kernel, so too it fails if it lacks a skin. ~ Rumi, Discourses
They haven't implemented Age/Sex/Location-Restrictions yet? The bastards!
This is my problem - I do use this manner. It's handy because I don't have to learn the various different short cuts accross different applications.
You say you want the speed of keyboard only but the ALSO say you cannot learn quick commands? Which is it, did you want faster access to application features or not? If there's something you use with any regularity you'd set a shortcut for it if one did not already exist.
It also allows me to explore the various commands quickly in a new application or get to commands without shortcuts without leaving my keyboard.
Then you should prefer OS X where you can either type letters or use the arrow keys to explore menus, and you have more free command sequences to assign to shortcuts since the menus are not consuming them.
To me this highlights a fundamental difference between OS X and Windows - OS X tries to leave you as free as possible to do things the way you want to do them. Windows consumes multiple valuable keyboard commands because hey, it knows better than you what would be a useful way to use a keystroke sequence.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Apple paid for the rights to use many of the concepts developed by Xerox for the Star and Alto by paying Xerox in Apple stock. That makes it considerably different than simple "copying."
Anything like OSX, it woudlve actually made sense. It isnt, thats why its crap.
NO SIG
This is a bunch of crap,
Tom Hardware only quote a unknow guy, and Charlie's hack use a plugins (flash) for been able to win the prize.
One thing for sure, you can't hide a process on the Mac OS like you can on windows with root kit and all the crap running on single or multiple svchosts. Those are the flaw of Windows.
BTW on Windows 7 x64, why 64 bits DLL are in system32 folder and the 32 bit ones are in sysWoW64? what a mess. And why they put all versions of all previous version of windows in the WinSxs folder? Why I need 15 years of DLL with all the crap that come with?
(giggles) No! I cant go through with it. My karma is too good right now to inject the obvious hilarious remarks about Windows and Mac. Just watching you guys carrying on is funny enough right now.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
This, coming from a user advocating an OS that doesn't even have an SSH client.
You have no idea what you're talking about. CTRL-F2 gives keyboard focus to the menubar and you can explore the menubar using the keyboard, targeting specific menu commands by typing the first several letters of the item you're interested in.
This gives one access to the entire menu system via the keyboard, not just the items a programmer decided to provide keyboard shortcuts for.
blog
Taksbar now looks like dock did in Tiger 4 years ago.
Windows have drop shadow, like they do in OS X for a long time now.
Aero peek and aero flip 3d are rip off of expose.
Windows search is still not as fast, extensive and as Spotlight is in OS X.
So, yes, they have tried to re-implement OS X features, but as as all things Microsoft, they lack polish and taste :D. User experience is still noticeably not as good or as refined as in OS X, I doubt is can ever be without simplifying things at the OS core.
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
I see it as natural progression,A perfect example is gaming consoles,first there was the Nintendo block people,tennis balls hit with bars etc,next version had better graphics with each console.computers are the same,first were punch out and now we can see humans so real looking it can fool people. Apple didn't invent anything,it was just a natural progression to make what we have better. That idea has been around for decades. Apple made brushed metal famous,scratch that, brushed metal has been sold in products way before Apple use the image of brushed metal on a computer screen.
Jack of all trades,master of none
I guess you don't realize you are doing more harm than good for your business.
You have just ensured that I will never purchase anything from your website.
In practice (aka reality) OS X has never had a virus or worm. All known in-the-wild exploits to this day have required users to install something, many requiring administrative passwords. That is, all in-the-wild exploits have been trojans.
The Windows landscape is full of viruses and worms. Conficker is just one recent and ongoing example. Botnets are not only comprised mostly of Windows machines running IE, but apparently 80% viruses run in Windows 7 just as they did in previous versions of windows.
And you're repeating the idea that Windows of any stripe is more secure than Mac OS X with a straight face?
blog
I wish I had video taped it when I plugged a microsoft USB mouse into a macbook pro in front of a room full of apple fans. Some of them thought the mouse would not work since it was not an apple mouse. The looks on some of their faces were priceless. I was told I was harming the mac by using the microsoft mouse. By an apple certified person no less (they claimed to be anyway). I was trying so hard to not laugh. I just wanted to get done with what I needed to with as little hassle as possible. I do use the right click on a mac all the time.
There is another one of those meetings coming up. I think I will tape this one. I will use a dell mouse just to match them squirm.
What really drove me nuts is when MS started hiding the alt-key indicator by default. Was the little underline in the menu really in anyones way? Why should I have to hold down Alt to 'discover' if there is a keyboard navigation for a particular menu?
What I will also admit some frustration with, is that although i love the feature, it can be annoying when different applications use different keys to access commonly named menu items.
Not a better key, just a different one. Firefox why are bookmark properties changed from 'r' to 'i'???
However, far and away I'd rather deal with the idiosyncratic use of the option, than not have it at all.
The people responsible for firing the people who reported that Windows 7 was similar to OS X have also been fired.
Is that why over the years why I had to disable numerous things from features in userland java applications to stop kernel panics. Forced to remove opengl features in 3d applications to stop the system from locking up the system.
Note: The code works fine on Windows, Linux, BSD etc. just fine.
Which explains why standard unix compliant applications are crashing because OS X decided it will crash applications trying to do a standard fork() without exec() (this is POSIX specifications compliant - Works on real Unix just fine), however OS X cannot guarantee that the libraries in use are 'async-signal-safe' and crashes the thread.
Note: The code works fine on Windows (seriously, I have more luck getting it working via cygwin on Windows than on OS X), Linux, BSD etc. just fine.
The hilarious thing is that software like Finf, darwinports, macports etc. 3rd party software which is supposed to make it easier for doing POSIX/Unix type stuff on OS X has constant random segfaulting issues on the provided precompiled binaries and such.
Seriously, don't bullshit me. I bought into the whole OS X is so superior, it's Unix, blah-de-da at one point and I found out it's a pile of shit when I tried it.
It's people like you who end up causing good people who value their time greatly to waste their time and money on absolute shit.
If you like your OS, fine, I have no problem with that. But, I have a problem when people like you start spouting lies and half truths. Don't bother with the excuse "I didn't know", if you don't know - why the hell are you claiming this is fact to begin with?
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Don't you mean "former Microsoft employee"?
hardware hogging? upgrade inducing?
what hardware do each of you run on?
"It's not like they tried to deny their Microsoft store inspiration."
Apple has a kind Kama Sutra philosophy of invention. If Apple takes an existing idea and then copies it but keeps its fingers crossed, it becomes a new original idea.
very simple
There was never any agreement between Apple and Xerox that gave Apple a license to use Xerox's IP. If there had been, Apple would have used it as a defense against the lawsuit Xerox filed against them later.
One loves the aesthetics that Apple has. If you use Windows one needs anaesthetics.
This is totally untrue. The old MacOS had no support for context menus until long after Windows became popular (System 8 timeframe).
Sorry, I somehow edited out a key distinction that meant to apply my comments to OS X only... though on reflection I suppose the OP may have been talking about pre-OS X Macs it did not seem like that.
I used them only infrequently pre-OS X so I can't remember for sure the presence or absence of context menus in any versions older than OS 9, though I have seen mention of them in System8 and thought they were around before then.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Apple made OS X look more like Windows, and did it better, and then Microsoft copied it. Get it right instead of telling half the story.
"They confiscated everything, even the stuff we didn't steal!"
We've got nothing left to do but look at the solid green status lights adorning our racks and consoles, and post brilliant witticisms and cogent analysis to Slashdot.
Must have lights... must! Otherwise...
"It is pitch dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue."
Yet Socrates himself is particularly missed.
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed.
look and feel? he meant to say, it's GUI is consistent and works, like a Mac.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Yes, because Aero is nothing like Aqua, and Gadgets are nothing like Widgets...shall I continue?
. . . and wants their mouse back.
Best Buy still sells the Eee PC (like the one I bought last week) with XP because Win7 is slightly, but consistently and noticeably slower and power hungrier than the 8 year old XP.
Seriously, don't bullshit me. I bought into the whole OS X is so superior, it's Unix, blah-de-da at one point and I found out it's a pile of shit when I tried it... It's people like you who end up causing good people who value their time greatly to waste their time and money on absolute shit... I have a problem when people like you start spouting lies and half truths.
Seeing as I don't really like Macs, I'm surprised to find myself thinking "what a whinger," when reading the parent post. What a bothersome tirade. The OP is saying that Apple tries to improve their software over time -- hardly an Earth shattering claim.
With regards to stability, we've probably all seen problems with the Operating System we use. Both with code and just generally.
Myself, I have seen code not work on one of Linux/Windows because of forward slash/backslash differences, "pause" and other basic features not working quite the same in C code, threading not working as intended because of different compilers doing different things, etc.
I've seen the video card driver lock Linux systems so bad that unplugging was the only option when rendering too much data at once, Windows 2000/XP not respond for many minutes when a network path could not be found or you mistakenly clikced "open with," Windows virus effects (graphics plain crash for no apparent reason when left idle too long, copy/paste feature removed, etc), problems of slowness/usability in Vista (reordering everything "for dummies"), Macintosh refuse to log in and just have the spinning wheel go on forever, etc, etc.
I think most people have had problems with whatever Operating System they run. It's like they have come out of their infancy, only to become little kids that have to be monitored and assisted to get out of trouble all the time. Problems are all part of the computer experience -- no Operating System has a monopoly on this (even Macs) or is free of them.
So, the OS X is about a million times less secure than Windows 7, but you are about a million times more likely to get a virus, or get rooted, or whatever on Windows.
I never heard of anyone with a virus on the Mac since OS 9, but most every Windows user I know has had virus problems.
I'll go with Mac luck rather than Windows security.
The way services are now secured in Windows, as to their "LOGON ENTITY" (SID)? From Apple...
(I.E.-> Windows, modern variants thereof (after Windows 2000), no longer run ALL SERVICES (analogs to *NIX daemons) as "LOCAL SERVICE", but now many instead in Windows XP/Server 2003 (via service packs), & VISTA/Server 2008/Windows7 (outta-the-box/oem stock these latter newest models of Windows come that way (which is good, but...))? Came from how MacOS X did it)
See - the idea of 'least privelege' isn't just in UAC in modern Windows, VISTA onwards, as it is in *NIX's, in "userland"... but, that goes on, also, "beneath the covers", as in the example of services now being under "least privelege" principals also. Apple did that, first.
Also?
How the now partially "plug-N-play" driver design in the IP stack in Windows (doesn't load FULLY before the user logs on, as it still is in Windows 2000, but not in XP onwards)?? Apple MacOS X again... Microsoft took this idea from they as well.
Heck - they ALL do it.
NOW, a LOT of you "Pro-*NIX" people here KNOW I am mostly a "Windows fanboy", but, I will "tell it how it really is" too, by the same token. Honesty? It is a better policy, whether I am an "MS Fanboy", or not...
APK
P.S.=> It's not just in software either: A major Fortune 100 I worked for had a "bldg. #19" where ALL THEY DID, was tear apart & disassemble the work of others who out-innovated or out-competed them, & then they created "workarounds" knock-off hacks of the same ideas, & JUST ENOUGH so it wouldn't violate standing patents from said competitors... this, I saw, & with my own eyes. I am sure you all have as well, so I may be "preaching to the choir" here is all... but, we ALL get BETTER PRODUCTS for it so, it might useless "beetching" here about it anyways! apk
...That Mac OS X is more secure is a common misconception....
However, Macs are MUCH safer! There are 7 million Windows PCs infected with the conficker are worm alone. How many infected Macs are there? How many infected iPhones? It doesn't really matter WHY someone's computer is infected or someone's house was broken into. The facts are simply this: it is safer to surf the Internet with a Mac than with Windows.
All theory is gray
True, but Apple are the ones that claim that because they control the hardware and software it's more stable than other operating systems - Except, it's not. Infact, my biggest problem is that the same code that executes beautifully on every other OS is capable of causing kernel panics as a userland application or lock up the system completely. I find it difficult to do such things intentionally on Windows, never mind accidentally and yet I am supposed to believe OS X has superior stability? Best thing, I won't get this under Linux or Windows on the same hardware.
Except, this wasn't a compiler issue, it is the system kernel not working to specifications. Now, if you're going to claim that you're Unix, have a Unix certification - I'm going to expect you to work properly in that regard instead of giving me an unbelievable amount of compatibility issues.
I've seen this too, but funny enough, every instance I can think of this happening was by using not fully supported hardware or proprietary software that was not considered 'correct', not that I'm saying it doesn't exist in opensource, supported platforms. But when it's considered supported, it's not having the insane issues you get on OS X is what I am trying to get at - while Apple is claiming their support is superior.
Oh, I agree. I just get annoyed being told that it works so well because of X,Y,Z and that has absolutely nothing to do with it. Additionally X, Y, Z being completely broken in so many ways.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Police today found the mutilated body of a yet unnamed Microsoft employee, who was apparently beaten to death with a folding chair.
Hmmmm, my first thought after going from XP to windows 7 was how similar to KDE 4.3 it was. I skipped vista, so I'm not sure if KDE leveraged some of vistas UI or not, but W7 and KDE seem to have a very similar feel. However, it looks like W7 has a log of old dialogs that seem unchanged from XP, so the UI of W7 seems very disjointed when the UI's for a sequence of dialogs change. KDE feels a little more consistent. Gnome and OSX feel much more similar when switching back and forth....
I wouldn't know if the new Vista7 (or whatever they are calling it) is like a Mac, I don't use the crapple system.
I didn't like OS/X or Safari so I don't use them.
The Apple hardware is very nice, but I can buy 3 win PC's for the price of one.
If you don't like Windows then don't use it. If you can do better than Microsoft then go create your own O/S!
To each his own.
I also recall him saying that although he thought Windows was more secure, that OS X was safer. So that article was somewhat selective in how they quoted him.
So, basically OS X may be technically less secure, but it wins on the security by obscurity front.