If you haven't seen the WWDC video, you can find it on Apple's website, here. Or, you can just view the Mac OS X Leopard preview here, which is really all you need to understand this article (and hopefully laugh at Apple along with me).
1. Time Machine - This one may not be as obvious as you might think, but I'm sure you've heard of Windows Server 2003's file versions feature. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's a technology that has been built into the Windows server line that keeps copies of your files for every change you make. Not only that, but it only keeps the changes you've made so it doesn't use a ton of space on your harddrive. Apple's version basically takes Windows file versions and combines it into Windows Backup. Hmm...
2. Mail - During the segment where they made fun of Windows Vista, Apple compared a screenshot of their new Mail with a screenshot of Windows Mail included in Windows Vista. First of all, in case you didn't know, Windows Mail is Outlook Express with a Vista skin on it. There are two reasons the name needed to be changed. One, it sounded like a demo of Outlook. This isn't true because it only handles email while Outlook is for email, calendars, scheduling, tasks, memos, etc. Two, it better describes the program. I'd like to point out that Outlook Express has been around since Internet Explorer 4 (which came out with Windows 98!!!). Apple Mail first came out in 2001 with Mac OS X.
3. iChat - Obviously, the idea of an IM client is not very innovative. Numerous other IM clients exist on the internet such as Yahoo, AOL, just to name a few. Microsoft's Messenger (previously MSN Messenger and now Windows Live Messenger) has been around for quite a while. While iChat's new realtime video effects have no equivalent in Messenger (although even Apple has to admit that this feature will probably be rarely used in the long run), all of the other new features such as remote desktop and application sharing (a.k.a. presentation sharing) have been implemented in Messenger since the beginning (in fact, these features originally appeared in Windows Net Meeting which is no longer in development, having been superseded by Messenger). Messenger even has an extra feature Apple has yet to implement in iChat, even though it seems to fit perfectly into Apple's idea of the ideal IM client.
4. Spaces - What does this remind you of? Can you say "virtual desktops"!? You'd be right in saying that Microsoft hasn't yet put an equivalent into their OS however, have any readers ever used Microsoft's Virtual Desktop PowerToy for XP? What about the Virtual Desktop program that came with the Windows NT 4.0 resource kit around 1995? Don't think Spaces is any different.
5. Dashboard - For Apple to make fun of Microsoft copying the idea of their "widgets" into "gadgets" is so unbelievably hippocratic that it makes me sick. Does Apple think they're fooling anyone into thinking widgets are their own idea? I will say that their new "web clips" are a great idea along with their new widget creator. However, if you have ever used Konfabulator (now owned by Yahoo) or Object Desktop, you have used "widgets"/"gadgets". They are not new. Personally, I think the Microsoft implementation will be more popular with most end users due to the fact that it integrates completely with your desktop experience. You have the option to put your gadget onto the sidebar or, you can drag them onto the desktop. Really, if you are going to have a sticky note "widget"/"gadget" reminding you of something, wouldn't it make more sense to put it on your desktop where you can see it without thinking about it rather than having to open up a separate application solely for it? You may end up needing a real sticky note on your Mac telling you to open Dashboard and check your virtual sticky notes.
6. Spotlight - If you remember back to 1995 with the beginning of real windows, Windows 95, you'll remember the search option in the Start menu. You have to give Microsoft credit for at least implementing a search feature in their OS. I'll admit that it hasn't changed much until Vista and that it was really, really slow, but I used it and it worked. Apple's first attempt at search came with Sherlock released in 1998 with Mac OS 8.5. What's more, Microsoft's search was built in the NT OS's (2000, XP) to provide server search functionality. That's right, not only has Microsoft's search always supported full harddrive searching (Spotlight only searches through a few folders like your documents), it has supported searching other computers as well.
7. iCal - One word: Outlook. Windows Calendar is based on Outlook's calendar. I'm not saying Apple's inclusion of a calendar application didn't help persuade Microsoft to include Windows Calendar however, it does make sense to include a calendar application now a days. Since they changed the name of Outlook Express to Windows Mail, it's only fitting that they include a calendar to make up for the lack of Outlook's calendar.
8. 64-Bit - Microsoft originally shipped a 64-bit version of Windows in 2001 when Apple still hadn't switched. Microsoft definitively gets this one.
9. Core Animation - This is a pretty big one. If you're familiar with Windows Vista, you'll know all about Microsoft's presentation framework. Previously called Avalon, this framework includes a brand new graphics engine for windows applications allowing resolution-independent 3D based graphics along with keyframe based animation technology. Core Animation sounds too much like this for me to consider it innovative at all. Avalon can be used to do things that just look crazy. You can put video onto a 3D object and rotate it around the camera, changing with a nice fade when the user selects something different. What's more, Microsoft has created an ingenious way to author them: an XML based language called XAML.
I think this basically sums up Leopard.
8 comments:
Fighting the battle of who did what first is kind of silly. The web is full of arguments that give serious debate to your points. A properly researched article that addresses these points would be interesting to read - this is just a bit of spouting. Oh, well.
Now, what's FUNNY about the article is the horrible grammar. Dude. I'm saving this and using it in my writing class. Holy shit, you use big words all wrong. Thanks for making my day. What a riot.
They spent quite a while making fun of Windows Vista before hand which seemed a little inappropriate considering Vista is currently light years ahead of Tiger.
Oh my god. I haven't laughed that much in ages. I have no idea if you're serious, an idiot, or 14, but that was hilarious! Thank you so much. Keep writing!
With people like Paul Thurrott (who has long grown out of puberty, btw) critizising Microsoft for an operating system that resembles a shipwreck more than anything else, your ramblings do not make any sense at all.
If you really believe that Windows Vista is lightyears ahead of Tiger you are a sadly misguided person. Your entry reminds me of those kinds of uninformed loser n00bs I had to put up with during my 10-year PC phase -- lifeforms who define themselves through their computer. It's kind of like a puberty-related macho syndrome: if you have the coolest, fastest, most expensive machine, you are king of the suburban hill. All your n00b loser friends will look up to you but every serious person will ridicule you.
You are simply not old enough to know that not everyone wants to spend hours and hours reconfiguring hard- and software just so it works like you want it to.
Get a live, I mean it.
The bit where they made fun of Vista in a strong Swedish accent was actually done by a guy who is French and spoke with a strong French accent.
"If you remember back to 1995 with the beginning of real windows, Windows 95, you'll remember the search option in the Start menu. You have to give Microsoft credit for at least implementing a search feature in their OS ... Spotlight only searches through a few folders like your documents ..."
That was my favourite bit.
And why are you other commenters scared of leaving your names?
Thanks for this entry...
I had a bad day and this just made me laugh my butt off.....
Thanks!!!!!!
This was hilarious!!
Thanks man, your stupid article was the laugh of my day!
Get real.
Hippocratic huh??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates
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