Comment They both get it wrong. (Score 0) 891
Bill Gates' response to the "OS X" is more unique is basically this: "Who came up with the File, Edit, View idea?" This is about as silly as Apple (many years ago) claiming they had been ripped off because Microsoft decided to include a Recycle bin (ripping off their Trash can.) Which, while true, is trivial. That reponse side-steps the truth of the matter... that they did, in fact, take what they liked about the other guy's OS because the market liked it. Microsoft doesn't invent anything at all (otherwise, Windows would be running a modern OS "under the hood", not DOS.)
He doesn't respond to the substantive similarities that they did, in fact, rip off from OS X (the ones users care about): the transparency[ish] app stuff, the search mechanism, etc.
The problem, as I understand it, is that Apple does a uniquely inventive job of UI-work, which Microsoft then emulates. Microsoft's OS's (which are really one OS: DOS) don't convey "we're thinking of the user." They convey "we're thinking of ourselves by giving the user a couple of new things which they have to pay for if they want them." However, neither has done anything truly inventive in the actual OS, just in how you use it. Remember, the OS is more than the interface.
In my opinion, the only company that has done anything inventive on the OS front in the last 3 years is Sun. The Solaris OE has: Zones (containers), ZFS (the near-zero administration, massively scalable zettabyte file-system), DTrace, a TCP/IP re-write aimed solely at performance, the new "milestone" changes, etc.
Here's the problem with Solaris: nobody at Sun puts 10-seconds-worth of thought into the UI. If Solaris had the appearance (on the desktop) of EITHER OS X OR Vista, it would dominate the market entirely (well, they'd also have to get desktop manufacturers to ship, but...) Solaris "looks" like it hasn't been updated in 10 years, meanwhile carrying the payload of the most modern OS in recent history! Get a usable UI developed, Sun!
The OS is not the UI! But people (including myself) do become attached to this or that UI feature of the OS. Just remember what the discussion is about at this point...UI's, not OS's.
He doesn't respond to the substantive similarities that they did, in fact, rip off from OS X (the ones users care about): the transparency[ish] app stuff, the search mechanism, etc.
The problem, as I understand it, is that Apple does a uniquely inventive job of UI-work, which Microsoft then emulates. Microsoft's OS's (which are really one OS: DOS) don't convey "we're thinking of the user." They convey "we're thinking of ourselves by giving the user a couple of new things which they have to pay for if they want them." However, neither has done anything truly inventive in the actual OS, just in how you use it. Remember, the OS is more than the interface.
In my opinion, the only company that has done anything inventive on the OS front in the last 3 years is Sun. The Solaris OE has: Zones (containers), ZFS (the near-zero administration, massively scalable zettabyte file-system), DTrace, a TCP/IP re-write aimed solely at performance, the new "milestone" changes, etc.
Here's the problem with Solaris: nobody at Sun puts 10-seconds-worth of thought into the UI. If Solaris had the appearance (on the desktop) of EITHER OS X OR Vista, it would dominate the market entirely (well, they'd also have to get desktop manufacturers to ship, but...) Solaris "looks" like it hasn't been updated in 10 years, meanwhile carrying the payload of the most modern OS in recent history! Get a usable UI developed, Sun!
The OS is not the UI! But people (including myself) do become attached to this or that UI feature of the OS. Just remember what the discussion is about at this point...UI's, not OS's.
