Recently I came across a website that did a review of XP, I skimmed most of it but at the end the author says this:
“And for the copycat Mac OS X and Linux platforms, where innovation equates to copying the feature set of Windows, the bar has been raised yet again, this time to stupefying heights. Surely, those platforms will catch up someday. But in the meantime, we’ve got the best solution right here, right now.”
This guy obviously does not know much about computers, microsnot have always copied others, they copied the mac, the taskbar from NEXT, and XP looks quite similar to OSX!!!
Some people when they see the dock in OSX think that apple copied it from the windows taskbar but it is really the other way round, the dock is a development from NEXT who had it years before the windoze taskbar, and as apple bought NEXT they ahve full entitlement to use it unlike microsnot who copied it.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Bryan on 2001-09-05 23:44 ]</font>
Copyright date is 2000 on the article…the Mac OS X beta was more like Windows than the 10.0 - 10.0.4 releases. He obviously hasn’t updated his page. Still they should update it, and for that matter note that Windows copied the Mac interface a lot more than the opposite way. Now that XP has the trash can in the bottom right and the rubber duck is there, what else will Microsoft copy?
I remember after reading the article that I’ve visited this site before. Don’t ask me why, perhaps just to get an impression of the new Windows. I promise I won’t switch . And the majority of the article as it is today was there then too. Except for that last interesting paragraph . I must admit that it’s like an upside down world.
The WinXP review was interesting, but the final part made my day
I’m used to ignorance. I’ve had numerous people tell me they don’t use macs because they’re slow. Or they don’t have Office for Mac! Or a million different piddly reasons. Ignorance of that sort I typically dismiss.
But for someone to claim, upon comparison, that the macintosh or Linux operating systems copy Windows?
I don’t want to preach to the choir too much (though I am MUCH too angry to write a letter to this guy, I might get arrested for the things I would say), but we all know that, Xerox and a couple other minor projects aside, Apple had the first GUI on a widely available computer. I mean, the Apple II had a workable GUI (GeOS) before Windows was even usable! The only features that Windows has EVER had over mac were protected memory and pre-emptive multitasking, and still most pre-X macs crashed less than their windows counterparts.
To say that X is copying XP, that is the crowning laugh. Even if we were to call the version of X released in march Public Beta 2 (I don’t but some do), Puma, assuming it lives up to it’s hype, will STILL beat XP to market. How does a released product copy something that hasn’t been released?
There is a thread in the MacAddict forums rant room where someone sent a letter to this guy and he actually replied, apparently he has an iBook but STILL thinks win is all that. Somebody needs to go beat this guy up and take his iBook
Let me preface this by saying that I use a variety of platforms, primarily Windows 2000, Mac OS X, and NetBSD. Each has its place, and to be honest, there are a lot of good things one can say about Windows 2000 (and by extension Windows XP). However, it’s hard to take a reviewer seriously when they make statements like this:
“And for competitors such as Mac OS X and Linux, where innovation often has lately equated to simply copying the feature set of Windows, the bar has been raised yet again, this time to stupefying heights.”
It is disingenuous to claim that a product in development for at least 3 years and shipping for nearly 6 months, in this case Mac OS X, is simply copying the feature set of a product that has yet to be shipped by Microsoft. It further betrays a lack of significant experience with either of the named competitors. I hope to see some references or sound reasoning to support any such claims should you write on this in the future.
Regards,
Scott Reynolds
——-snip——-
To minimize some of the better things that the latest versions Windows brings to the table is foolish (for instance, group policy and software packages). These are primarily features that an administrator of 1000 or more machines would find useful, an area where Mac OS X , Linux, and just about everyone else frankly need improvement. The average user neither knows nor cares about these things, however, so it’s just as foolish to talk much about them in the context of a consumer OS.
If anyone else chooses to write to Mr. Thurrott, please take the time to be civil.
Oh, come on people… Everyone knows that Microsoft was the first company to place a garbage can on the
desktop and use a gui with folders and everything. They invented the web browser, the internet, pioneered
the use floppy disks and internal hard drives. And everyone knows that they created the software in Office…
On 2001-09-05 17:46, firefly wrote:
“And for the copycat Mac OS X and Linux platforms, where innovation equates to copying the feature set of Windows, the bar has been raised yet again, this time to stupefying heights.”
I think something about this article is “stupefying,” but most certainly not the bar which Windows has supposedly raised.
Here’s what I wrote this guy. I really hope he responds, because I’d love to see his response to my questions!
“...And for competitors such as Mac OS X and Linux, [And for the copycat Mac OS X and Linux platforms,] where innovation often has lately equated to simply copying the feature set of Windows, the bar has been raised yet again, this time to stupefying heights. Surely, those platforms will catch up to XP, someday, in areas such as digital media integration, the task-based user interface, and the like. But in the meantime, we’ve got the best solution right here, right now…”
Mr. Thurrott:
You, sir, haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.
1. Although Apple derived the GUI concept from Xerox PARC to arrive at the Macintosh, Windows was, and still is, an absolute rip-off of Macintosh. No two ways about it. Period.
2. Innovation? I challenge you to name one thing that Microsoft has innovated (and blue screens and MITS Altair BASIC don’t count). They bought DOS. They ripped off the Mac to bring the world Windows 3.x/9x. They bought Internet Explorer. Excel was a rip-off of Lotus 123. They can credit AOL for instant messaging. They can credit Apple for plug-and-play networking (and plug-and-play everything else, for that matter). I can go on and on. Microsoft is incapable of innovation.
3. I won’t speak for Linux, but as far as OS X is concerned, I challenge you to name one feature of Windows that Apple copied. Just one. As a matter of fact, I’d like an explanation as to just why you think Luna doesn’t define the word theft in it’s resemblance to OS X’s Aqua. Perhaps you were unaware that OS X has been in development since 1997, when its incarnation was called ‘Rhapsody.’ That’s back when Microsoft was readying Windows 98, long before Windows XP was a gleam in Microsoft’s eye.
Now let’s talk about Apple’s innovations:
1. GUI (hey, they brought it to market)
1a. By-product: Mice (hey, they brought it to market)
2. WYSIWYG
3. Apple II (sorry, IBM, but it’s hard to refute that this was the first real ‘PC’)
4. Built-in networking
5. FireWire (IEEE 1394/iLink)
6. Wireless networking (AirPort/IEEE 802.11)
7. Popularization of the laser printer
7a. By-product: desktop publishing
8. PDA (Newton)
9. iMac (love it or hate it, but don’t deny it)
9a. By-product: Colored computers.
10. G4 Cube
11. iBook
12. Titanium PowerBook
13. G4 Tower (thanks the brilliantly-designed case, it takes all of 10 seconds to add memory to these things)
14. iTunes
15. iMovie
16. iDVD
17. Aqua
18. The Holy Grail of Computing: Seamless, consumer-friendly GUI on top of UNIX
I’m sure there are more that I haven’t mentioned. Mr. Thurrott, perhaps you might consider brushing up on your history (particularly recent history) before you start making claims so preposterous as those you made in your ‘review.’ To suggest that Mac OS X/Aque is a copycat of Windows XP/Luna is patently false and irresponsibly misleading. I look forward to reading your impressions of how, where, or what Microsoft has innovated anything, as well as just what part of Windows XP has been copied by Apple.
I notice that Mac OS X is now curiously absent from the review. He still calls Linux a copycat, and therefore deserves nothing but scorn. I wonder what he gets for writing such Bootlicking drivel?
You, sir, haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.
1. Although Apple derived the GUI concept from Xerox PARC to arrive at the Macintosh, Windows was, and still is, an absolute rip-off of Macintosh. No two ways about it. Period.
2. Innovation? I challenge you to name one thing that Microsoft has innovated (and blue screens and MITS Altair BASIC don’t count). They bought DOS. They ripped off the Mac to bring the world Windows 3.x/9x. They bought Internet Explorer. Excel was a rip-off of Lotus 123. They can credit AOL for instant messaging. They can credit Apple for plug-and-play networking (and plug-and-play everything else, for that matter). I can go on and on. Microsoft is incapable of innovation.
3. I won’t speak for Linux, but as far as OS X is concerned, I challenge you to name one feature of Windows that Apple copied. Just one. As a matter of fact, I’d like an explanation as to just why you think Luna doesn’t define the word theft in it’s resemblance to OS X’s Aqua. Perhaps you were unaware that OS X has been in development since 1997, when its incarnation was called ‘Rhapsody.’ That’s back when Microsoft was readying Windows 98, long before Windows XP was a gleam in Microsoft’s eye.
Now let’s talk about Apple’s innovations:
1. GUI (hey, they brought it to market)
1a. By-product: Mice (hey, they brought it to market)
2. WYSIWYG
3. Apple II (sorry, IBM, but it’s hard to refute that this was the first real ‘PC’)
4. Built-in networking
5. FireWire (IEEE 1394/iLink)
6. Wireless networking (AirPort/IEEE 802.11)
7. Popularization of the laser printer
7a. By-product: desktop publishing
8. PDA (Newton)
9. iMac (love it or hate it, but don’t deny it)
9a. By-product: Colored computers.
10. G4 Cube
11. iBook
12. Titanium PowerBook
13. G4 Tower (thanks the brilliantly-designed case, it takes all of 10 seconds to add memory to these things)
14. iTunes
15. iMovie
16. iDVD
17. Aqua
18. The Holy Grail of Computing: Seamless, consumer-friendly GUI on top of UNIX
I’m sure there are more that I haven’t mentioned. Mr. Thurrott, perhaps you might consider brushing up on your history (particularly recent history) before you start making claims so preposterous as those you made in your ‘review.’ To suggest that Mac OS X/Aque is a copycat of Windows XP/Luna is patently false and irresponsibly misleading. I look forward to reading your impressions of how, where, or what Microsoft has innovated anything, as well as just what part of Windows XP has been copied by Apple.
Yours in truth,
Patrick Insko
Thank you so much Patrick (and all those able to keep a calm head about this) for writing this idiot. Though I know all of those facts myself, I found myself unable to compose anything coherent that didn’t descend quickly into profanity and sheer hatred. Even Gates gives Apple credit for leading the way for the industry! Anyway, I too am curious to see his response (though I suspect his mail server is probably reaching it’s upper limits as furious mac and linux heads swamp it), plz post it up if possible.
. And the majority of the article as it is today was there then too. Except for that last interesting paragraph 
