Linked by snydeq on Mon 12th Oct 2009 15:24 UTC
InfoWorld's John Rizzo chronicles the 20 most significant ideas and features Microsoft and Apple have stolen from each other in the lead up to Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard. 'Some features were stolen so long ago that they've become part of the computing landscape, and it's difficult to remember who invented what.' Windows 7's Task Bar and Aero Peek come to mind as clear appropriations of Mac OS X's Dock and Expose. Apple's cloning of the Windows address bar in 2007's Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard as the path bar is another obvious 'inspiration.' But the borrowing goes deeper, Rizzo writes, providing a screenshot tour of Microsoft's biggest grabs from Mac OS X and Apple's most significant appropriations of Windows OS ideas and functionality.
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Member since:
2008-10-28
A lot of these features existed in other OSes long before they appeared in Windows or OS X, Task Bar (RISC OS), File Paths (IRIX Indigo Magic Desktop File Browser), Saved Searches (BeOS Queries), etc.
The funny thing is that any modern OS is built on thousands of ideas from other OSes over the years. (Threads, Memory Protection, HAL, Desktops, Device Drivers, Trash Cans, Mice, Sliders, Radio buttons, Processes, Filesystem journaling, Menus, Icons, Boot Splashes, well you get the idea.)