“A feature mimicking Apple’s ‘widgets’ scheduled to appear in Microsoft’s Windows Vista will also show in the current Windows XP operating system, a Vista product manager said. According to Sean Alexander, a group product manager with Microsoft, the so-called ‘gadgets’ in Vista will be produced for Windows XP as well.” In related news, here are some new screenshots of the latest Office 12 build.
I just love those articles!
“A feature mimicking Apple’s “widgets””
Thats just crap
Now now…. lets behave… some of these are going to be web based and so forth…. Its only a matter of time before it turns into an:
1) Anti-virus problem
2) Spyware problem
Keep in mind that MS can copy an idea; but not all that well. Just a matter of time.
So the prophetic Tiger banners were right! http://www.macminute.com/2004/06/27/tigerbanners
Geez! Can’t MS “innovate” anything original? The only thing they do is mimic Apple & co. Besides, we already have Konfabulator, Samurize and whole bunch of gadget/widget-software. MS should just stick to securing and optimizing their swiss cheese bloat and leave the fancy stuff for those you know how to do it.
Please stop it. It’s not true. Microsoft is as innovative as any other company. Just read some IT history.
LOOOOL!
Just mention one innovation from Microsoft. Just one. The history of Microsoft is very clear. They take whatever pieces of garbage they can find, and put it together.
The only innovation is Bob, and actually that’s just another rip off…
The IE integration is perhaps the only innovation in Microsofts history, and not exactly a good one.
I’ve been using MS-systems since 1987 so I believe I know the storyline
I do believe microsoft innovates – but not in the tech arena, rather in marketing. They take others ideas (nothing new there), and somehow manage to sell these ideas as ‘new and fresh’. Imagine you found an old rubiks cube in your closet and drug it out and tried to sell it….no takers…Only if your MS can you make it happen (with creative and innovate marketing techniques)!
>They take others ideas (nothing new there), and somehow manage to sell these ideas as ‘new and fresh’.
Isn’t what apple and about every others “big corp” are doing?
It’s what most companies do. It’s unethical, but they get away with it, as long as we’ll let them.
I don’t want to enter this “war” of two sides… (it’s becoming horse them who really invented the airplane!)
…but now Apple invented Desktop Widgets? Well… We have them a long time ago, and even if they’re evolving and becoming easier to build (just like web pages theses days), still the same concept…
…and what about Active Desktop? I remember some RSS “widgets” in 97-98 with Internet Explorer 4.0… I don’t get this kind of journalism… at least, if you don’t know what you’re talking about in such a mainstream media, just don’t say it! (On the other side, I would understand if it happened in FOX News…)
So what about Active Desktop? Widgets are repackaged Desktop Utilities, which were basically a stopgap measure due to the lack of real multitasking in the original Mac OS. Well, the system that would be called Mac OS ten years after.
And Vista’s Gadgets aren’t even like Widgets. They are more akin to Docklings (which were “lost” in the switch from Mac OS X 10.0 to 10.1).
…and about Office 12’s UI… I hope all programs from the suite get the new WinFX interface… if they don’t, these “old” interfaces will leave a bad taste in many mouths… and will look too “Frankenstein” for my taste… I know they have a time problem to deal with, but I hope they can make consistency more important!
My #1 and only problem with the new Office GUI? It is all on top. With more and more wide screen monitors being sold, you would think they’d figure out that putting the menus to the side will reduce clutter, and is possible with a wide screen so that the person can still see most or the entire document, and have plenty of room left to the side. The new GUI is so big that it takes up a lot of document space when it is on top, something I personally hate.
It makes sense…
IIRC, the big widescreen monitor will make easier to edit in the two-page view by Microsoft’s plans… That make even more sense now that we are talking about resolution independent in the display engine…
…But still doesn’t solve your complains…
The big problem is the choice when designing. Make it easier or make it customizable?
Apple’s choice it clear, make it easier and teach the user how to use instead of letting the user set their own way to work… Microsoft’s choice was the opposite… but it created a big problem for supporting so many options and so many targets… Now, they’re setting a standard way to work and you have to follow it…
Maybe we have some customizable options (besides creating your own tabs) in the final version… but IMHO, they cannot afford the time to design so many choices AND bring the planned user experience (“everyone will be able to use MS Office’s features and make documents look good”)… at least right now… well, time will tell…
That’s funny, Konfabulator works now, and its widgets are (mostly) cross-platform. http://www.konfabulator.com/
I like its implementation better than OS X’s Dashboard, in fact… Konfabulator has totally conquered all of the computers I use. As soon as my wife saw the weather forecast widget, she asked to have it installed on her machine as well. 🙂
It’s an awesome product, and it’s free, courtesy of Yahoo!.
– chrish
konfabulator, we <3 everyone, cross platform bliss
sorry no Linux version is available
🙁
Linux makes a lousy desktop OS for most people, sorry.
– chrish
What exactly does that have to do with anything?
P.S. Linux is not an OS.
Who cares who invented desktop ‘widgets, gadgets or assessories.’ It just seems that a lot of the ‘features/enhancements’ developed for longhorn are being activated to XP, which is good. Longhorn was MS’s copland, and a re-write of an OS from the ground was needed. Will they do it right? I think they’re now playing catch up and a resturcturing will of there company will only help 5-years from now. At the present the infrastructure of MS is old-school MS, now’s the time for them to…
Awww, I could go on and on…
All, IMHO
Jb
Are you sure they’re mimicking Apple? Aren’t they possibly mimicking Konfabulator or DesktopX or the like? Perhaps you’ve seen internal MS documentation along the lines of “Let’s mimick Apple’s widgets”, I dunno.
Whatever, I’ll be using it.
“Konfabulator or DesktopX” were developed many years after the desktop application set was used. These are older ideas that are being reintroduced with a more modern an aesthetically pleasing, and hopefully more ergonomic, inteerfaces. Who invented ’em? Who invented applications that run in windows? Who cares! So, we’re looking at people reintroducing things from the past, done in a much better way.
Yeah, I prewtty much got that idea from other posters. I’m just saying that they’re not neccesarily copying Apple, since there’s so much other stuff that’s doing the same thing. (Problem is, I didn’t actually hear about things like this until I saw a news post that stated that Dashboard was a Konfabulator ripoff.)
Are you sure they’re mimicking Apple?
———————————————————————- ——————————–
I guess its ok to rip off a smaller company rather than a larger one. Can you explain the logic?
I guess its ok to rip off a smaller company rather than a larger one. Can you explain the logic?
I’m not saying that. I’m saying that the article quote shouldn’t make it sound like MS is specifically targeting Apple.
And in my opinion, it’s OK to rip anyone off, as long as it doesn’t infringe copyrights or patents, and you don’t tout it as your own. MS isn’t guilty of either with these gadgets.
Wow. That Office12 interface wastes more space than a ford Excursion.
Never heard of them. What is it that they do?
..it’s just being copied
Basically, this is nothing but what many of us have had on the desktop in many years (thx to 3rd party applications).
I believe it will come to Win2K3 Server as well.
But a wise step for MS to port it to XP.
It’s incapable of being innovative and because of the factionalization of efforts it has failed to become significant in the market. It’s time to shelve the current desktop efforts and start over.
The goal of “Linux” is just to be used to by people who want to use it. If you want Windows, use Windows. If you want a Mac, use a Mac. If you want to tweak your OS, use Linux. They are for entirely different purposes. I suggest you read this:
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
this is very cool, but: i am tired of poeple who know very little of IT/PC history getting all upset on how microsoft/apple/Linux etc are copying or not inovating
sheesh smell the coffoe, things are all getting pretty stand now, guess what folks: icons are icons windows are windows. and plugins, and plugins who cares…
the cool thing is, new stuff with better programming API’s and a better security framework is comeing, that in itself is very cool.
-Nex6
-nex6.blogsopt.com
Linux is the worst innovator of all time. It cloned an existing operating system and then failed miserably at cloning windows and osx.
The irony is that there are probably more lines of VB code in the world than any other language and the language has been a major reason why windows dominates the desktop. Linux has failed to marry a RAD language with an advanced IDE like VS.
Linux is fine in the server closet
What the f### are you talking about? Linux never tried to clone Windows nor OS-X.
That is excatly why a standard Linux installation looks and behaves exactly like a windows desktop. Mind you, i know Linux is just a kernel. But tell that to your Grand ma. For an average computer user what they see on the computer is the OS… and it damn well looks exactly like Windows (atleast KDE)
With many of Vista’s features being ported to XP, then why would anyone upgrade from XP?
wasn’t stardock offering widgets for windows even before apple wisely decided to throw mac os away and start to modify bsd?
Given the monopoly prices Microsoft charges for its operating system, they should be giving the next three major versions away for free, never mind trying to manipulate opinion with pretty clutter. Can’t do that? Reduce the price of a pro level of version of Vista down to £50 and fix your broken driver model so Aeroglass doesn’t cop out when full OpenGL drivers are installed and you might stand a chance of me being interested.
OEM version of windows costs hardly 40$. And Linspier costs somewhere around 100$. You think windows is costly… For the most part Linspier just takes code written by volunteers
Now MS has mimicked Front Row. Apple just released Front Row yesterday and already MS has something that they call Media Center Edition out. MCE precisely mimicks Apple’s Front Row–but of course MS extended it and made it proprietary. When will MS realize that when you aren’t first with something then you shouldn’t do it at all?
no, they will release a new version of media center edition. they have a media center edition of xp for quite some time. it is apple who is doing the mimicking here.
Sorry, it was my stab at being funny. In evolution we call it “convergence” when two species develop similar physical characteristics independently. Did the duck copy the platypus? Or did the platypus copy the duck? Or did they develop similar mouth structures independently to exploit the same niche? Various other examples exist in nature…
perhaps there was a shared component library for the duck and the platypus.
Innovation from Microsoft! I’ve never seen this done before… oh wait…
Konfabulator (Windows and Mac)
Karamba (Linux)
Widgets (Mac)
where exactly have you read that microsofts said they invented widgets? is that what your imaginary friends said?
“the so-called ‘gadgets’ in Vista will be produced for Windows XP as well.”
Does that include backdoors, I mean remote exploit bugs?
I hope that good old nsakey has a pretty login menu
your tinfoil hat has slipped. quick, the aliens could read your brainwaves!
http://activewin.com/articles/2005/images/Word12_Normal.jpg
Look at the bottom left statusbar text, “running a virus scan”.
Do they have a scanner _integrated_ to the Office?
I bet its something that “Office does not run without it..like IE bundled to the os core”. Then why should anyone homeuser buy Symantec or similar product, well maybe they should but most likely wont.
Or maybe it just uses whatever anti-virus you have installed since that already integrates with Outlook.
maybe it is scanning for macroviri upon opening an document, which is quite a sane thing to do.