Quote:
Originally Posted by SebC
I'm not an MS exec, so this is a subjective interpretation:
- UAC was an attempt to replicate Apple's non-adminstrator environment.
- Their early ad campaign for Vista/Windows Live seemed to me to be a response to Apple. With a touch of a button, your photo is automatically better sort of stuff.
- Aero's default window-expanding animation that was on by default was very reminiscent of Apple. I turned it off, I want my window-switching to be instant, not animated.
- Pinned icons on the taskbar is very Apple-ish.
- IIRC, pop-up taskbar became the default... makes switching windows two actions rather than one, I'll keep my taskbar on please.
- WMP got more intrusive/automated with Vista.
- My interpretation of Vista is that they put too much effort into making it pretty and not enough effort into making it stable.
- Windows 8 being touch-oriented seems like a response to the iPad. Looks like Windows phone, which was obviously aiming to take market share from Apple.
Ultimately what I think people want from Apple are products that are easy to use and that they don't want to have to think about it. What I want from MS is a product that supports my software and hardware, is stable, and lets me do things how I want to do them.
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The problem with vista is that the completely changed the driver model. Manufacturers finally caught up by the time windows 7 came out. If you installed vista today, it would be just as stable as windows 7. It would run a bit slower on most computers though.
Microsoft has been trying to get tablets mainstream for over a decade now. IOS simply proved that it was viable to go all out and make a touch oriented 'tablet' os.
Microsoft borrowed some polish from apple, animations, etc in Windows Vista.
UAC was not a response to apple's non-administrator environment (which is no different than the L/unix (bsd) environment on which it's based. Microsoft already provided this functionality since 1998 in windows NT. Thing is, nobody used it because it was a pain always typing in passwords. Since nobody used the non-administrator accounts, UAC was invented to make running in an administrator environment a lot more secure.
Task bar is still by default visible, even in window 8
Microsoft and Apple borrow a lot of things from each other, but usually they are features that show up from one os version to the next. In general Microsoft has a larger selection of features and more ways to do things, but Apple's user experience is more polished and consistent.
To me the primary way that Microsoft has catered to mac users is not to osx users, but rather ios users with windows 8. The arm models have a full version of ms office included. I know several people just waiting for windows 8 tablets to come out so the can trade in their iPads.