Mac OS X – a model for Windows 7?

18th November, 2009 by Adina
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Simon Aldous, Microsoft partner group manager, says that the new Windows 7 borrows a lot of elements from Mac OS X, which has, in his opinion, a very graphical aspect and is very easy to use.

The first element to draw the attention when looking at the interface of Windows 7 is the revised taskbar, which allows users “pin” applications in place, recreating the Dock fom Mac X. The new Aero Peek feature is similar to Dock Expose, displaying previews of the content in applications that are running, before they resize. In some cases, Windows is evoking touches that are familiar to users of Leopard.

Windows 7’s interface is built, however, on the core Vista technology that is very stable, more stable than the Mac platform itself, as Aldous claims. The new system is functionally similar to the Vista version, and relies on a familiar file system. Vista was criticized as being slow and lacking support and has been updated to solve some of its problems.

Even if Microsoft denied what Aldous said, the verdict of many people seeing Windows 7 at work is straight: Windows 7 is alike Mac OS X. However, there is a thin line between copying an operating system and using generally accepted intuitive solutions for functionality, graphics, etc. There is also a limit to how many things and how much they have to be changed just to seem different from each other and still keep the functionalities they were designed for.


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