Microsoft Must Break Free from Itself in Order to Move onto the Future
| by Joe Leo, Columnist | April 12, 2007 |
OPINION: (4.12.07)-- Ever since I heard Windows was working on its "next generation" release of its OS, then code-named Longhorn, I was--I have to admit--intrigued. That intrigue was lost the minute I opened up the PC-based review magazine (can't remember what it was called) that already compared it to the Mac OS.
Right then and there, I thought "Longhorn" was the perfect code name for the new Windows OS. Thoughts of cows on the pasture, slowly moving along the farm land, wasting their time away munching on grass and calling out "moooooooooo." And if Microsoft intended the symbol to be not a cow, but a strong bull, they got it right.
It's all a bunch of bull! And the thing of it is? Microsoft needs to "moooooooo"-ve on!
I think the huge mistake that analysts, reviewers, columnists--like myself--and everyone else in the tech world makes is comparing Windows Vista to Mac OS X. That's just the thing of it. While Vista looks like OS X and appears to function and mimic OS X...
Let's face it. Windows Vista ain't no copycat (or any cat close to a jaguar, panther, or tiger).
Again, I have to admit that I was tempted to go see what Windows Vista was all about and when it finally was released, much to no fanfare at all on "opening day"--which pales in contrast to the day I lined up for the Panther and Tiger releases at the Apple Store--a day or two later, I walked into a local OfficeMax that had a laptop running Vista on display near the main entrance.
I played around with it. I admit, it was cool. Cool as Tiger? No. Cooler than Windows XP or Windows 98 or 95, making Vista the "best" Windows incarnation ever. But again, let's ask the question here. Was it like OS X, a mere copy of OS X? No, sorry to say, it was not.
Remember, a copy is an exact duplicate of the original. If you want to get all high-tech here, let's use the word clone. A clone is a hands-down, totally exacting duplicate of the original. How about we throw in the word "photocopy," since we know that photocopies are a somewhat degraded version of the original.
I can't even use the word photocopy to compare Vista and Tiger.
While we all know by now that Vista has a new 3D interface called "Aero" and it has these cool mini-apps called "Gadgets" and you can take a look at all your open windows at the same time (don't remember what that feature is called right now, and don't care)-- all things similar to things in Mac OS X? It's doesn't even come anywhere close to being a perfect ten.
I can't believe ZDNet.com's Jason D. O'Grady thinks Apple should photocopy Microsoft's OS!
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