For those who either remember or would simply take the time to investigate it a bit, the reason Microsoft won the suit (which carried on for years) that was brought against them by Apple for the theft of the look and feel of the Mac OS was NOT because of all the attorneys that M$ could muster up… tho it was certainly monetarily beneficial to the attorneys as it always is… but that more practical head prevailed and the obvious was brought to light. That is, that Apple stole the EXACT look and feel from Xerox who invented the GUI in the first place. Apple didn’t just take it and weave it as there own such as M$ is notorious for… we all know M$ is a marketing company first not a development company… but Apple didn’t even alter the look and feel so as to suggest they came up with it on their own… they actually took Xerox’s look and feel verbatim.

Having cut my teeth on the original apple ][ computers/CPM/DOS 3.3 as well as PC/MS DOS 1.0 and subsequently Windows 1.0 I’ve seen a considerable amount of technical evolution in the desktop world over the years. M$ has never put out a software product or OS that didn’t originate as a ‘copy’ of someone elses product which they then made their own and they damn sure haven’t put out a product that was tight and not full of holes. I would typically be the last one to toot the horn of M$. Having said that… We have been beta testing Windows 7 since it’s release, have placed it on multiple platforms from tablets to quad systems… and I have found it to be impeccable on many fronts.

For the first time since it’s introduction… M$ may have finally gotten Windows right. Over the number of months we have evaluated this product… we have NEVER experienced a BSOD nor have we found any software/hardware that Windows7 couldn’t be tweaked within to work with that software or hardware. Does that mean that there isn’t software or hardware that is completely incompatible? No… but in this day and age, that is simply amazing and we have yet to find any that isn’t. Further, it is much faster, cleaner, and while M$ has had a hell of a time keeping up with MAC regarding the beloved GUI interface… they are as close as they have ever been to mimicking it… which in the end… is all the end user cares about. After all… the majority of consumers never bought anything because it worked… they bought it because it LOOKED ‘snazzy’.

I have been enjoying immensely my Windows 7 on an HP tablet (TC1100 about 6 years old) where everything is not only functional but the pen based features are much enhanced… to my ‘built to the hilt’ quad core workstation with 4 monitors. For the first time since DOS… I haven’t had to spend my time chasing a crashed OS but rather have been able to actually ‘compute’ and be more productive then not. I really can’t wait to get my customers set up on Windows 7 when the final is released.

Final thoughts… man… this is sounding like a paid endorsement…. I wish. While Windows 7 is in my opinion the best Windows to be released… with the increased security implementations… it can be one bear of a system to deal with if you are accustomed to having free reign of your file/network environment. There is a lot to learn and get used to… much which is way beyond a typical Word/Excel user or Internet surfer…. but if you’ve been waiting for something that works right out of the box… this is it.

Anyway… there is my 3 cents.

If Windows “stole” Mac OSX, why was the initial version of Windows released in November 1985, and the first iteration of Mac OSX released in 1999, nearly 15 years later? I will admit that Microsoft has taken inspiration from the look and feel of Mac OSX and incorporated that look into Windows Vista and Windows 7; however, elements from KDE and Gnome have also made their way into versions of Windows for years.

And, if Microsoft HAD actually stolen from Mac OS, I have a feeling Apple’s highly paid lawyers would have taken quite a large bite out of Microsoft… ;)

Looks like someone forgot to take their pills this morning.

1. Blackcomb
2. Vienna
3. Windows 7

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Windows_versions

“Windows 7″ was the codename for Windows 7