Posted on 07/06/2010 12:30:05 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Here’s the short story: Leaked NDA Microsoft slides that landed on an Italian blog site have spread like wildfire. The content of the slides shows that Microsoft is pushing some innovative technology for Windows 8, but also very much looking to Apple’s business model for inspiration. Here’s some analysis.
First, a tip of the hat to Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet for condensing the story. She sourced the Microsoft Kitchen blog that covered the leak, and that blog, in turn sourced the Italian blog ‘Windowsette’ that scooped the leak, which in turn was picked up by most of the Apple rumors sites that I read. Bottom line? This stuff is everywhere.
But other than the plethora of new features, technology, and 2012 timeline Microsoft has laid out for the release of Windows 8, there’s one very interesting slide in particular.
No, you’re not seeing things. That’s an — allegedly — internal slide from the Microsoft Windows team, asking themselves how Apple does so damn well, and how they can mimic the results. The best part is? They’ve even focused on Apple’s mantra “It Just Works.” What’s more interesting than that is the focus on value and user experience. Windows Vista was a focus on flashier graphics, but didn’t do so hot in the UX field. Windows 7 finally started to nail that down, and my assumption is that Windows 8 will be much more fluid, futuristic and minimalistic-ly modern a-la Mac OS X.
Worth repeating: value is the focus here. Microsoft wants to create something people want to pay for, other than something people simply buy because it’s cheaper or preloaded on a PC. Apple has shown that a price tag isn’t as big of a deal when the product has a high level of worth and desirability and functionality.
Lastly, the above picture of the computer is — dare I say it — an iMac prototype clone for a “Windows” computer running Windows 8. In case you were curious, other leaked slides detail that there may be a Windows App store, plus faster start-up and shutdown time, a refocus on functionality and snappier user experience, easier recovery, restore and reset and a facial recognition system for logging in for enhanced security.
Officially, Microsoft hasn’t made a comment, but we didn’t think they would.
Here’s to Windows 8.
I hear they eventually want to do away with mice/keyboards and go with touch LCD screens and voice. And rumor has it they want to have a webcam ID login upon windows boot.
Bad. Idea.
Can you imagine how noisy offices would get with everyone talking to (or yelling at) their computer? On the plus side, they'd prolly have to eliminate cubicles and go back top offices with doors.
But they include a spell checker...
This has been posted at least a hundred times on FR and shot down at least a hundred times. Apple paid $100K for a four hour demonstration of the Xerox GUI. Xerox knew what they were doing when they gave the demo, and knew that Apple was making a computer with a GUI, and that this was the reason they wanted the Xerox demo. There was other compensation involved. Swordmaker has all the details, but Apple did not "steal" the GUI from Xerox.
“The only new thing I’m waiting for really is for APPLE to overcome Microsoft to become the dominant PC OS in the industry.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, as long as the only place you can get MacOS is on a Mac computer bought from Apple. The marketplace likes choices and competition.
The fact that Xerox has not tried to sue Apple is the clearest indication that the GUI concept wasn't technically stolen. But that doesn't change the fact that idea wasn't Apple's (could not be copyrighted by Apple) and therefore couldn't be stolen from Apple by Microsoft, as alleged in Apple's lawsuit.
There were non-disclosure agreements on part of the lawsuit, so details aren't fully known.
OTOH, this slide itself shows something that's wrong with Microsoft. Four bullets, averaging two lines each. Graphic with a bunch of little text that few are likely to read. Meanwhile, this is about the most complicated slide you'll get from Apple:
Microsoft themselves did a great little video on what would happen if Microsoft designed the iPod packaging. They're learning from that, at least a bit, but they still have a long way to go.
Xerox tried to sue Apple but it went nowhere. Apple did improve quite a bit on the basic Xerox concept, and managed to shoehorn it into a relatively inexpensive computer. Only large corporations could afford what Xerox eventually made from the technology.
OTOH, Microsoft tried to copy Apple and produced some quite inferior copies that had problems running well on current hardware. BTW, Microsoft did use Apple code in Windows without permission. Microsoft had to pay out a lot for that.
Xerox let Apple’s people in. They were allowed to look at what they had developed. Apple in return, gave them x amount of pre-IPO shares of Apple Stock, which Xerox later sold for a tidy sum.. IIRC.
IBM tried it with the PS/2 and Microchannel. They soon found that they couldn't get government cotracts because the specs said no sole-source hardware components could be used. That's why they licensed Microchannel to Tandy. It got them around the sole-source restriction without introducing any real competition.
No company wants to get into a position of being dependent on a single hardware vendor for their mission critical systems.
Apple listed 189 GUI elements; the court decided that 179 of these elements had been licensed to Microsoft in the Windows 1.0 agreement and most of the remaining 10 elements were not copyrightable—either they were unoriginal to Apple, or they were the only possible way of expressing a particular idea.Microsoft was basically exonerated.[snip]
Because much of the court's ruling was based on the original licensing agreement between Apple and Microsoft for Windows 1.0, it made the case more of a contractual matter than of copyright law, to the chagrin of Apple. This also meant that the court avoided a more far-reaching "look and feel copyright" precedent ruling. However, the case did establish that the analytic dissection (rather than the general "look and feel") of a user interface is vital to any copyright decision on such matters.
In 1997, five years after the lawsuit was decided, all lingering infringement questions against Microsoft regarding the Lisa and Macintosh GUI as well as Apple's "QuickTime piracy" lawsuit against Microsoft were settled in direct negotiations. Apple agreed to make Internet Explorer their default browser, to the detriment of Netscape. Microsoft agreed to continue developing Microsoft Office and other software for the Mac over the next five years. Microsoft also purchased $150 million of non-voting Apple stock, helping Apple in its financial struggles at the time. Both parties entered into a patent cross-licensing agreement.[7][8]
Uh, no. Nothing significant.
Please don't feed the Apple-hating Trolls, it only encourages them!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Furthermore, Apple doesn’t rely on PowerPoint to manage the entire business. ;’)
I think this is a VERY good idea. I mean, it’s not a NEW idea. Microsoft has been TRYING to get this right for 20 years or more since before Macintosh 84. But, I support them getting better and better each attempt. I use windows and have had to suffer through it for years, while my Macs have been virus free, hassle free and totally don’t just die.
So, go for it. Windows 8! Yes. Good luck. May the force be with you.
But, even so... even if they DO “win”.... the still lose... there is one tiny winy little problem everyone forgets in this classic debate.
Microsoft doesn’t make their own hardware and doesn’t even try to set a minimalist standard.
Anyone can make any kind of $99 parts and junk and claim windows will run on it.
Anyone can write any program and put it out on any website and it can totally screw with any number of your settings and preferences and often be loaded with bloatware, spyware, bundled utter junk that will ruin any half baked attempt at emulating an “APPLE” feel to things.
Apple... Mac... is more than a feeling.. more than an OS... more than the hardware... it is truly the very embodiment of the saying “Greater than the sum of its parts”.
And since Microsoft controls only the OS shell for the other than Mac experience, they cannot possibly succeed at an impossible task over which they exert a minimum influence at best.
No.
Microsoft needs to do a lot of work still, and button down their OS and make it more intuitive and secure, all true... but it should DO those things and not get caught up in trying to out Apple Apple for appearances sake.
The second case was where Microsoft was caught red-handed with QuickTime code in Windows. Apple got everything it wanted in the settlement, and MS got IE to be the preferred Mac browser at no cost to Apple. Microsoft was not exonerated.
Microsoft has copied the stores and geniuses from Apple. But they will always make hideous looking computers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.