by Magno Urbano

Windows Vista was launched yesterday. As usual, Microsoft launched it as a “revolutionary” product.

After a delay of more than four years and many of the promises not delivered, here comes Vista, a sad try to copy Mac OS X and Linux.

Here are the biggest “revolutionary” functions of Vista:

1) A new “glassy” interface called Aero. Aero relates to “air”. The name has no connection to the Aqua (”water”) interface used on Mac since 2000. It’s just coincidence;

2) A new sidebar called Sidebar, that in resume is a bar in the side (!) where one can run small programs called Desktop Gadgets. I have no idea how they come with the idea for this. Any resemblance with Mac OS X Dashboard where one can run small programs called Widgets is just pure coincidence;

After being asked if Sidebar was a copy of Dashboard, Microsoft declared that, in fact, Apple’s Dashboard is just a copy of the ideas seen in Konfabulator — a program offering the same functionality on Windows for a long time. The true is that the idea behind Konfabulator was originally created in NextStep OS — a system created by Steve Jobs at the time he was not working for Apple — and later bought by Apple.

3) A new “revolutionary” search functionality called Windows Search (I don’t know where they get these original names…) that allows one to perform instant searches that, in resume, is a copy of the same functionality called Spotlight on Mac OS X.
4) Outlook receives a new makeup, changes its name to Windows Mail and receives a search box. No similarity with Mac OS X Mail application that has the same search box since 2004;

5) Compared to Mac OS X, Vista now comes with some more “revolutionary” functionality as Windows Calendar (a clone of iCal), SearchFolders (a clone of SmartFolders) and Internet Explorer 7 (a mix of IE6 + Mozilla + Firefox);

6) A new amazing “voice recognition” feature that is so good you can enjoy yourself watching this video.I could not finish this post without mentioning the internal email sent by Jim Allchin Microsoft’s (Former) Co-President, Platforms & Services Division, to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, that was published during the famous Iowa x Microsoft anti-trust case.

The phrase in bold is the best!

 

From: Jim Alichin
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 8:38 AM
To: Bill Gates; Steve Ballmer
Subject: losing our way…
Tftis is a rant. I’m sorry.

I am not sure how the company last sight of what matters to our customers (both
business and home) the most, but in my view we lost our way. I think our teams
lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean,
what security means, what performance means, how important current applications
are, and really understanding what the most important problems are customers face
are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that doesn’t
translate tnto great products.

I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft. if you run the
equivalent of VPC on a MAC you get access to casioally all Windows application
software (although not the hardware) . Apple did not lose their way. You must
watch this new video helow. I know this doesn’t show anything for businesses, but
my point is about the philosophy that Apple uses. They think scenario. They think
simple. They think fast. I know there is nothing hugely deep in this.

htttp: //www. apple. oom/ilife/videc/ilifeO432C.htm.

I must tell you everything in my soul tells me that we should do what I called plan
(b) yesterday. We need a simple fast storage system. LH is a pig and I don’t see
any solution to this problem. If we are to rise to the challenqe of Linux and
Apple, we need to start takrng the lessons of “scenario, simple, fast” to heart.

Jim

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