Microsoft denies Windows 7 is based on Mac OS
Corporations can be heinous places. All day, people wander around, playing politics like so many Lindsay Lohans in "Mean Girls."
So today, one wonders just what machinations are being endured by Simon Aldous, the Microsoft Partner Group manager who was Wednesday quoted by PCR as suggesting that Windows 7 was rather inspired by the simplicity of the Mac OS. Indeed, Aldous declared that Microsoft's new operating system was designed to "create a Mac look."
In what appears to be a somewhat hurriedly written post on the Windows Team blog titled, "How we really designed the look and feel of Windows 7," Microsoft showed that perhaps some of its underwear is currently a little twisted.
The post read: "An inaccurate quote has been floating around the Internet today about the design origins of Windows 7 and whether its look and feel was 'borrowed' from Mac OS X."
This would suggest that Aldous was, in fact, misquoted.
However, the post, written by Brandon LeBlanc, continued, "Unfortunately, this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed."
"I'm Steve Jobs, and Windows 7 was my idea?"
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)Some would therefore now conclude that he was quoted accurately, but he didn't quite get his facts right. This is entirely possible, though one might wonder why he would have made comments with a ring of such endearing honesty.
However, perhaps the most interesting aspect of this Windows Team post is a comment left by someone with the handle "i-dont-do-tat".
This commenter wrote: "I know Simon Aldous, having worked in the same U.K. subsidiary as him for a few years. He's a good guy who, for me, is telling it like it is. He's paying testament to the common view that a Mac is cool and a great template to copy."
As many in the world of business will tell you, copying happens all the time. The competition is scrutinized religiously, and the best articles of faith are taken and sometimes even improved. This happens in every product category.
The "i-dont-do-tat" poster concluded that perhaps honesty might not be such a bad thing: "Denying this to your customers just makes you look stupid because the very look and feel of Windows 7 is desperately trying to look like a Mac OS--just admit it."
Oh, of course one mightn't expect honesty in the mass-market arena. It is a very dangerous place in which to say anything at all. Equally, though, in a tech world interview, perhaps a little nod toward the opposition is not such a bad thing. It might even lull it into a little complacent smugness.
One can only hope that Simon Aldous had a good breakfast Thursday and that he hasn't endured any untoward communications. Unless it's a job offer from Apple, of course, which he should accept only if the company gives him a better deal and appears to come from nicer people.
That's how the corporate world works, you see. Like high school, it's all temporary, so you have to make the most of it while you can.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
People can make up and spread so many rumors on the internet these days so companies have to rectify false claims.
Officially, of course not. The effort Microsoft is throwing into damage control should've told you that. Can't have one of the troops wandering off and thinking for themselves, now can we?
Simon Aldous is a (or, well, probably soon-to-be-ex) manager of Microsoft's Partner Group for the UK (which coordinates with Microsoft Partners in the UK, I would presume...)
That said, the old adage still holds that what you say on-the-job (and in official capacity) is what the company says.
"the_happy_switcher" is actually not incorrect in what he said here, by sheer dint of obviousness:
* Microsoft is performing damage control (otherwise none of the big boys @ MSFT would have bothered, especially over an issue that many Microsoft apologists claim in this very thread as too minor to worry about).
* I'm very sure that Microsoft would have never intended to have one of their own say what Mr. Aldous said, hence being 'pantsed' (that is, embarrassed by having some opinion or fact exposed which normally is kept quiet/internal at best).
* The 'chair' thing? Running joke, since apparently Mr. Ballmer is known to throw those in a fit of primal rage.
...so which part of his remark was false again?
- Tobacco companies still try to ignore that their products tend to cause cancer.
- Fast Food companies don't like to admit their products tend to cause obesity.
- Politicians don't like to admit their best supporters would drown in a gentle rainstorm if they happened to look upwards.
- Microsoft will deny any connection to Apple products, even if they are used behind the scenes.
Clue: It isn't a troll if it's perfectly true, and relevant to the discussion. Maybe you can come up with some other (likely threadbare) attempt at a rebuttal?
get real, how many computer users read news.com?
most of the computers users can do basic surfing (majority visit porn sites, as its most popular content on net)
I guess you are like every one else, come home from a bad traffic and get everything off your chest here
As for the rest the world- big whoop, nobody cares, not news.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!.
lol
I want to see increases in shareholder value from both companies.
Almost a year? Snow Leopard came out when?
Thank you for proving there is little if any difference between the Mac and Windows fanatics.
Yes, but it has yet to be installed on your PC :)
Seriously, most of us here are pretty savvy and know how to protect and maintain our computer/OS setups be they Windows, Mac, Linux, or whatever.
Ok, that was funny.
Have you read the comments that the average person leaves on this site? I'd say most people that post on this site don't know anything more than what they learn from commercials and fox news.
Well okay the trolls are clueless.
While you are lol'ing in denial about your Mac history you may want to brush up a bit on the reality.
Apparently, Scully made the deal so Microsoft would continue to make Office for Mac. What Microsoft did though was to take that technology and put it into Windows 2 and that took off and the rest is history.
I also learned that IBM did license DOS to Gates but IBM did not create DOS. Gates bought DOS from another person to satisfy an IBM contract and in the process, Gates got IBM to agree to licensing DOS to Microsoft. MS-DOS was born and the rest is also history.
It is interesting to know that Steve Jobs was NOT the decision maker at Apple under Scully. Rumor has it that Scully was the one who entertained and then dropped the OS licensing idea. If he had gone ahead, there would be a lot of machines now running the Mac OS of those days. I do not know if this is factual though.
In the end, we use whatever OS that does the job for us. All this back and forth about OS/X and Windows 7 is more childish fun than seriously meaningful.
Some people claim that Apple ripped off Xerox. But Apple just looked at the ideas and then figured out on their how to implement them on a much slower CPU with no hard drive and limited memory. In contrast, Microsoft just ripped off the entire Mac internal design. It's the difference in trying to re-create a building by just looking at the exterior vs. having detailed blueprints. And, by the way, Xerox was an early investor in Apple (which is why they showed Apple their technology) and made a huge profit on their investment when Apple went public. Imagine how much that would be worth now if they still held onto those shares. Anyway, Microsoft has done lots of shady stuff like this... like the time they actually stole the source code from Apple's QuickTime and put it into their own product. Say what you will about Apple's attitude, but they don't outright steal like Microsoft has done.
Ibuzz, you're wrong on the xerox "allowing" them to use the GUI. Jobs literally ripped it off from a low level employee who thought he could trust Jobs in the same room as him while showing him this new innovating GUI. Get your facts right.
"Another Micro$oft Apologist drinking that Gatestown Kool-Aid."
I always smirk at the Kool-Aid comments. I then wonder- what if people just like one flavor of Kool-Aid over another? Perhaps one IS better for those people? Does it matter if you are drinking it or not to others as long as you're happy with getting that sugary sweetness that you want?
In the end.... use what you want. It doesn't matter to anyone but yourself.
It's people like BtmnHatesRbn who come and create these wars. These types of ignorant people will never go away. Hey many people use more than 2 operating systems. So what's the big deal. Its called innovation. Its been happening for a long time. I don't complain aobut my Macbook Pro not working correctly on these forums, but if someone becomes so ignorant enough to not notice the difference, then I will support and bash both sides in the debate.
It's a handy reference.
Trivia bit: The drinks laced with cyanide at Jonestown (the incident from which this is all based) was actually the Wylers brand, not Kool-Aid.
It's sort of like arguing that a Chevy Key didn't copy a Dodge Key in that Chevy went in one direction and the Dodge Went in the other but both started the car. The goal of all these OSs is to be the one like for that does the job so it works either way as simplifies things. (Now most all keys Copy what I used to see on the Ford. and who knows if Ford copied anyone but most everone is now doing this one thing the best way....)
For full screened work I like the Mac Way. For working with windowed work, I like the MS menu system better. Both have menu's. I find which one I like better depends a lot on what I'm doing.
Though both have hybrid Mach based kernels, Windows NT based kernels are closer to Monolithic design and handle memory, paging, and 64 bit with less scalable than Mac OS X. Sure, MS Can replace the start bar with a bar that is "dock" like in nature but it pretty much ends there.
The user experience is better - much better - but that by no means they "copied" mac os and from an IT standpoint Windows is dramatically different to support.
I am not trying to say one platform is better than the other. Just that they are still different beasts no matter how much they copy from the other.
Using Windows 7, I can't say it's that much different than Windows Vista. So it was a bit ridiculous for the MS manager to be saying that it was inspired by Mac OS. It simply is not.
Yes it works and the Apple Retail Stores were inspired by the GAP Stores, or so the story goes
Look, Apple is really successful ever since Jobs return, everything they touch turns to gold, while others, well their stuff turns to crap or a knock off of an Apple product.
and that pretty much set the precedent.
Same thing happened with USB, developed by Intel, they had no clue what to do with it, Apple put it in the first iMac and changed over all there peripherals to USB and now it's pretty much standard equipment.
Same thing with the floppy drive, Apple got rid of it, people scoffed and years later the PC caught up and now it's a useless item.
Sounds like a quote taken out of its real context by someone who doesn't really have deep knowledge into the design of Windows 7, but just collects a paycheck from Microsoft.
That said, what I wanted to comment on was the shere lack of writing that qualifies as a front page story on CNET. I love that his source for this second article is a commenter that he cannot prove knows this Simon person. So, since a comment can serve as the basis for a column I submit the following:
I know Chris Matyszczyk. He murders puppies, steals from children and from time to time even cries to himself while drinking bags of wine and reflecting on his failed career. On top of that, he hates all his readers and wishes he had hair.
Prove it isn't so.
This commenter brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
- by lvcsslacker November 12, 2009 12:00 PM PST
- y'know, I recall the exact same thing being said about Vista... Sidebar, gadgets, whatever.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 3 pages (113 Comments)My take on it? Whatever... if it ACTUALLY works, then why **** with it?