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.
Sometimes you take a wrong turning in life and, Wednesday, a slight concussion led my eyes to fall upon the pages of PCR.
It is a little more intelligent than my normal reading matter, but I am very grateful for its interview with Simon Aldous, Microsoft's partner group manager.
He was quoted, for example, as saying: "One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it's very graphical and easy to use."
You're waiting for the punchline, right? You know, the one about how he was kidding.
Wait away because he continued: "What we've tried to do with Windows 7--whether it's traditional format or in a touch format--is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics."
I know that such words might cause some entrenched foot soldiers in both of the fanchildren camps to hoot, hiss, sigh and reach for the nearest farming implement.
However, isn't it rather charming to hear someone admit that a competitor's product isn't overly expensive or overly pretentious, but that it has something about it that is good and that real people who buy real products actually appreciate?
Microsoft appears to be getting relatively strong early adoption of Windows 7 in the 10 days since its official launch.
According to Net Applications, more than 3 percent of PCs accessing the Web in the past two days have been doing so using the new operating system. Usage of the operating system has been growing strong in recent days, though Windows 7 already accounted for 2 percent of global Web traffic in the days ahead of its formal launch.
"The early adoption of Windows 7 looks very strong, and I don't believe Vista enjoyed the same early success," said Vince Vizzaccaro, an executive vice president at Net Applications. "Plus, we've seen surges the past two weekend days, and Windows has historically seen much higher usage market share on weekdays than on weekends."
However, weekends tend to see stronger usage by consumers. And consumers are more likely to move quickly to a new version of Windows than businesses, which tend to do extensive testing before adopting a new operating system.
The news is not all positive for Microsoft, though. As a whole, the Mac OS continues to gain on Windows. As of October, Windows had 92.5 percent of the worldwide operating system market, but Mac OS reached 5.27 percent, up from 5.12 percent in September. (Past numbers from Net Applications showed the Mac OS with significantly higher market share, though the market research firm says it has changed its methodology to better reflect the relative traffic of the countries from which it is getting data.)
Apple's recent anti-Windows 7 advertising has touted that if users are going to upgrade their Windows XP machines and have to transfer their data anyway, they might as well move to a Mac. Vizzaccaro said the early numbers suggest that the Mac might indeed be benefiting from such a trend but said it is too early to know for sure.
"We'll know much more in the months ahead," he said.
Programmers have mostly overcome a crucial hurdle to releasing a beta version of Chrome for the Mac, printing support, but several Windows 7 features won't make the cut for the present 4.x version of Chrome.
The Mac printing support is now added, according to the Google browser's issue-tracking system, though there are "minor remaining issues" and the new features aren't yet distributed with the software.
Google has cited Mac printing support as one holding back a Mac version of the browser. Mac support is important for the company's ambitions to spread the browser and its fast-Web philosophy to mainstream users. The Linux version, while less mainstream now, also is important since it's the foundation of Google's Chrome OS project to build a browser-based operating system for Netbooks.
But on the Windows side of the shop, a number of planned features to support Windows 7 were pushed back to the next version Chrome on Wednesday. That includes support for showing thumbnails of open tabs on the task bar, showing "jump lists" for quick actions such as links recently or frequently visited pages, pinning thumbnails to the task bar, and overlaying a download progress status bar on the Chrome icon.
The present beta and stable releases that Google issued Monday, Chrome version 3.0.195.27 (download for Windows only), are members of the 3.x family. The developer preview is in the 4.x family (download for Windows or Mac OS X). The Windows 7 features had been slated for the 4.x series, but now are planned for version 5, according to the issue-tracking system.
The change doesn't indicate the features have retreated into the distant future, though; Chrome version numbers change relatively rapidly, as evidenced by the move to version 4 in just over a year.
Also pushed back to the 5.x series is built-in support for discovering when Web pages have RSS feeds, one of Chrome's most-requested features. Its absence is ameliorated by a Chrome sample extension for RSS, though.
Extensions remain a work in progress. New ones are arriving steadily, and existing extensions such as Lastpass for filling in passwords and forms and AdSweep for blocking ads is progressing. But Google recently switched interfaces, dropping the use of a toolstrip across the bottom of the browser with pop-up "moles" in favor of browser actions, small icons along the top of the browser.
Although the conventional wisdom is that the rise of the Netbook is hurting the Windows business, a Microsoft executive said Tuesday that lower-cost laptops can actually be a good thing.
Speaking at an investor conference, general manager Charles Songhurst said that overall, most people buying Netbooks are either multiple PC owners in developed markets or first-time PC buyers in emerging markets.
"From what we see they are incremental," Songhurst said. "They are new scenarios."
Even if that is true, the fact is that Netbooks have been growing in numbers, while traditional PCs have slumped--a shift that has undeniably hurt the average amount of money Microsoft is getting for each copy of Windows.
One of the opportunities, Songhurst said, is if Microsoft can gain additional revenue on high-end PCs, noting that Microsoft has tended to get about $50 in Windows revenue for the standard $1,000 PC. (Microsoft tends not to talk about how much it charges PC makers for Windows, so it was interesting to hear him mention that figure a couple of times during his chat, which was available as a Webcast.)
Songhurst
(Credit: Microsoft)Asked about Google's forthcoming Chrome OS, Songhurst said that while it could be a threat if it is demonstrably better, just being cheaper won't offer much of a threat, saying the quality of Windows 7 will help the company fend off new competition. Microsoft plans to launch Windows 7 on October 22, while Google's Chrome OS is not expected until next year.
As for whether Apple might gain ground inside corporations, Songhurst said that Apple isn't winning over the key executives that make technology purchases, such as chief information officers.
"If they are not compelling to the CIO, they are not going to make inroads in the enterprise," he said.
On the Bing front, Songhurst acknowledged that even if Bing is getting good results in the U.S., the company faces an even larger hurdle in the global market, where Google has nearly 70 percent share. Songhurst said that although Bing's engine is available globally, it has yet to put the same kind of marketing dollars overseas as it has in the U.S.
"That marketing push makes a (big) difference," Songhurst said.
One of the other things Microsoft has done is sign deals with companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo to make Bing the default search engine on new PCs. Asked if Microsoft is eying more such pacts, Songhurst said yes.
"Always we'll do distribution deals for Bing," Songhurst said. "We're quite active in getting out and competing for those."
Windows 7 rates my unibody 15-inch MacBook Pro at 5.3, which is very high for a laptop.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)I have had Windows 7 Ultimate RTM (release to manufacturer) for a few days. This is, of course, a legitimate copy, not the leaked copy that you can download from the Internet. That's the good news.
The bad news is I have had to test it, which has been lot of work. We tested the new operating system against Windows Vista SP2 and Windows XP SP3. Overall, Windows 7 offers a much more pleasant experience than Windows Vista. Everything works more smoothly. The new OS takes less time to launch applications, and it's nice just to browse around its functions and features. It's also very pretty. However, it is slower than Windows XP, except for the boot and shutdown times, where XP has always been a drag.
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Apple and Microsoft are fighting for the mindshare of consumers as both companies prepare to roll out upgrades to their operating systems later this year.
Apple on Monday showed Worldwide Developers Conference attendees Snow Leopard, the next major version of Mac OS X. Apple has been very open about the fact that Snow Leopard is meant to be an under-the-hood maintenance release, focusing on performance enhancements to the operating system.
Windows 7 is essentially Microsoft's maintenance release for Vista, that according to many accounts was a failure for the company. Putting aside all of the back and forth between the two companies, one industry analyst feels it comes down to the consumer.
"It's really immaterial the degree of the rewrite in the operating system," Ross Rubin, director of analysis for market research firm NPD, told CNET. "The key is the consumer benefit."
Apple introduces Mac OS X Snow Leopard at the WWDC.
(Credit: Jim Dalrymple)While early testing of Windows 7 seems to bear out improvements in the operating system, Microsoft is coming off a very bad consumer experience with Windows Vista. That is not a trivial obstacle for it to overcome.
Microsoft will have to fight the industry perception that Windows 7 is just Vista with a few fixes. That could certainly lead to slower adoption of the new operating system out of the gate.
Apple on the other hand is coming off one of the most successful operating system launches in the company's history. Mac OS X Leopard was a solid release, packed with features. Overall, Leopard had relatively few problems throughout its life cycle.
Apple doesn't have to fight off that negative perception from its users or the industry. Macs have been selling better than ever and there is no sense that will slow down anytime soon.
Typically, Apple sells its new operating systems for $129. That's a flat fee. Everyone gets the same version that includes all features and enhancements. However, Leopard users will be offered an upgrade to Snow Leopard for $29. Microsoft has yet to release its upgrade pricing, but it is expected to be much higher.
"The OS war is on in a big way," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of Strategy and Analysis at Interpret. "Charging $29 won't win Apple any converts, but Microsoft is going to look really bad with its upgrade pricing."
It's clear that Microsoft has a much bigger channel to push Windows 7 to customers, but we've seen with the Vista release that doesn't always mean success for an operating system.
Apple is coming from a strong position with Mac OS X Leopard, so upgrades to its newest Snow Leopard release should be very strong.
Apple said Snow Leopard is expected to ship in September. Microsoft will release Windows 7 in October.
There's a Snow Leopard on Live Search for sure. But could Live Search be inside Snow Leopard?
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET Networks)Those of us with too much bandwidth and too little life (yours truly included) are wondering just why Microsoft chose to make a snow leopard the backdrop photo on Live Search on Thursday.
Even though Microsoft puts a new picture on the site each day, surely it hasn't exhausted all the images that are not references to competitor's products.
As TechFlash points out, the fact that Microsoft has the mascot for Apple's next operating system could be cluelessness on Microsoft's point. Or it could be hubris.
But another crazy thought crossed my mind. What if Microsoft has landed a deal to make Live Search the default in the next version of the Mac OS. For a long time now, Apple's Safari has had a Google search bar built-in. I don't know how much traffic that generates for the search giant, but it would seem to be at least as significant as some of the PC deals that Microsoft is paying good money to get.
Obvious animosities aside, mightn't a deal make sense. Microsoft has talked about needing to spend some money to boost Live Search share.
If it is the case, would Microsoft and/or Apple be crazy enough to tip their hand? It seems unlikely. But, even if that's not the reason that the Snow Leopard is there, would such a deal make sense?
January was a good month for both the emerging Windows 7 and the venerable Mac OS, according to Web metrics company Net Applications.
The Mac OS is now hovering around the 10 percent mark among operating systems accessing the Web.
In its Operating System Market Share report for January, Net Applications showed the Mac OS at 9.93 percent, up from 9.63 percent in December. The iPhone also trended upward to 0.48 percent in January, from 0.44 percent in December.
January figures from Net Applications on operating system share amid Internet use.
(Credit: Net Applications)In its recap of the Net Applications numbers, Fortune highlighted the ground gained by Apple's iPod Touch:
The biggest winner in January, however, was the iPod touch, whose "explosive" growth in December continued unabated after the holidays, growing 37.5% to reach a 0.11% Internet share...That means that more than one out of every 1,000 Web hits in January were made from iPod touches -- at least according to Net Applications' data.
Use of Windows 7, meanwhile, surged in January after Microsoft released the public beta of the operating system, the follow-on to Windows Vista that's due sometime around the end of 2009.
The beta became available January 10 (though not without some stumbling), up to which point Windows 7 stood at about 0.04 percent. Through most of the rest of the month, it fluctuated at between roughly 0.12 percent and 0.15 percent. It closed out the month with a jump to 0.23 percent on January 31, according to Net Applications' breakout on Windows 7.
(Credit:
Net Applications)
That January 31 jump may have come from people who still thought that would be the last day to get the beta. But about a week ago, Microsoft extended the window for the downloads, saying the Windows 7 beta is available through February 10.
But on the whole, Windows continued to inch downward. The Net Applications report for January, released Sunday, put the Microsoft operating system at 88.26 percent, down from 88.68 percent in December. That's still plenty good enough, of course, to keep Windows in the No. 1 spot. Linux came in third at 0.83 percent in January, essentially the same as its 0.85 percent December showing.
Net Applications accumulates its data from 160 million monthly visitors to its network of hosted Web sites that collect statistics.
Computer sales on Amazon.com are not exactly a proxy for the broader retail market. Still, I do think it is noteworthy that of the top 20 best-selling laptops on Thursday evening, just one was running Windows Vista.
That one is an HP mini-notebook that ranked No. 18, trailing behind a gaggle of Macs and Netbooks running either Windows XP or Linux.
On the plus side for Redmond, 10 of the top 20 machines were running some flavor of Windows. And, as I mentioned, Amazon is not a true barometer.
Apple's market share, while growing isn't exactly neck and neck with Microsoft's. And Netbooks, while a rising trend, aren't completely taking over the market.
But while the numbers are skewed the trends are worth paying attention to. Two of the hottest parts of the PC market are the areas where Windows faces its stiffest competition.
The Amazon sales trend was noted earlier Thursday by MacDailyNews, though they used a slightly different measurement.
