[HOMBRESINIESTRO]

Hi there,

based on the latest AI screenshot and another screenshot of Aero (Longhorn) I've written some lines on how they both resemble. It is in German, though, because it is on a German Mac related Wiki (apfelwiki.de). But I do love the babelfish, so here's the translation:

"A new picture makes the round. Apple lent a new garb in one of the last tigers Builds Mail. Those became technical meanwhile all-side (iTunes, iPhoto, Finder etc..) Sidebar admitted and thus a piece of consistency imported. Beyond that however a new appearance was lent to the program, which stands for brushed metal come somewhere between the classical Aqua and the new thing in mode. Whether one the new organization now likes or is not posed there. Remarkable it is however that the two large contractors Microsoft and Apple seem apparent to have agreed on a quite uniform style for their next large system models. Admitted, at Microsoft it looks bluer (aero screen photo), light-grey with Apple rather (tiger Mail screen photo). Also the control buttons are exchanged to the window title. Beyond that the sizing seems itself to move in addition, the general aesthetics one on the other too. The distances between the elements deviates only marginally. It remains remarkable perhaps still that Apple works somewhat more space-saving, i.e. without edge of window on the right of and left. That has however also as a consequence that one cannot shift evenly these windows at the edges also. A concession to the partial nevertheless close screen place? But see and: "Spot the difference!":"

Here's the link for the picture:

http://apfelwiki.de/wiki/Main/ApfelW...t#art200410051

[RayX]

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[msuper69]

Windows is sickeningly sucky.

OS X is exquisitely excellent.

[Zadian]

Originally posted by HOMBRESINIESTRO:
Hi there,

based on the latest AI screenshot and another screenshot of Aero (Longhorn) I've written some lines on how they both resemble.

Wow - both are windows. Both use window widgets (Tiger using the same spacing for it's window widgets as in Panther).
Oh, and both use a toolbar.

They resemble each other the same way as Platinium resembles Aqua, or KDE or ...

And the space used for the toolbar can be reduced by using small icons and no text or just text.

I don't see any resemblance between Aero and the Tiger Aqua-Metal.

[Horsepoo!!!]

What apfelwiki insinuating? That Apple copied MS? The Aqua titlebar and toolbar have been around since DP3...and the sizes haven't changed either. Nor have the widgets other than some minor visual changes.

The only thing that is new in Mail 2.0 is that the titlebar blends right into the toolbar. I guess this might be Longhornish but nothing has changed other than minor visual changes.

Longhorn still looks like a cheap plastic toy while Tiger looks like a nice lickable slate of platinum.

[ryju]

They look nothing alike, or am I missing something??

[HOMBRESINIESTRO]

Originally posted by ryju:
They look nothing alike, or am I missing something??

I think you are. Both systems seem to converge in the UI-wise. Just compare Win2k to 10.0. Big difference! But in Longhorn there will be a similar experience to Tiger. I don't say that this is a mistake. It just seems that Apple and MS are moving in the same direction.

[Zadian]

Originally posted by HOMBRESINIESTRO:
But in Longhorn there will be a similar experience to Tiger. I don't say that this is a mistake. It just seems that Apple and MS are moving in the same direction.

MS ist moving with longhorn in the direction of Mac OS X.

Just compare mail 2 with the current mail app. All the proportions are the same. The only difference - beside the sidebar - are the textures.
The widgets are the same, the icons in the toolbar are the same, only the texture of the title and the background of the toolbar are different from Aqua, and the small line between the two is missing.

If it's just the dimensions of the widgets and the window layout, then you could say, that longhorn is similar to Panther, 10.2 or 10.1.

There is a big difference between Longhorn and XP and almost no difference between Tiger, Panther, 10.2 or 10.1.

[HOMBRESINIESTRO]

Originally posted by Zadian:

There is a big difference between Longhorn and XP and almost no difference between Tiger, Panther, 10.2 or 10.1.

Yes, perhaps MS has some longer way to go. But Apple has changed their style to some more clean and simple interface and therefor has made a step, too.

For me the interesting point is not the comparison of 10.1 and 10.4, but Longhorn and 10.4.
Interestingly they seem to have a common goal concerning the widgets.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally posted by HOMBRESINIESTRO:
Yes, perhaps MS has some longer way to go. But Apple has changed their style to some more clean and simple interface and therefor has made a step, too.

For me the interesting point is not the comparison of 10.1 and 10.4, but Longhorn and 10.4.
Interestingly they seem to have a common goal concerning the widgets.

The sad thing is that instead of trying to bring something truly new to the table and innovating, MS chooses to copy everything. We could have 2 radically different OSs right now...but MS chose to duplicate Mac OS X.

Apple is pretty much the R&D dept for a whole bunch of companies. Everyone turns to Apple to check out what they can produce next.

This is bad...Apple is spending its money on R&D and many other companies are piggybacking on that. It's a free ride for MS. And MS doesn't need money. So instead of spending money that they have on UI R&D, they just pocket that money and/or use it for other purposes like keeping the Xbox alive.

I'm not going to accuse the legal system of being broken but I'm going to say that Apple isn't getting the respect and recognition it should.

[CharlesS]

The "new look" is just an Aquification of the already existing brushed metal theme. Remember the screenshots of Sherlock when it was a brushed metal app way back in the beta builds of Panther? They looked just like this. Or, if you want a present-day example and don't have any brushed metal apps to try, take a look at... the Finder! Yes, it actually has a toolbar. Control-click on the top of a brushed Finder window, and go to Customize Toolbar. Then, add a few options such as "New Folder" and "Get Info" and notice that it looks just like these screenshots.

To say that Apple is making their OS look like Longhorn is really reaching. They're just making Aqua look more like their own brushed metal theme. You know, to make their interface more consistent, since people have been complaining about differences between how the two different types of windows work. If Longhorn is also making their interface look more like the brushed metal theme in OS X, does that mean Apple is now barred from using their own interface ideas that they developed in order to not be "copying" Longhorn?!

I'll bet you all think Apple was copying Windows XP with the sub-pixel rendering in Jaguar, too.

[GORDYmac]

Originally posted by ryju:
They look nothing alike, or am I missing something??

I'm with you.

[Jasoco]

For one thing, one's an audio application and the other's a mail application. There's your main difference right there.

[eevyl]

Originally posted by HOMBRESINIESTRO:
Yes, perhaps MS has some longer way to go. But Apple has changed their style to some more clean and simple interface and therefor has made a step, too.

For me the interesting point is not the comparison of 10.1 and 10.4, but Longhorn and 10.4.
Interestingly they seem to have a common goal concerning the widgets.

Concerning the widgets ... mmmm ok lets see.

The window is blue in Longhorn, silverish platinum on Tiger.

Title window widgets are square and blue on Longhorn, round and with glassy colors on Tiger. Just while I'm at it, in Longhorn they are placed horribly as they leave more space to the sides of the window than to the top, looking really bad.

That window does not have a proper window title, rather a big label in the middle of the toolbar and sort of a path for the component it came from, in the Tiger window there is a proper titlebar.

The toolbar widgets in Longhorn try to blend in the window background using beveling (where did I see that thing mmmm ) and are blueish (play and that star button), but two of them are not and are bigger, throwing out of the window the pretended effect (the home and the magnifing glass). In Tiger we also have the problem of icons that blend in the background (search field) and some that do not (the rest), but all of them are properly sized and spaced, also having nice text labels.

So, is there a thing similar in addition to both windows being, well, "windows" from a 2D GUI?

[Gussy]

why do windows want to make a mac looking thing
people will still buy a mac
or mayeb they'll be like "wow a windows computer that looks like mac but crashed heaps" "cool i wont it"

[Zimphire]

[iREZ]

Thanks for that Zimp.