
How we really designed the look and feel of Windows 7 - fiaz
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/11/11/how-we-really-designed-the-look-and-feel-of-windows-7.aspx
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prometheus_
I'm a little tired of all of the Microsoft bashing. Everyone copies from
everyone else. Who cares if they admit it or not? If they are copying they
should be copying from Compiz, not Apple.

"I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the
Microsoft hatred is a disease." -- Linus Torvalds

~~~
rbanffy
I don't hate Microsoft. I have lots of fun watching them.

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fnid
I didn't take the original guy's quote like that. He said, _is create a Mac
look and feel in terms of graphics_. That doesn't mean they _copied_ the mac,
it means they tried to make the graphics really good -- like the mac.

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brown9-2
This seems to be the relevant original quote:

 _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. 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. We've significantly
improved the graphical user interface, but it's built on that very stable core
Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for
instance.

Interviewer: So you've taken the style of the Mac platform and built it on the
more solid foundations of Vista?

We've taken everything that's good about Vista, along with the core
infrastructure of the operating system, and we've made it faster and slimmed
down the code to make it more effective.

We've also tried to listen to what customers want in terms of a much slicker
user interface and the ability to engage with it far more intuitively. That's
the product that we're delivering._

You would think that Redmond "talking to the press 101" would cover stuff like
this.

~~~
electromagnetic
Why? The guy essentially said 'we made it like Mac . . . just better'

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akamaka
Let's give some more credit to Microsoft. More than anyone else, they worked
with 3D chip makers to ensure that we all have hardware capable of running the
eye-candy we see in Windows 7, OS X, and Linux.

They were extremely late in releasing it to the public, so it looks like they
copied other people, but from what I remember, they started working on it
before everyone else did.

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jcapote
"We used OS X for a day."

~~~
wmeredith
RTFA, it specifically says that the quote about Win 7 copying OSX floating
around the net for the last few days is wrong. It also goes further and says
the MSoft employee offering up that quote didn't even work on the Windows 7
design team and then points to several sources about the real design
inspiration.

~~~
Elessar
Exactly what does this article address? All it does is declare (by fiat) that
the quote floating around the internet is wrong, and then link to articles
that are completely irrelevant in describing 'inspiration'. To summarize each
link:

1) AP - Discussion on the victory (Office Ribbon) that led to Julie Larson-
Green being made head of UI Experience

2) WSJ - Fact-less story about how Windows 7 is fixing the failings of Vista.
No discussion about UI-inspiration. The closest was a hint to "quieting the
system" that is directly addressing the UAC-faults that everyone griped about
with Vista.

3) Fast Company - An overview of features that is devoid of anything but
marketing information

The only thing 'useful' in this blog post was a link to the Windows 7 Design
Blog. And in there, it describes how they highlighted items to improve, Except
there's no reasoning behind why they thought these items were necessary, and
the requirements they did identify seem to lead directly to their final
solution... an indicator that the requirement was actually thought of after
the solution.

Debunking, this is not. It's a collection of irrelevant posts and a link to an
encyclopedia. It does not address the point it attempts to make and is
frankly, a waste of time to read.

~~~
Freebytes
Exactly. Also, it cannot help that most people that have used both systems
immediately think of the concepts that appear in the Mac operating system. I
have noticed improvements in the Windows 7 interface where they have enhanced
the Mac OS style interfaces, and that employee should not have been discussing
a product on which he did not even work unless he was in marketing; however,
the similarities are enough to make most people think it is more than
coincidence.

As for my issues with Windows 7, removing the email client, requiring users to
sign up with Windows Live just to use their Windows Live Mail address book
(when the Windows Address Book is perfectly fine), and making interface
changes that require more clicks to accomplish the same tasks are my reasons
for not caring for the changes... not some incremental innovations that appear
similar to other operating systems if those other operating systems have good
interfaces.

