I was looking at digg this morning and found the post about Windows Vista: The Sidebar is back!!. It looks like Microsoft has updated the Vista website in preparation for the Beta 2: Public Beta. Some have shown screen shots of the newest build with the sidebar.
This just got me a bit riled, as it is a blatant rip-off of the OS X dock. I started to post a comment, but it got a bit long-winded, so here it is:
Microsoft are obviously worried about the competition from OS X in the consumer market, and that's why they're playing with drop shadows, translucency a dock-type app/widget launcher and all of that crap. Unfortunately, for some reason, Microsoft just don't seem to be able to innovate in this space, so it all looks like a second-rate, regurgitated version of other peoples good ideas.
The problem is that most home users aren't familiar or comfortable with OS X or Linux. They'll all see Vista's spanky "new" UI features and be impressed because they won't know or care that someone else did it first or better. Similarly, consumers are generally unaware of the fundamental security and other architecture benefits of UNIX-based operating systems such as Linux and OS X. They think it's normal and acceptable to have to buy separate anti-virus, firewall and anti-spyware software as well as the Operating System, as they don't know any other way. For them, this is all about bringing nice, pretty features to a platform that they know, so they'll buy and use Vista even if OS X is available for their Intel PC on the shelf next to Vista.
Microsoft have therefore played a good move by emulating choice features of the OS X UI - they're stemming the potential flow of deserters leaving for other operating systems, but that's all they can do; slow the move down. Precisely because Windows is technically inferior and always catching up, and because OS X and Linux are raising their profile by capturing mindshare and gaining ground, the market share will continue to change to the detriment of Microsoft. Microsoft won't die, but it hopefully won't be a one-horse race for much longer, and that's a good thing for everyone, even Windows users (Microsoft will have to work harder to make their product competitive and attractive).
The trouble is, it's going to take time. Too much content is only available in de-facto Microsoft standard formats (.doc, .wmv etc) and too many web sites and applications have been lazily coded to only support IE. This makes the case for alternatives more difficult to sell, but it's getting better. I can get by comfortably with OS X as my main O/S at home and Linux at work these days, and that includes use with digital cameras, external firewire disks, cd burning, viewing multimedia, network interoperability and all the other stuff that I typically use a computer for. I'll admit that configuring Linux for multimedia is still a little rough compared to OS X and Windows (mainly because proprietary codecs are not usually included by default), but it's not far off being easy enough for a normal user. Package (software) installation, which has also traditionally been a tricky aspect of Linux is getting better, and with a GUI installer like synaptic being installed by default in Ubuntu, Linux is looking stronger and stronger.
Anyway, back on topic; ultimately the Microsoft product, business model and organisation are outdated and cumbersome. They should play to their strength in the enterprise space where directory services, group policy and integrated back-end services still reign supreme (much as I'd like to see someone give them a run for their money there - come on Novell!).
However, if Apple and the Open Source Community keep the pace of innovation and development up, Microsoft will certainly suffer in the consumer arena, as by the time Vista is actually available, more innovation will have happened in OS X and Linux. I still haven't seen anything in Vista that I believe will be unique to Microsoft., and that's the real crunch I guess - Microsoft don't innovate well, so they'll always be behind the competition.
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