Microsoft Denies Apple Influenced Windows 7 Design

Ed Sutherland ()

windows_7_screen

Microsoft has blamed one of its own, calling “inaccurate and uninformed” comments Wednesday that its new Windows 7 operating system was inspired by the Mac. Wednesday, Microsoft partner group manager Simon Aldous told a magazine the software giant’s OS aimed to mimic the Mac’s graphics.

“Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7,” Brandon LeBlanc wrote at the Windows Blog Wednesday evening.

This latest comment appears to back-pedal on an interview Aldous gave to PCR, in which he stated: “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.”

Consumers have commented on how some graphic elements – such as the Windows 7 taskbar and the Mac OS X doct – behave alike. Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg had also noted the similarities.

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[Via Apple Insider]

18 comments »

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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  • Ed

    Since when is Microsoft a creative company?… They obviously try to mimic the Mac environment. Too late to deny it.

  • iGenius

    Who cares? Apple copied Xerox’s “point and click” paradigm, and all other companies copy good ideas.

    Is this news?

  • Rodrigo

    We knew Microsoft just copy Apple for a long time. Now they’ve at least confirmed it. LOL!

  • poppa

    a lot of users want their windows to look like Apple OSX, if you use win XP you can install Rocket Dock similar to osx dock,even linux users want the osx look, Apple must be flattered by people wanting their computers to have the best desktop look.

  • Lucas

    it’s pretty much a given that they copied the ideas. only an idiot would believe otherwise.

    however from a legal standpoint, they pretty much had to nix the comment because it could be seen as an admission of guilt. ‘look and feel’ is a legally protected item and can get you into trouble if you copy it and then said you did exactly that.

  • http://ObamaPacman.com Obama Pacman

    @ iGenius

    Apple licensed Xerox technology.

    That’s different than plagiarizing.

  • Fuzzypig

    MS need to be seen to distance themselves from the these “rogue” comments about the Win7 design. If they endorse them, they could open a whole legal minefield. Wouldn’t surprise me if the legal team were pouring over these comments and the possible implications, the second they were published.

    All very amusing to say the least!

  • Francois MItaand

    the peoples who use apple; the most polite society! the most pleasant company to be in! sorry, my english is not good

  • Jake

    @poppa, it’s not just about looks, it’s about functionality. The Dock offers better functionality than a traditional taskbar. Of course MS and GNU/Linux are going to copy it given the chance.

  • Steven

    Good God people. MS just plain sucks ass. Their interface is BORING, their look is BORING, their new task bar in 7 not even close to the functionality of Macs dock, and it’s BORING. I bought 7 last week and out it on y third HDD in my Mac Pro just to see it. It’s BORING!! It just sits there.

    MS is NOT original, and hasn’t been for years. They copied Mac OSX, they copies Apples’ retail stores, they steal their employees, they have ZERO backbone. Still same old virus prone BS as always. Error codes are obviously not written for the general public and I would rather drink gas and piss on a brush fire than try and get some sort of decent support for any NUMEROUS problems I have had on my PC before I switched to a Mac 3 years ago.

    And to people saying that snow leopard is a 30 dollar “incremental” upgrade, I have something to say to you. Do you REALLY believe that 7 is anything more than a fixed version of vista? Really? The only upgrade I see is the task bar—and we ALL know where that came from. Yet you poor souls are spending from $119 to $350 for you “fix”.

    Microblows is a JOKE. Try to find your way out from under the Ballmer panis…ya thats PANIS, not penis..look it up on your nice, new $199.00 POS netbook. Or can you? Does it have a dictionary of any kind? Oh ya, you have BING…. How fun!!

    Bing Bing .. Ta Ta

  • http://ObamaPacman.com Obama Pacman

    By the way, Microsoft, referring to their year 2009 retail stores, also claims “design of the stores is uniquely Microsoft.”

    You can see why that’s utterly false here, along with additional MS fails:

    http://obamapacman.com/2009/10/microsoft-tries-to-copy-apple-store-scottsdale-az-store-opening-reveals-extent-of-blatant-plagiarism/

    So yeah, they didn’t copy Windows 7 from OS X at all.

  • Neslock

    I use both OS X (at home) and Win7 (at work), like both of them, and I’m not actually seeing a lot of similarity between the two interfaces. Then again, I haven’t used the dock on OS X since I installed Quicksilver about a year ago. It shouldn’t be any big surprise if some common design principles that work well make their way into the products from different manufacturers.

  • http://www.seewhatsinmybrain.com/blog Michael Natale

    Muppet News Flash:

    Microsoft spokesperson declares “water is wet”. Film at 11.

    Did anyone expect something different?

  • johan

    These kinda articles and comments just makes me angry. ofc people steal, get inspired by or whatever you wanna call it by the competition. They see what people like and they mimic + improve. Woud be silly not too. This happends in every freaking industry and this is how things keep developing and improving. We as consumers shoud love it since its nothing but good news to us.

  • Steve Jobs

    Well I, for one, think that Microsoft are more than a bit ahead in many aspects of designing personal computers. People getting along. If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.

  • Steve Jobs Jr.

    Ugh, this is an argument that no one will win, however i must collaborate with my opinion.
    First off, Macs rule. HOWEVER, PCs are better in a broader sense. It takes at least a year to get to know your pc and that is something most people tend to ignore, hence the hatred for pcs followed by switching OSs. If you never bother (or don’t have the experience or knowledge) to have a look inside the Windows operating system and tweak it, all you will find is a boring interface with the same crap they offered when Windows 98 was released. Once you know your PC, tweak it and take care of it (specially if you know your way around hardware), you’ll find that you posses the most powerful tool in your home/office.
    I admit though that an OS should be user friendly right out of the box and shouldn’t need any tweaking, but when designing an OS for as many possible applications, you’ll probably never get the efficiency you want. I believe Windows 7 has made the first step into bridging the gap that is user-friendliness & actual usability.

  • http://ObamaPacman.com Obama Pacman

    @Steve Jobs Jr.

    Good luck on tweaking the fast food of operating systems. No matter how much you tweak it, it’s still not good for the user.

    For example, Windows 7 is still susceptible to viruses. OS X = zero virus.

    Guess what, instead of wasting time tweaking, OS X users are creating / making money with their computers.

  • Realist

    @Obama Pacman

    OSX != zero virus

    There are viruses designed specifically for OSX. It is not as widely targeted by malware authors as Windows because it does not have the same market share; therefore, there are not as many viruses in the wild. After all, when 9 out of 10 personal computers run Windows, any sensible malware author will select the largest target audience for their payload.

    Fewer viruses does not equal zero viruses. Sure, it’s more difficult to get a virus on OSX than on Windows, mostly due to the Unix-based kernel and security model. It is still prone to user error or vulnerabilities in third-party apps (Flash comes to mind).

    Speaking of “borrowing” others’ ideas, the entire kernel and security model in OSX is based on a wealth of Unix-related technology and ideas.

    All I’m saying is that Apple isn’t any more noble or innovative than Microsoft. They have more of an eye for usability and the user experience, but they also charge a hefty premium for a system very similar to one I can set up completely for free in an afternoon.

    And on a personal note, I really enjoy tweaking and optimizing my system for what I need it to do. The Mac experience is very hands-off, and does not provide nearly enough control over the operating system for me. Good for users in a creative field with limited technical knowledge who want to get things done, not so good for anybody from an IT background, works in a corporate environment, or wants control over how their computer works. As the saying goes, “different strokes for different folks.”