Windows Glass/Aero/Avalon

For Bob, Alex and any other Mac heads, here is a screen shot of the next Windows user interface. Which of course kind of looks like the current Mac OS X user interface.

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/showcase/vista5270_010.jpg

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/showcase/vista5270_087.jpg

I think the jury is out on whether or not it is better than what is available on the Mac OS X and there is still lots of time for Apple to beat MS to the punch with something newer and cooler.

Given its size and legacy support requirements, MS certainly doesn't move the fastest on these sort of things.

Still kind of nice to see some progress on the UI front. Apparently, the hardware requirements for this next version of Windows will be pretty steep if you want to use the fancy UI stuff.

PB

PB,

I certainly hope Vista lives up to the Hype as much as you do. I have to use Windows if I like it or not, so any forward movement would be welcomed.

The last major improvement which I enjoy in Windows is the Remote Desktop feature they bundled with XP Pro. Which is way ahead of anything on the Mac. I believe they acquired that technology however from Citrix.

I certainly hope advances at Microsoft are not being stifled because the culture there considers themselves a safe monopoly and don't really feel threathen or a need to innovate in order to sell copies of Windows. This can really criple a company's future... when this happens the only way they seem to be able to advance is to acquire technology elsewhere.

How long have they been working on Leghorn Foghorn (aka Longhorn aka Vista) now? 3 years, 5 years? I lost track.. almost seems like the culture there is not movitated on getting things done as instructed by management.

I have to admit I think a similiar thing may be happening at Apple in regards to Mac OS X. I still have not found a compelling reason to upgrade to 10.4 Tiger. I think they are going to motiviting people to upgrade the OS by coming out with new Applications which only run on the newest version of the OS. Seems like they have moved their develop focus away from the OS and now onto new Apps like iWork, Aperature, FrontRow, adding apps into iLife (like iWeb which they just announced), Digitial Video Pro Apps.


btw, did you see that they are moving to all Dual Cpu cores now in the mactel platform? All iMacs and Powerbooks now have 2 CPUs standard. Lets see how long it takes for them to get all the bugs out of the first generation.

I think a lot of this UI stuff is going to be optional due to the hardware requirements. It's going to take a really fast graphics card with lots of ram to do all the transparency, shading, and perspective work that they are planning.

MS is in a funky state right now. I think the whole Google-mania thing and a lack of clear direction on where the industry is going has them worried and is affecting their ability to focus on their goals. It's a hard business for big companies to stay agile in.

PB..updated my previous post with an edit.

OregonAlex said:

btw, did you see that they are moving to all Dual Cpu cores now in the mactel platform? All iMacs and Powerbooks now have 2 CPUs standard. Lets see how long it takes for them to get all the bugs out of the first generation.

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, there will be some bugs. Apple's pretty lucky that they can get away with these drastic changes to their user base and the customer's just keep coming back for more. I'm glad my employer pays for my Mac. I'm not sure I'll ever buy a Mac with my own money unless I need it to make money (consulting work).

Apple is just so lucky they got that iPod thing going on. It is really giving them the capital to innovate.

That sales rate on the iPods is astounding! I was playing with a video iPod yesterday - very nice. Steve has the market on simplistic and usable interfaces.

OregonAlex said:

PB..updated my previous post with an edit.

Click to expand...

I do the same thing all the time. Post, re-read, edit, re-read, edit. Bad habit.

PBinWA said:

That sales rate on the iPods is astounding! I was playing with a video iPod yesterday - very nice. Steve has the market on simplistic and usable interfaces.

Click to expand...

yes, its a nice gig for them. I was blown away by the iTunes music store numbers quoted yesterday at MacWorld. It seems they are growing exponentially.. remember when they were try to set a record by selling a 100 million songs in a year (last year).

Check this out, quoted from MacWorld keynote yesterday by macnn.com
at http://mwsf.macnn.com/:

Apple sold 850 million songs so far. Near 1 billion mark. Now selling 3 million songs each day. Rate of over 1 billion per year. iTunes has 83 percent marketshare. Apple has sold over 8 million videoes since October 12. Last week, Apple added sports with ABC/ESPN. Jobs showed demo of ABC "Bowl Blast" intro. Rosebowl is the number one selling video on iTunes.

3 million per day!!! Wow.. I would have never thought. I didn't think they would sell any songs at all, when they announced the iTunes Music store. For the sole reason being that they were lower quality then what you get off of CD and had DRM.

Once again it is proven that people have more money than brains! It's probably a good thing too!

OregonAlex said:

All iMacs and Powerbooks now have 2 CPUs standard.

Click to expand...

Correction. MacBook Pro. not PowerBook Geeez.. what a stupid name.

Macintosh MacBook Pro. They can do better. They should have just left it as PowerBook.. this will confuse more people then necessary. Most people probably don't even know where the "Power" in PowerBook originates from anyways. It was not worth changing.. Intead it should be PowerBook G6.

iMac went from iMac G5 to just iMac???? that is confusing too. iMac G6 is more understandable.

- MacBook Pro naming. Steve Jobs: "It's a new name because we're kinda done with 'Power' and because we want 'Mac' in the name of our products." This would imply that the MacBook name may not only replace the PowerBook but the iBook as well. Also raises some questions about the continued use of the "PowerMac" name.