Microsoft OS-The 5 Years Behind the Mac Plan
This isn't an argument about legality or ethics but
merely a statement of fact that Microsoft's OS development is almost always
about 5 years behind Apple and/or the Mac throughout the age of personal
computing.
This isn't even an argument
about whether it's a good thing or a bad thing - it's merely a statement of
fact.
As the savvy computer user age
drops to single digits, there is clearly a mass of people who are less than
knowledgeable about the history of personal
computers.
The Windows OS started out
about 5 years behind the Mac and has yet to catch up once again. In fact, the
reason for the weak and leaky XP OS can be directly traced to the ebb point of
the Mac OS - in the 1990's when Apple and the Mac OS was weak and leaky but now,
surprise, the "robust" Vista will appear a little over 5 YEARS after OSX ...
well, it's only a surprise to those without any idea of the history of the
PC.
There are many places which can give
you all the details - both fun and in scholarly approach but here's a
summary.
99% of the "forward" progress of
the personal computer can be attributed directly or indirectly to Apple or the
Mac. Note that I am saying PERSONAL COMPUTING. Some people are under the mistake
impression regarding Xerox's PARC's role. Xerox PARC was a think tank back in
the days when corporations would sometimes spew out so much cash they could
afford to fund PURE RESEARCH. They hoped that it would fund a new profitable
line but it wasn't their primary goal and in many cases, the companies had no
idea what to make of the stuff their brainiacs came up with ... AT&T (Bell
Labs) had no real interest in doing much with transistors nor did Xerox PARC
with a bevy of early computer-related concepts and ideas (Ethernet, mouse, etc
...). They willing & in a way un-knowingly launched a new industry. You also
have to consider that the concept of a "personal computer" was literally SCIENCE
FICTION. Even if you could build such a thing - you would need to build a
massive corporation and who in their right mind mind would buy one for their
HOME? Are you mad? So, they were more than willing to let people trapse through
and see what they were up to. If they let you in to look around - it's NOT
stealing and just as importantly, Apple was the first to implement it for people
to use (Xerox's mouse was not about moving all over the screen and offering you
control over the computer).
So, anyway -
back to the main story ...
To repeat, 99%
of what you take for granted appeared on the Mac first and in some cases -
taking up to FIVE years later to appear on the PC.
All of the major upgrades to the Windows
OS appearing about 5 years after the "based-on" Mac version from Windows 3.1
(the first useable Windows version) to Windows 95 to Windows 98 to XP and now to
Longhorn. So, no matter whether you think MS is 'stealing', borrowing, inspired
by or simply a long list of coincidences, the fact is without the Mac, the PC OS
& Windows OS would still literally be using a Longhorn as
transportation.*
* Okay, I don't a
longhorn can actually pull a wagon but you get the meaning
:-)
And if that's not enough for you,
nearly all of he major software & hardware developments in the last 20+
years can be attributed to Mac ...
Sound,
Graphics and able to use a Mouse as a controller
device.
Laser printing and color laser
printing.
Desktop publishing (Aldus
PageMaker) and design in general.
Fonts
and typefaces you could see on the
screen.
MacPaint which led to Photoshop
(which did NOT appear on the PC until years later and was almost un-useable on
the PC until the mid 1990's).
MacDraw
which led to FreeHand/Illustrator and thousands of object graphic apps.
Mac has had a built in networking
capabilities (for printing and such) and ethernet since the late 1980's. Yes,
more than 15 years ago, Mac users could send a file to another country to be
printed from their desktop.
And for
gamers, Mac users were playing NETWORKED games (including first-person-shooters)
since that time including the precursor to Doom (Wolfenstein). (Still don't
believe me? Halo on the XBox was a Mac game until MS bought
Bungie).
And for geeks, Apple's attempt
in the mid 1990's at launching an object oriented programming language and
concept has really bore fruit in the open source age now ... I'm not claiming
that Apple invented open source but that by launching and trying to create an
object oriented environment, that opened up more possibilities that
object/collaborative programming was not some pie-in-the-sky thinking ...
Mosiac which lead to Netscape. (of
course, the internet has been around forever but until the Mac got involved, it
was just an arpanet ...)
It's no real
coincidence that once development stopped on Netscape, IE has stopped in place
and now that Apple with Safari and Mozilla with Firefox/Camino is blazing
forward, MS might be able to develop that hard to fathom code for tabbed
browsing.
And that's just the cream of
the crop. We could go all day and all night and point out that without the Mac,
the PC would be making beep noises only (and that's if you add a sound card), in
green mono typeface and forcing people to type RUN ... for "normal" computer
users, the question is - isn't that precisely why I turned on the computer, or
do I just want a really loud fan to heat my
room?
So, you can hate the Mac, Steve
Jobs and Apple but unless you like a text based OS with no sound or even a
computer that's "personal," you have to bow before the Mac, Apple, Steve Jobs
and all that the Mac has brought you so far
...
There's plenty more in the last 5
years to make your life easier that's not even covered but it's very telling
that the Windows OS has essentially been stagnant since Windows 98 to XP - the
EXACT same time period minus 5 years that Apple was stagnant in their transition
from OS6 to OS8.
And now that Apple has 5
years under the belt with OSX, here comes MS's Longhorn/Vista - if it comes out
next year, it'll be a little late but the plan has worked so far.
Posted: Thu - August 4, 2005 at 07:02 PM