Is OSX moving closer to XP?

snapdove

snapdove

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There is an old marketing tale that goes like this. If two ice-cream vendors want to compete and profit successfully instead of locating either ends of the beach they both locate next to each other in the middle.

Panther now has a Finder that is very much like MS Windows Explorer. MS will copy Apples lead with Quartz Extreme like features in Longhorn.

Will the two OS be more similar in years to come? Will the applications be the only difference?
 
According to your comments, wouldn't it be the other way around? XP is moving closer to OS X (which was first, incidentally)?

Rip
 
XP and 10.1 where released in the same month (Sept 2001). I know OSX 10.0 was released in March 2001 but it was a joke and didn't become a primetime OS until 10.1 at the very least. Apple is also copying XP's fast user switching.
 
Not everything Apple does is manna from Heaven, not everything M$ does is (gulp) intriniscally evil and wrong. I think it's only logical that each would copy elements from the other in order to improve what they had to offer. As long as that F^#@(*%^! Zippy doesn't show up, we'll be fine.
 
Originally posted by Stridder44
I never tried it myself, but 10.0 was supposed to be a bad joke compaired to 10.1 or 10.2
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I've been using OS X since the public beta (pre 10.0) and the Finder has remaind basically the same.

Other parts of OS X PB had issues, but the Finder functionality was not really the problem. (...although it was slow and prone to spinning beach balls.)

The biggest improvements to the Finder came when I installed Unsanity's FruitMenu/WindowShade X/Labels X. :D
 
Originally posted by Stridder44
I never tried it myself, but 10.0 was supposed to be a bad joke compaired to 10.1 or 10.2
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10.2 is so far ahead of 10.0 that one could argue that they seem like two separate operating systems from two different companies.

I wasn't a Mac user (the dark ages) when the public beta came out- so I have no idea what it was like, but I've been using OS X since 10.03.

I can't wait for Panther! ;)
 
Originally posted by TommyWillB
I've been using OS X since the public beta (pre 10.0) and the Finder has remaind basically the same.

Other parts of OS X PB had issues, but the Finder functionality was not really the problem. (...although it was slow and prone to spinning beach balls.)

The biggest improvements to the Finder came when I installed Unsanity's FruitMenu/WindowShade X/Labels X. :D
Click to expand...
Agreed. And furthermore, much of what know as the MacOS X Finder is a carryover from NeXTSTEP. What must people don't know is that much of what we think originated on Windows, M$ cribbed from NeXTSTEP. That is not to say it did a good job cribbing.

And what is really wild is that some of what we know as NeXTSTEP originated on Apple Lisa GUI prototypes.
 
I think feature wise MS and Apple will copy the best of each other for sometime to come. But Apple will continue to offer a computing experience that is far more logical and easy to use than MS. If you've seen preview screenshots of MS's Longhorn the GUI is a miss with an "everything bar the kitchen sink" looking side bar. It's like MS's five button mouse v Apple's one button - less is more.
 
Wasn't XP released in Oct-Nov 2001?

If Apple is copying Microsoft than they would have to include the poor login options that came with XP. The control panels are not exactly friendly to use.
Oh and Apple would need to work on their version of the start menu. Oh wait, they can just bring back the old Apple Menu and call the button "Finish".
The switch button is not a top feature on my list but may be on yours.

The biggest faults in 10.0 and 10.1 were the security updates. If you didn't have a specific one you couldn't update. I'd have to say 10.0.4 was the worst version of Mac OS X i've tried. How ironic that 9.0.4 was just as terrible. But 10.0 was a good introduction to a great system.
 
Originally posted by snapdove
...Apple is also copying XP's fast user switching.
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What is Fast User Switching?

Is that where Microsoft quickly takes down all of your personal information and then distributes it to their partners faster than you can invoke your privacy rights?;)

Seriously though... what is it?
 
When you log out of Win Xp it gives you choice to switch to another account.
Your applications stay open and you are not officially logged out, another user, say your cousin, can open his account without bothering your account.
I still think this opens a security risk.
 
Since a password is required to access the other account, how is this more of a security risk than if the other processes had ended when the user logged out? How is this more of a security risk than, say, running a Terminal Server?
 
I use FruitMenu to give the apple pull down menu the same functionality as the Windows start bar, i.e. I map my home folder and the Applications folder into the apple menu.

MS cannot always be wrong(!) and I don't want to always have to open a stupid finder window for everything that isn't in the dock.

There. And they say that I'm a feverish MacCultist! :)

---John
 
Originally posted by snapdove
XP and 10.1 where released in the same month (Sept 2001). I know OSX 10.0 was released in March 2001 but it was a joke and didn't become a primetime OS until 10.1 at the very least. Apple is also copying XP's fast user switching.
Click to expand...

Just for the record my wife and I have been using "Fast user switching" in Linux via crtl-alt-F7 and ctrl-alt-F8 since 96 and I think that it was available since I started using Linux in '94 ;)

So there my OS can pee higher up the wall than yours :p
 
Ripcord..i guess your right. But how are they going to break into Mac OS X?

First they'll need a password. But for arguments sake let's say they do get in. There is still a plastic wall to keep them out. Than they have to break through a titanium door with three of our best joe's inside. Not only is it unlikely, but impossible.
 
Originally posted by ApeintheShell
Ripcord..i guess your right. But how are they going to break into Mac OS X?
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Honestly, I don't know. Your message confused the heck out of me =)
 
Don't know if this is possible, but there are "keystroke recorders" available that store in a file which keys in order were pressed on a keyboard. This would be the only security risk I can think of. But if the user is not an administrator, s/he can't install software anyways.

What I would like to have are multiple desktops like in Linux. Golly gee that was a nice feature. Apple needs to offer a consumer desktop environment and a pro/workstation desktop environment.
 
There are also hardware keystroke loggers that you can use. I've never seen a USB version but I personaly own a few PS2 versions. They'll record somewhere around the last 10,000 keystrokes. I've seen versions that store upwards of 100,000 keystrokes.
 
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