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Microsoft Gadgets
- Thread starter Hyoushi
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D
Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
haha go microsoft.
That's the most bland weather widget I've seen so far; and perhaps the most elaborate stocks one I've seen. Ah well, Microsoft should've done this months ago, before Konfabulator became free, but I suppose that if it follows on the heels of Yahoo's and Apple's widgets and uses a mixture of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, then Yahoo may find themselves trapped between the two OS vendors' integration of their new acquisition. Konfabulator came first to boot, but who knows, perhaps Microsoft landed the patent to the idea after their latest series of absurd patent grabs.
Jill Sandwich
the turds of Optimus Prime
If you think the apple whinging is bad now, I can't wait for Windows Vista.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
Wow! That's hilarious! Wasn't Microsoft named the #2 Innovator on a list of companies a few weeks back? Here's proof! :lol
Of course, most Windows users never touch a Mac, so they'll think these are great, and that Microsoft has done it again!
Of course, most Windows users never touch a Mac, so they'll think these are great, and that Microsoft has done it again!
Shogmaster
Member
You guys are so near-sighted.
Laugh all you want copying of inconsequential small turdies like these, but what about the big picture cool shit like Tablet PCs? Talk about something Apple should have been all over from the get go.....
Laugh all you want copying of inconsequential small turdies like these, but what about the big picture cool shit like Tablet PCs? Talk about something Apple should have been all over from the get go.....
SteveMeister
Hang out with Steve.
Shogmaster said:
Yeah, because that's such a huuuuge market...
From MacNN:
Well there ya go. And no offense, Shog, but I'll care about tablet PCs when I find the need for one.
Well there ya go. And no offense, Shog, but I'll care about tablet PCs when I find the need for one.
Shogmaster
Member
SteveMeister said:
Probably bigger than the entire Mac market share.
But seriously, all laptops will be like these in years ahead. Sooner rather than later IMO.
steal from Apple? i think you mean steal from Konfabulator.Burger said:Isn't that... the same as...
It's about time they started to steal more ideas from Apple. I wish they went and stole the whole OS
...or Samurize...
...or AveDesk...
...or the multitude of other 'widget' programs that came out before Dashboard
Shogmaster
Member
scorcho said:
Shhhhh~ There people that still think MS stole the GUI from Apple instead of Xerox PARC.
ha. from the little bit of information given this looks like it will take the best aspects of both Konfabulator and Dashboard. Gadgets can run on both the desktop and the Sidebar (when did this feature come back to Vista?) and can make use of DHTML/Atlas and Active-X.Shogmaster said:Shhhhh~ There people that still think MS stole the GUI from Apple instead of Xerox PARC.
Semi-related: what is the deal with Microsoft and Apple's financial relation? Doesn't the former have a stake in the latter?
My marketing professor tried to claim yesterday that MS "owned" Apple -- as in, completely -- but I didn't think that sounded very likely. I don't really follow this stuff normally, though.
My marketing professor tried to claim yesterday that MS "owned" Apple -- as in, completely -- but I didn't think that sounded very likely. I don't really follow this stuff normally, though.
i believe at Apple's low point they struck a deal with Microsoft to continue publishing their Office suite for the platform and 'invest' a couple of hundred million in non-voting Apple stock as a good faith measure. it's far from owning, and i don't know if Apple purchased it back from MS.human5892 said:
Shogmaster
Member
AB 101 said:
Actually, MS just didn't start to impliment it until well after Apple started on it (Apple didn't bother to license the GUI from PARC and started work on their own version as soon as Jobs got the demo of the ALTO's GUI from PARC staffers). So Apple started GUI work for Lisa, back in 1982 or so, but MS only started on Windows 1.0 around 1984, when they realised that it was by then pointless to wait for a legal license for GUI from PARC, and even then, it was just a glorified wrapper for DOS.
Really, the incredible success of DOS hampered MS's bonafied GUI OS efforts since they didn't want to abandon something that was still accounting for the lion's share of their profits. So they kept building their version of the GUI on top of increasingly ancient DOS up until the birth of NT.
Phoenix
Member
Shogmaster said:
When the laptop market matures to that point then Apple will get involved with it (which is likely to be soon). Tablet PCs have been a fiscal and volume failure for all companies who have participated in that technology death march thus far. The only people making money on them are the people who were doing touch screen portables BEFORE they were called Tablet PCs. Microsoft didn't invent them - I worked on things from Telxon and Symbol looooooooooong before Microsoft came out with the Tablet PC.
Shogmaster
Member
Phoenix said:Actually Microsoft DID steal the GUI from Apple who LICENSED the GUI from Xerox PARC.
Let's at least keep historical facts straight folks
Someone never watched Triumph of the Nerds. Jobs on camera admits to ganking GUI/mouse, OOP, and Networking from PARC.
Shogmaster
Member
Phoenix said:
You do realise that Xerox did take Apple to court for ganking the IPs and the agreement you are refering to took place after the fact?
You really should rent Triumph of the Nerds or even better, read Accidental Empires to get the whole story.
Shogmaster
Member
borghe said:
I hardly think Xerox is "satisfied" with the end results. :lol
Nope. Satisfied isn't quite apt for the situation.
Shogmaster
Member
borghe said:
Dude, that shite that was posted utterly wrong. It's like reading about the Chinese and Korean occupation by the Japanese in Japanese text books!
Xerox was HUGE! Much bigger than Apple. And the existance of PARC plenty shows that they had the R and D resources to do the work. It wasn't that Xerox coudln't bring those ideas to fruition, it's that Xerox execs lacked the foresight to nurture the seeds that they possesed! They had absolutely no idea what they were giving away.
They actually thought that PCs threatened the Xerox's core paper business because advances in PCs would make the "paperless office" a reality! :lol The irony is that as PCs advanced, so did paper usage in the office space.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
Apple may have made this popular, but it really is Konfabulator that gets the credit for making the concept popular enough to steal.
Although really, the whole idea is more like Borland Sidekick than anything.
Although really, the whole idea is more like Borland Sidekick than anything.
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Shog, I don't think even you can deny that Win95 was a blatant ripoff of MacOS at that time. The whole philosophy of the OS workings and usability shifted 180 degrees from Win3.1 to Win95, and made it so much more like Mac OS.Shhhhh~ There people that still think MS stole the GUI from Apple instead of Xerox PARC.
Shogmaster
Member
Marconelly said:
I used Win 95 at home, and Mac OS at work during those days and I say nyet!
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
Shogmaster said:
Oh, OK then.
Except, wait-- I used both also!
I say da!
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Come on Shog, it did. Win3.1 was all centered around working with program groups and some craps like that, and all of a sudden in Win95, it was all folder based, with desktop that functioned exactly like Mac desktop, with files and shortcuts on desktop, your main HD drives listed there (My computer), trascan on the desktop and the start menu (which was very simillar to Apple menu). Those are some basic things there.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
Although I do find it ironic that the apple faithful are making claims of MS Gadgets being a copy from the MAc OS when the Dashboard is a blatant, blatant ripoff of Konfabulator. Not just in concept, but in implementation and look-and-feel.
I don't think anyone is arguing that Mac didn't take it from other widget apps for *nixes. I just think they are more or less calling MS on being the LAST guest to show up at the party, once again.
same thing with GUI OSes. Did Mac invent it? No, but it wasn't until Apple's proof of concepts for the most part that MS decided to head in those directions.
Apple culls the best from everyone else and mainstreams it. MS pulls directly from Apple and slaps a different name on it.
same thing with GUI OSes. Did Mac invent it? No, but it wasn't until Apple's proof of concepts for the most part that MS decided to head in those directions.
Apple culls the best from everyone else and mainstreams it. MS pulls directly from Apple and slaps a different name on it.
Shogmaster
Member
Marconelly said:
You know, thinking back, I have to agree with some of the above. I had forgotten all about how 3.1 functioned. I think I blocked most of it out of my mind. :lol
But to be fair, Win 1.0 to 3.1 was just happen to differ quite abit from the general model set up by Alto's GUI, and that Mac OS was really close to Alto's and MS just realised afterwards that it's the right way to go and joined in.
SteveMeister
Hang out with Steve.
To be fair, the Apple Lisa's OS and GUI were the direct result of Apple using stuff they saw at Xerox PARC. Mac OS was a significant refinement of the concept. I've used Xerox computers, and there is actually very little beyond the concept of a "desktop" with windows and menus and the use of a mouse that survived all the way to even the first Mac OS. And before you ask, yes, I've used a Lisa as well
Shogmaster
Member
SteveMeister said:To be fair, the Apple Lisa's OS and GUI were the direct result of Apple using stuff they saw at Xerox PARC. Mac OS was a significant refinement of the concept. I've used Xerox computers, and there is actually very little beyond the concept of a "desktop" with windows and menus and the use of a mouse that survived all the way to even the first Mac OS. And before you ask, yes, I've used a Lisa as well
Nice! I've never even seen Alto in person. Seen Lisa box, but it wasn't functional I don't think.
But with what I've seen of Alto in action (in video), it's closer to Mac OS than Win 1.0~3.1. Honestly, I don't even know where MS was going with pre 95 Windows. :lol But at least it allowed me to escape from typing DOS commands.
BTW, it's utterly amazing how much of the major developements in computing originated with Xerox PARC: The GUI, mouse, ethernet/networking, object oriented programming, WYSIWYG printing, on and on. If Xerox had managed hold on to all these IPs that were created and developed in house, they could have been WAY bigger than Microsoft.
SteveMeister
Hang out with Steve.
I also spent about 7 or 8 months working on a Xerox InterLisp D workstation. That was a lot of fun
D
Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
when and where do we download these gadgets?
Futureman said:
Didn't Microsoft have their sidebar long before Apple released Tiger? I mean the sidebar disappeared for a while, but it was still there and had their "gadgets" in it. The gadgets thing insn't new. The only reason why there are news stories on it now is because it's resurfaced.
This (admittedly Mac Centric) column talks about desk acessories from the original 1984 Macintosh:
http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/dashboard_vs_konfabulator
You could argue Apple still came up with it first, before Konfabulator.
http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/dashboard_vs_konfabulator
You could argue Apple still came up with it first, before Konfabulator.
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