I'm OS X, and Windows 7 was my idea.

In this series we are taking a look at the ideas Microsoft copied from other operating systems. This is pretty standard procedure for Microsoft, and with Windows 7 it is safe to say they've mostly gotten it right. Linux and OS X can be proud of their love-child.

We will start by taking a look at some of the new features in the GUI. First up is the Taskbar, aka “Not a Dock.”

There's an old saying: If it looks like a Dock:



(OS X 10.0 Cheetah, released in 2001. Notice the transparent dock with large icons that runs the length of the screen. This was standard until 2007's OS X 10.5 Leopard.)



(OS X 10.5 Leopard 2D dock, released in 2007. Notice the transparent dock with large icons that runs the length of the screen. )



(Windows 7, released in 2009. Notice the transparent “taskbar that is not a dock” with large icons that runs the length of the screen.)

and Acts like a Dock:

(Descriptions from Apple and Microsoft's official websites:)

http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/dock-and-finder.html

• The Dock at the bottom of the screen gives you quick access to your most frequently used applications, files, and folders


• To add a new application or folder, just grab it from the Finder and move it onto the Dock.


• Removing and rearranging items is simple: Click and drag.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/better-stronger-faster-the-windows-7-taskbar

• It’s that familiar horizontal strip at the bottom of your desktop where your open files and programs appear... When you first start using Windows 7, each of your open programs appears as an individual unlabeled button. Looks neat and tidy, doesn’t it?


• ...with Windows 7, you can also pin programs anywhere on the taskbar. By pinning a program to the taskbar, it’s always right there in front of you so you can open it with a single click


• Now you can rearrange them in the order you want by clicking and dragging.

It's probably a dock.

Despite protestations to the contrary, the new Windows 7 taskbar is essentially Microsoft's rendition of the OS X dock. As you can see, Apple has been using a Dock since 2001. It used to look a lot like the W7 taskbar currently does, and it still does if you run it in 2D mode. Apple's current Dock has been in use since 2007. They have removed and added a number of features over the years. It currently serves as an application launcher, allows you to dock various applications you use frequently, hosts the running applications and open windows, and has context sensitive menus for the docked items.

Sound familiar? That is almost exactly how MS describe the W7 Dock, I mean taskbar.

Windows integrates many of its Window management tools directly into the dock, I mean taskbar. It's preview system, called Aero Peek, groups similar applications under one icon, shows thumbnails of those applications above the taskbar, and will provide a magnified view of each thumbnail if you hover over it.



The W7 Peek is supposed to be an advancement of the Aero Peek from Vista. It's a logical next step to let users interact with the preview windows. You can close windows, and you can hover the mouse over an open thumbnail to get a larger preview.

The taskbar also allows the use of context sensitive menus, called jumplists, for many applications. Microsoft demos how well the jump-lists work for their applications, i.e. IE (I had to), Word, Power Point, etc. What they don't show you is that it doesn't work well with many 3rd party apps, such as Firefox. You have to install additional software (called winfox) to get the jump-lists to work properly for FireFox.

Again, this is similar in concept to what OS X has been doing for years. The execution has a different look, and places more emphasis on management from the taskbar.

The Mac's preview system is spread out over two features called Expose' and Quicklooks. Expose will show small versions of all open windows and applications when you move the mouse into a predesignated corner, or hit the Expose' hotkey. Users can click on the previews to open them. It can also hide all windows and provide immediate access to the desktop. Users can also interact with the preview windows. You can copy and paste from them, close them, and rearrange them.



(This is the premiere of Expose for OSX Panther back in 2003. Around 2:16 Jobs describes the Expose feature that lets you view only the open windows for a particular application.)


Expose hasn't changed much. Apple has added a few refinements that allow for more control directly from the dock:



(Look for this feature in Windows 8.)

Quicklooks is a preview system that works in conjunction with Finder. (Windows Explorer is similar to Finder.) It provides large previews of files, allowing users to read files and even navigate through documents in a moderately sized preview window.



And then there's the "new" contextualized menus called "jumplists". Here's OS X's contextualized menu:




Here's Windows 7's jumplists:



I'm OS X, and Windows 7 was my idea.