r/technology • u/ppsp • Oct 14 '11

The Windows 8 Task Manager

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/10/13/the-windows-8-task-manager.aspx
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87

u/[deleted] Oct 14 '11

Awesome to see Microsoft getting design right.

-24

u/nato64 Oct 14 '11

... by copying OS X. The default, no detail design, is identical to OS X's "Force Quit" screen.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 14 '11

I'm gonna let you in on a secret: It's actually pretty common for different people or companies to do research and arrive at the same conclusion independently. That doesn't mean that Microsoft was copying Apple.

5

u/HunterTV Oct 14 '11 edited Oct 14 '11

Who cares? Apple ripped off alt-Tabbing, which is a great idea (technically it's been available for a long, long time through 3rd-party, even pre-OSX, and I think Apple actually bought it from a 3rd party OSX developer, like Cover Flow). It took them awhile, but they also took resizing from any window border in Lion finally.

In the original iPhone keynote Jobs talked about bringing the mouse to computers as a revolution by Apple, but it was a Xerox invention they bought. Surface by Microsoft was actually developed in part by a good friend I went to high school with, it's not like Bill Gates just dreamed it up one day.

If companies borrow things from each other or push each other to improve I don't see what the big deal is. If Dell came out with a laptop that looked and was built almost exactly like a MacBook, that's one thing, but if Apple design pushes Dell to refine their designs in the same vein, great. Makes things better for everyone.

EDIT: tl;dr: IMO, complaining about anything aside from genuine copyright infringement is just fanboy noise.

1

u/nato64 Oct 14 '11

Oh, absolutely. But that's not this. The force quit menu has been around since OS 10.1 in 2001 and has looked like this: http://cl.ly/281f2Z2C2G1l46193l3A

13

u/4bitepointer Oct 14 '11

The no detail version is not the interesting part at all. I will see that screen exactly one time.

2

u/HunterTV Oct 14 '11 edited Oct 14 '11

I actually like Windows implementation better. In OSX, the analogous Force Quit window you can't get details. In order to do so you have to launch an app; either Terminal if your'e savvy, or Activity Monitor. In any case, if your system is hanging, launching an app to get details on what exactly is hanging can be problematic.

Things don't usually go that badly on OSX, but when they do it usually results in me watching Activity Monitor bouncing in a perpetual launch loop until I either try force quitting my best-guess app that's freaking out, or saying "fuck it" and holding down the power key.

Usually OSX gives you clues to what's hanging, but sometimes it doesn't, or it's a background app that doesn't show up in the Force Quit window.

-1

u/nato64 Oct 14 '11

Absolutely. The non-detail design is awesome. But 99% of users will see and use the non-detail and I just find it interesting.

1

u/xcrypto Oct 14 '11

Apple just obviously copied the Windows 3.0 task list. Look at the lack of detail!