About the question whether Apple has invented a better UI and whether someone else did or could have done the same: Regardless what you think about UI-paradigm

About the question whether Apple has invented a better UI and whether someone else did or could have done the same: Regardless what you think about UI-paradigms or vendor lock-in, there is something that Apple spends far more time on than others to get right: Papercuts [0]. Every interface comes with a thousand little annoyances that distract and increase cognitive load. Apple tries to bring this number to zero. You have to find managers and developers willing to reserve a LOT of time for these "trivialities", but ultimately that summed-up effort is what makes their computers so convenient to use. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_cut_bug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_cut_bug