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Ubuntu's website shows of its Dash "Spotlight", Launcher "Dock", Status Icons "Menu bar with status", Workspace "Spaces", Ubuntu Store "Mac App Store". It's al

by meric 16y ago

Ubuntu's website shows of its Dash "Spotlight", Launcher "Dock", Status Icons "Menu bar with status", Workspace "Spaces", Ubuntu Store "Mac App Store". It's almost like they're trying to directly compete with Mac OS X, with "killer features" that match exactly with what apple regularly shows off with Mac OS X.

chao- 16y ago
That's an interesting point. If so, would it not be a little misguided? I'd love to see some data one way or the other, but in my experience and among my friends and associates, people who buy Apple computers are incredibly likely to value the polished, "just works" factors of OS X and if they do care about being UNIX-like, it has them covered too. Then among those who run Linux as a primary OS, they do so without paying for the shiny Apple hardware. Again I stress this is a personal subset and I welcome it being corrected or confirmed by hard numbers. At the same time, perhaps I am looking at this the wrong way: If you have a goal of being the best desktop experience, then better to pit yourself against the best?
Tichy 16y ago
I think most of these things were actually on Unix/Linux first, just maybe not as pretty as on OS X.
- riffraff 16y ago
  I'm pretty sure dash (quicksilver/spotlight) and the dock were in osx way before they appeared on linux.
  - regularfry 16y ago
    Docks of one sort or another have been around for years. RISC OS had a dock-like icon bar in 1987, GNUStep nicked one from NeXTStep in 1994, and I'm sure there are earlier examples.
- krakensden 16y ago
  Lets go through the list: * Spotlight - OS X * Dock - NeXT * Spaces - X11 * Software Repositories - Debian [1994]
  - jcastro 16y ago
    Desktop search predates OSX with Beagle (unfortunately now defunct)
    - krakensden 16y ago
      The first pitch I ever heard for Beagle was 'it's like searchlight', so I always assumed it came later- but I looked it up, and it's hard to tell. inotify 0.8 was announced about a month after Steve Jobs started advertising spotlight, and Beagle grew out of Dashboard which certainly has design documents that indicate they wanted to do that. So... I think you might be right. On a related note, are you Ubuntu's jcastro?
- meric 16y ago
  Funny. Apple takes features from other OSes like Linux. Linux in turn takes features prominent in Apple's marketing strategy for OS X and replicate it in their own.
jsz0 16y ago
Probably a good strategy. I would like to have a pretty good OSX clone for PCs. There's no good reason to clone Windows -- if you have a PC you can just use the real thing. You cannot (easily) run OSX on a PC.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  > There's no good reason to clone Windows Besides that, Windows is insanely complicated. There are zillions of little panels, little things that make other things happen, you have that crazy google-to-find-a-program-that-does-what-you-need and then download it and entrust your machine to a foreign executable (you run it as an administrator in order to install it) and begin that ridiculous next-next-next-finish dance. And do that for every updated version. Why would anyone want to emulate that?
drivebyacct2 16y ago
Linux has had those things for longer that Mac has with the exception of the global menu. Docks have been around before Finder adopted a dock. Beagle predates Spotlight. Workspaces have existed for as long as GUIs have for Linux and Apt has been around for over a decade, with the Ubuntu Software Center in its present form predating the Mac App Store.
- nitrogen 16y ago
  Not to mention the infamous Click-N-Run store in LindowsOS from the early 2000s.
prkchp_sndwch 16y ago
Don't forget moving the minimize/maximize/close buttons to the left side of the window toolbar. At least that's easy to change. I really like Ubuntu because it comes out with an update every 6 months so users keep getting the newest software but I can't stand this flagrant Apple copy-cat ism. Is there any Debian based linux that updates reliably and has a sane UI?

by meric 16y ago

chao- 16y ago

That's an interesting point. If so, would it not be a little misguided? I'd love to see some data one way or the other, but in my experience and among my friends and associates, people who buy Apple computers are incredibly likely to value the polished, "just works" factors of OS X and if they do care about being UNIX-like, it has them covered too. Then among those who run Linux as a primary OS, they do so without paying for the shiny Apple hardware. Again I stress this is a personal subset and I welcome it being corrected or confirmed by hard numbers. At the same time, perhaps I am looking at this the wrong way: If you have a goal of being the best desktop experience, then better to pit yourself against the best?

Tichy 16y ago

I think most of these things were actually on Unix/Linux first, just maybe not as pretty as on OS X.

riffraff 16y ago
I'm pretty sure dash (quicksilver/spotlight) and the dock were in osx way before they appeared on linux.
- regularfry 16y ago
  Docks of one sort or another have been around for years. RISC OS had a dock-like icon bar in 1987, GNUStep nicked one from NeXTStep in 1994, and I'm sure there are earlier examples.
krakensden 16y ago
Lets go through the list: * Spotlight - OS X * Dock - NeXT * Spaces - X11 * Software Repositories - Debian [1994]
- jcastro 16y ago
  Desktop search predates OSX with Beagle (unfortunately now defunct)
  - krakensden 16y ago
    The first pitch I ever heard for Beagle was 'it's like searchlight', so I always assumed it came later- but I looked it up, and it's hard to tell. inotify 0.8 was announced about a month after Steve Jobs started advertising spotlight, and Beagle grew out of Dashboard which certainly has design documents that indicate they wanted to do that. So... I think you might be right. On a related note, are you Ubuntu's jcastro?
meric 16y ago
Funny. Apple takes features from other OSes like Linux. Linux in turn takes features prominent in Apple's marketing strategy for OS X and replicate it in their own.

jsz0 16y ago

Probably a good strategy. I would like to have a pretty good OSX clone for PCs. There's no good reason to clone Windows -- if you have a PC you can just use the real thing. You cannot (easily) run OSX on a PC.

rbanffy 16y ago
> There's no good reason to clone Windows Besides that, Windows is insanely complicated. There are zillions of little panels, little things that make other things happen, you have that crazy google-to-find-a-program-that-does-what-you-need and then download it and entrust your machine to a foreign executable (you run it as an administrator in order to install it) and begin that ridiculous next-next-next-finish dance. And do that for every updated version. Why would anyone want to emulate that?

drivebyacct2 16y ago

Linux has had those things for longer that Mac has with the exception of the global menu. Docks have been around before Finder adopted a dock. Beagle predates Spotlight. Workspaces have existed for as long as GUIs have for Linux and Apt has been around for over a decade, with the Ubuntu Software Center in its present form predating the Mac App Store.

nitrogen 16y ago
Not to mention the infamous Click-N-Run store in LindowsOS from the early 2000s.

prkchp_sndwch 16y ago

Don't forget moving the minimize/maximize/close buttons to the left side of the window toolbar. At least that's easy to change. I really like Ubuntu because it comes out with an update every 6 months so users keep getting the newest software but I can't stand this flagrant Apple copy-cat ism. Is there any Debian based linux that updates reliably and has a sane UI?