Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
If Apple Designed Windows 10
- Thread starter Hazmat401
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Haha. Windows 10 design feels very rudimentary and it took al long journey to become a little consistent after too many experiments (starting at Windows 8). And still it's a mixed bag of UI old and new design.
Thoughts
If Apple designed 'Windows 10' (which they wouldn't) it would probably look exactly the same as MacOS and not like anything in the video.
Therefore the video lacks imagination and misses the point on all fronts (IMHO) and only shows the existing Windows 10 with rounded icons instead of square icons.
Also, the addition of iMessage only makes sense in the USA, not in the rest of the world.
If Apple designed Windows 10 it would be just like Windows 10. Why? Oh! Because they're both pushing proprietary graphics APIs. They're both selling cloud based solutions to our privacy's detriment, although Windows is the clear victor in that regard as it doesn't shove it in the user's face like Apple does, and heck they're doing a great job with their Azure cloud based solutions for enterprise unlike Apple. When it comes down to it, Windows 10 & macOS are frighteningly similar, although I'd hazard Microsoft is veering further in the right direction by embracing the open source community. Overall, I use macOS as my daily driver because of it's integration with iOS, thus enabling me to actually get reminders for the events/appointments I schedule on either device. Which is nice. But eh. I'm not a big fan of either company. I eager await when both companies go too far and the mythological future event known as "The Year of the Linux Desktop" comes to pass.
Thoughts
Ya, just three words.. "It would sux." The registry still exists, to comply with backward compatability, despite the push for self contained apps... you may as well just keep using a Mac. That way you eliminate more than just registry issues. However its only due to the small market fragment of Apple that we don't have the number of malware as Windows has. (let alone the problems of third party)
If the only thing that changes would be Apple could re-do the GUI and security/privacy, that is not much of a teaser.
Last edited:
I think you haven’t thought much about the issues and you’re grossly misinformed with a good dose of contradictions.
Neither Apple nor Microsoft are pushing for proprietary graphics APIs. They can’t use OpenGL because it doesn’t have the full support of the two major card vendors, NVidia and AMD. Apple has been butting heads with NVidia over their onerous proprietary API, which Apple has to support if they include them on their machines. They were forced to lay down the law: we’re building out our own graphics API support it or else. NVidia refused, but AMD didn’t. Microsoft, on the other hand, doesn’t care, they don’t have to support video cards, they just let the OEMs deal with it.
As for cloud based solutions, Microsoft is far worse. Windows 10 logs and transmits user activity and phones home the data. What makes it even worse is its terrible security system with numerous back doors. At least, you only have to worry about Apple accessing your data. With Microsoft, it terrifying to think who else is accessing your data. Microsoft has already started moving their applications to a cloud-based only subscription model. Apple, on the other hand, will not support subscription billing on the AppStore. Finally, Apple use of the cloud is far more tasteful than Microsoft’s. They use the cloud to genuinely enhance the user experience through data synchronization and continuity. Moreover, Apple is commitment to privacy since the inception of the iPhone. It publicly and officially states that privacy is a human right. That may or may not be fluff, but neither Google, Facebook nor Microsoft would ever make such claims.
Finally, it appears you’re into the open, free culture which by any mindful observation is spectacular failure. Your real gripe with the cloud and your love for open and free software are based on wanting something for nothing. Someone has to put the work and risk in developing the software. You feel they shouldn’t be paid for their hearts, mind and labor because it can be easily copied. You inherently understand this which is why you use Apple products. Linux clearly sucks and will continue to suck.
LOL ... my initial thought exactly ...
... nobody, NOOOObody can beautify Windows ... nobody.
Microsoft just dropped support for the 10 year-old Windows 7 and the wailing and gnashing of teeth made the mainstream news... even though the latest Windows 10 (at least the still supported 32 bit version) can still run 16-bit binaries compiled in the 1990s.
If Apple had designed Windows 10 they'd still have had to please a huge, change-averse corporate sector who need their ancient business apps to run without a hitch. MS are still sitting on a backwards-compatibility legacy that stretches back to the 8-bit era.
Even Apple's most conservative pro users are working in fields like video and audio production which can't fall too far behind on technology, c.f. big corporations that still use PCs like a money-saving substitute for 1970s big iron.
If Apple had to please the same user base as Microsoft, Mac OS would still have to actively support classic Mac OS and 68k code and the UI would still be a hotch-potch of Carbon, Cocoa and classic. We'd have two web browsers: modern Safari and an ancient non-standards-based ones for enterprise users... and, yes, we'd probably still have the hangover from an alternate 2007 in which Apple tried to make a single OS for Mac and iPhone, because, as a Microsoft analogue, everybody would have hated them and the only way they could have got people to buy their mobile devices was if they could run the same rubbish-but-industry-standard software as their desktops.
Actually, although it's nice to think that the alternate universe in which the Apple 3 was a raging success would have been a wonderful world of efficient just-works technology that never suffered the pox of the IBM PC, it could also mean that the Mac never happened, everything was still running on some kludged-together monster created by gluing together 256 6502 chips and the graphics standard was still that you had to plot a green pixel next to a cyan pixel to get white because, otherwise, Visicalc wouldn't run....
Apple has proven to be willing to cut the eternal backward compatibility crud a number of times. Microsoft never has.
That alone would mean Apple would never have ended up where Microsoft painted themselves in a corner with having to support everything (hardware and software) and having such a complex environment that they themselves don't understand it anymore.
I was once given the *internal* Microsoft documentation for one of their file formats: It was the most ridiculous specification of a file format I've ever seen: all that was in it was _one_ example of how to use an obsolete API to create a test file. Upon asking our contact if they had nothing better documenting the file format itself instead of the API: the answer was an embarrassing "we really don't have anything ourselves, sorry"
That extends throughout Microsofts core components that still get dragged on when teams they snatched away from other companies like DEC implemented the VM system for NT and put it in the finished product without the rest of them having a clue what these guys were doing.
That alone would mean Apple would never have ended up where Microsoft painted themselves in a corner with having to support everything (hardware and software) and having such a complex environment that they themselves don't understand it anymore.
I was once given the *internal* Microsoft documentation for one of their file formats: It was the most ridiculous specification of a file format I've ever seen: all that was in it was _one_ example of how to use an obsolete API to create a test file. Upon asking our contact if they had nothing better documenting the file format itself instead of the API: the answer was an embarrassing "we really don't have anything ourselves, sorry"
That extends throughout Microsofts core components that still get dragged on when teams they snatched away from other companies like DEC implemented the VM system for NT and put it in the finished product without the rest of them having a clue what these guys were doing.
Last edited:
Buddy, we live in a surveillance state. If you think Apple truly protects your data beyond a public showing of defiance before giving whatever the state apparatus requests to them, you are very sorely mistaken. its why i like the idea of the European Union and other countries bucking the United States tech sector and building their own resources so they don't have to be at the mercy of a foreign power when it comes to modern towards future technology. Edward Snowden happened, and we all know it isn't just a conspiracy theory anymore, lol.