Windows 12 was teased and it looks very familiar...

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

So at Ignite 2022 Microsoft had a little teaser for Windows 12 and uh...well see for yourself:

They're not even hiding it anymore. Aside from the lack of a menu bar and that ugly Windows search at the top, it's straight up macOS.

You know what this means right? THE MAC IS BACK BABY! You know the Mac is good again if it's being directly copied again.

Welp get ready for Mac vs PC 3. It's coming.

 

[russell_314]

I hear that about Windows 11. Microsoft knows Apple is doing something right so of course they’re going to copy it.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

That really looks awful. It's like they stole the look but missed the reasoning.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

That really looks awful. It's like they stole the look but missed the reasoning.

I wonder if part of it is also adding Android functionality since Windows 11 baked Android native support into the OS.

 

[velocityg4]

That just seems like a lot of wasted screen real estate. Not sure about others. But in Windows I autohide the taskbar and in macOS I hide the menubar and dock. Most stuff I do, I use keyboard shortcuts. To quickly snap between open windows and spaces or access common functions.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I wonder if part of it is also adding Android functionality since Windows 11 baked Android native support into the OS.

Maybe, but yikes. It just looks bad.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Maybe, but yikes. It just looks bad.

I made the right call switching in 2020. Thank you Apple Silicon for making the Mac good and turning me from a hater to a lover.

 

[gpat]

So much wasted space on screen. It hurts my eyes

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I hear that about Windows 11. Microsoft knows Apple is doing something right so of course they’re going to copy it.

I like the redesign of Windows 11, but the problem is the OS doesn't [CENSORED] work. Games run worse on 11, context menus got worse on 11, and system settings are a jumbled mess. I've moved all my daily driver stuff to my Mac and I'm prepping to move to Linux for games when SteamOS's installer launches.

Thank god my job we aren't upgrading to it and are staying on 10.

 

[cateye]

Welp get ready for Mac vs PC 3. It's coming.

I realize you're being tongue-in-cheek here, and comparatives are always interesting (tbh, I kinda like that Windows 12 preview. Experimenting with new ui/ux ideas benefits us all in the long run, no matter who is doing it), but omg there is little less tolerable about being an Apple user than the rabid, angry, unquestioning fandom. It's worse than sports culture. It's worse than car culture. It's worse even than the PC Master Race vs. consoles "argument" (shudder).

They're computers. We should save our emotion for things people that can love us back.

Yes, I'll sit down now.

 

[swingerofbirch]

A lot of companies seem to copy Apple's worst ideas.

I only used Windows briefly for a job, and it was almost 20 years ago. But I really liked the task bar. Windows management was cleaner on Windows.

The Dock is honestly not that great. I end up with so many minimized windows I can't tell what is what because they're so small, and while back in 2000 magnification was a neat party trick, it's a bit much. I've said forever Apple should make a scrollable dock where you can keep the icons at a consistent size.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I realize you're being tongue-in-cheek here, and comparatives are always interesting (tbh, I kinda like that Windows 12 preview. Windows getting better, like the Mac getting better, benefits us all), but omg there is little less tolerable about being an Apple user than the rabid, angry, unquestioning fandom. It's worse than sports culture. It's worse than car culture. It's worse even than the PC Master Race vs. consoles "argument" (shudder).

They're computers. We should save your emotion for things people that can love you back.

Yes, I'll sit down now.

Mac vs PC 2 had fun moments. The iconic Get a Mac ads, the Mac vs PC fights in Team Fortress 2, the different animations of battles between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs or that 3D animation of a Macbook and a PC notebook becoming Transformers fighting each other. It was glorious.

Will Mac vs PC 3 be like that? Most likely not as a lot of that fun banter and effort moved to iPhone vs Android and the console wars. Plus you know...the whole PC Master Race thing happened so...

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

A lot of companies seem to copy Apple's worst ideas.

I only used Windows briefly for a job, and it was almost 20 years ago. But I really liked the task bar. Windows management was cleaner on Windows.

The Dock is honestly not that great. I end up with so many minimized windows I can't tell what is what because they're so small, and while back in 2000 magnification was a neat party trick, it's a bit much. I've said forever Apple should make a scrollable dock where you can keep the icons at a consistent size.

This is why I love Stage Manager while everyone else hates it lmao.

 

[winxmac]

I am mostly a Windows user but tried a bit of macOS in Hackintosh and after using both, I don't like Windows 11 in its current form but I agree that both Windows and macOS have good and bad in them...

Since Windows 11 and probably Windows 12 are going the macOS way regarding the desktop, are they also going to place the desktop icons on the right hand side going to the left?

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

That really looks awful. It's like they stole the look but missed the reasoning.

Apart from the font choice, I think it looks better than macOS. Very clean and light.

 

[cateye]

Mac vs PC 2 had fun moments. The iconic Get a Mac ads, the Mac vs PC fights in Team Fortress 2, the different animations of battles between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs or that 3D animation of a Macbook and a PC notebook becoming Transformers fighting each other. It was glorious.

Will Mac vs PC 3 be like that? Most likely not as a lot of that fun banter and effort moved to iPhone vs Android and the console wars. Plus you know...the whole PC Master Race thing happened so...

I feel like the real nadir was the "I'm a Mac / I'm a PC" ads. Those were just embarrassing cheerleading without substance. I'm all for a deep-dive into technical or practical comparatives to determine the best choice for a given task, but that sort of smarmy schoolyard nonsense is just beneath adults.

Given how collaborative all these companies now are (Apple works freely with Microsoft and Google and others at the engineering level, and vice versa), and how ubiquitous platforms all platforms now are, I'd like to think "Mac vs. PC 3" won't reach the same level of ridiculousness, but you never know.

 

[spiderman0616]

If you just showed me the top right corner of the screen I could easily be tricked into thinking this is macOS.

 

[nvmls]

I find it still far behind macOS.
Different fonts, different use of shades, contrast between panels, title bar completely convoluted, the dock background just wasting screen space, form elements & button design, placement, etc.

It's definitely getting better than what it was sure, but unless they rewrite & overhaul the entire OS, these just feel like reskin band aids. E.g. windows settings panel, seems nice it's "main" window, but then you start diving into each individual option and eventually you stumble with Windows 95 UI looks, the UX is completely inconsistent and unpolished.

 

[elptdbi3lYI]

Looks more like gnome

 

[iStorm]

I wonder if part of it is also adding Android functionality since Windows 11 baked Android native support into the OS.

That's a good point. I was going to say it gives me Chrome OS vibes too, in addition to macOS.

I think all OSes will eventually have the same look and feel in order to not have a huge learning curve on how to use them and fall behind. Like how most cars are similar regardless of brand (i.e. key is usually located in one of two places, windshield wiper controls are usually on a stick by the steering wheel, etc).

My nephews (in their early teens) go to a school that uses Chromebooks/Chrome OS. Once while visiting, they wanted to do something on my parents' computer, which is running Windows 11. They knew how to open an app that was on the taskbar, but that's about it. After that, they were struggling to use the computer. I thought that was a little bit surprising, but also not really, considering they've only been exposed to Chromebooks/Chrome OS. (Makes me wonder what happens when they go to college... Do they offer Intro to Windows or macOS courses now?)

 

[JtheLemur]

Sigh. That cluster of **** in the upper-right quadrant of the window is giving me anxiety. But hey that's MS design language these days.

 

[orionquest]

So much wasted space on screen. It hurts my eyes

I found the same problem with Monterey in MacOS when they updated the look of it. Going back to Mojave, life is better.

 

[orionquest]

A lot of companies seem to copy Apple's worst ideas.

I only used Windows briefly for a job, and it was almost 20 years ago. But I really liked the task bar. Windows management was cleaner on Windows.

The Dock is honestly not that great. I end up with so many minimized windows I can't tell what is what because they're so small, and while back in 2000 magnification was a neat party trick, it's a bit much. I've said forever Apple should make a scrollable dock where you can keep the icons at a consistent size.

Agreed the dock doesn't really do much other then look pretty and is great for marketing. Task bar actually feels more useful.

 

[gpat]

I found the same problem with Monterey in MacOS when they updated the look of it. Going back to Mojave, life is better.

True, this is a generalized problems across today's operating systems.
But that Windows 12 leak brings it to a whole new level.

 

[ultraturducken]

just looks like a linux distro