Windows 7 Looks The Same? OS Version Screen Shots Over The Years…

First let me say that I am a Microsoft employee and this post is pure opinion and not an official position of my employer. That being said, reading my morning dose of feeds I have already came across nearly a dozen articles whining that Windows 7 looks just like Windows Vista.

Not to go directly at our buddies down at 1 Infinite Loop, but hasn’t OS X looked the same for like, um 10 years or something? OS X was released in 1999 at version 10.0, and here we are at the edge of 2009 and they are still on 10?

In 1999, when OS X first hit the scene (as a server component first), we were on Windows 98 Second Edition. Microsoft was still on Version 4 of Windows which included Windows 95, NT 4, 98 and 98 SE. That’s four official OS releases off of the 4.0 framework. It had been a period of four years, one OS per year.

That’s a decent life span out of a code base and it was time to move on. In that same time period, Apple shipped OS X 10.0 Server. Now let me introduce a quote that I think might ring somewhat familiar if only you take out the words Mac OS X and insert Windows Vista in their place.

“The initial version was slow, not feature complete, and had very few applications available at the time of its launch, mostly from independent developers. While many critics suggested that the operating system was not ready for mainstream adoption, they recognized the importance of its initial launch as a base on which to improve. Simply releasing Mac OS X was received by the Macintosh community as a great accomplishment, for attempts to completely overhaul the Mac OS had been underway since 1996, and delayed by countless setbacks. Following some bug fixes, kernel panics became much less frequent.”

Wow doesn’t that sound familiar. Are you saying those boys have those kinds of problems too when they change the entire architecture of their OS?

To the right you see a screen shot of what OS X 10.0 (Cheetah) looked like the year it was introduced.

I’ll let you draw your own opinions while we follow this timeline forward and compare the look, the innovations and the general market sentiments of the two OSes as they have blazed their way through the last decade. It’s not pretty at times for both, but I think you will draw the same conclusion that I do. Microsoft Windows has changed a great deal more than OS X in the last 10 years. The changes from Windows Vista to Windows 7 are not cosmetic, the power is in the code. Moving to the Windows Server 2008 Codebase is a huge win that should not be ignored because the buttons aren’t shinier.

February 2000 – Microsoft Ships Windows 2000

If I had to take a pulse, I would bet that until XP really matured, Windows 2000 would be considered the most stable Windows OS ever. I remember standing in awe at not having to reboot to change an IP address.

Now if you were to compare Windows 2000 to Windows 98 SE at this point, you might be tempted to follow today’s current media whirlwind and say “But Windows 2000 doesn’t look very different from Windows 98 at all, hell, it kinda looks just like Windows 95!”

But I am sure history and experience would tell you quite a different story. Windows 2000 was the first time I felt Windows was truly stable. The first time that the OS at heart was rock solid and performed it’s duties without getting in the way.

Of course you will remember, or at least I do, in the beginning there were huge legions of missing drivers. It took hardware makers ages to catch up, but when they did, it was a force.

Now at this point Mac OS X Server would be out for nearly two years before OS X would ship as a desktop product and the space between the initial launch of OS X 10.0 Cheetah and OS X 10.1 Puma would be a gap of mere months (March to September).

They boosted performance a bit and added DVD playback. It was released as a free upgrade to 10.0 users. In January 2002, Apple announced that Mac OS X would be the default OS on Macs. That’s a timeframe of less than one year before they made OS 9 obsolete.

Microsoft would later be lambasted for announcing the demise of Windows XP 17 months after Windows Vista shipped.

October 2001 – Microsoft Ships Windows XP

With the amount of petitions and users clinging to it, one could make an argument that Windows XP is the most beloved Microsoft Windows version ever.

Windows XP provided Microsoft’s first significant UI update since Windows 95. It was also quite different under the hood making for a stable OS that is still being used and will continue to be for several years.

Windows XP was also Microsoft’s first real entry into 64-bit operating systems. While 64-bit Windows wouldn’t catch fire until the release of Vista, the milestone is no less significant.

Windows XP has had 3 service packs in it’s lifetime and depending on the installed service pack, is scheduled to be supported until 2014.

In August 2002, just over a year after 10.1, Apple shipped OS X 10.2 Jaguar. In a years time they had introduced over 150 enhancements according to Apple. These amounted to a more performant operating system that was more stable but looked fundamentally the same. Sound familiar?

This was also the time when Apple finally let go of the “Happy Mac” logo and went to the grey apple screen that is now so familiar. CHIME ON!

It’s interesting to note that we have fast forwarded several years and while Windows has seen 98, 2000 and XP, Apple is still rocking 10.1. Sure numbers are semantics, but it’s hard to call anything up to this point revolutionary.

January 2007 – Microsoft Ships Vista

Wow, that was a big gap, 6 years, and one Microsoft caught a lot of grief for. That’s a hell of a long time to go without a new operating system for anyone. Of course we did update with three service packs in that time frame. The OS has been kicking along quite well for all this time and so much so that now that Vista is out, everyone wants to know why they should change?

The laundry list of changes to the UI and underlying framework for security and interoperability is huge, but to most people, it just looks pretty. It’s glossy, it has a totally new UI.

The hardware requirement bar has been raised quite a bit but for some reason those same people that have been rocking XP for 6 years on likely the same hardware, can’t figure out why the new one doesn’t run so hot. I could make a fair guess but that’s not the point of this post now is it

In October 2007, Apple introduced OS X 10.5 Leopard. While Windows Vista was sleeping, we skipped right past OS X 10.3 Panther and OS X 10.4 Tiger. Apple added more performance gains in 10.3 and what they called an extensive update to the user interface. I’ll let you be the judge.

10.2 Jaguar	10.3 Panther	10.4 Tiger

I can’t say I am seeing drastic changes here, especially not “extensive.” As a fair comparative, here is a fast forward comparison of Windows and OS X for the last decade.

	2000	2007
Windows
OS X

So there you have it folks. OS changes are incremental, it is what it is. In 10 years we have come a long way in both camps. Sure the truth is version numbers and screen shots don’t amount to much in the real world, but as pure marketing fluff, it’s easy to look at things this way and see the point I am trying to make.

Don’t expect Windows 7 to look drastically different. The changes aren’t always so close to the surface. Keep tuned for more open and honest commentary on it as it’s made available to play with.

Submit this post to

• The Truth About Geniuses, Viruses and Good Marketing
• A Peaceful Coexistence of Operating Systems (Vista and Leopard)
• Macenstein Goes Overboard with Vista Coffin Article…
• Philocast Video Short: Using Synergy to control multiple PCs and OSes
• RE: Love your computer again…
• Copied World of Warcraft from another machine to save time and now you can’t update? Here’s a fix…
• Is Windows 7 Aero Peek a copy of Apple Expose?
• Is the Linux advantage Free or Freedom?
• How-To: Auto-Connect to Windows Shares from OS X
• Hewlett Packard Support Says No Drivers Exist, Windows Vista Disagrees