Windows Vista Beta: A lot like Mac OS X

After playing around with my newly-installed copy of Windows Vista Beta 2 for a couple of hours, the thought that kept popping up in my head over and over again like a persistent mole was: "Wow, that's a lot like the Mac."

From the emphasis on searching and not browsing (Spotlight) to the Windows Sidebar (Dashboard) which runs Gadgets (Widgets), to the built-in Windows Calendar (iCal), the similarities are striking. Come look with me, after the jump.

Widgets and Gadgets

Mac OS X Dashboard widgets:

Windows Vista Sidebar with Gadgets (just two letters off!):

Home directory view

Mac OS X Finder:

Windows Vista Explorer:

Built-in calendar

Mac OS X iCal:

Windows Calendar:

Search don't browse

Mac OS X Spotlight:

Windows Vista (no longer) Start menu search:

Now, don't get me wrong: tech products have been stealing adapting one another's ideas since the dawn of computing. Hell, Lifehacker didn't invent the weblog, or even the term "life hack"! So our glass house couldn't survive any thrown stones. We're just saying. — Gina Trapani

Windows Vista：为什么Mac OS X会赢 ?

在消费者操作系统市场上，微软的份额正在逐渐减少，而苹果却在不断增加。之所以如此，相信原因很多，不过大部分原因可以被归结为：Mac OS较为简单，而Windows太过于复杂。

这也许就是微软花了如此高昂的成本来让Vista升级，却未取得好结果的原因了。

直到现在，即便专家也不能明确的告知每一个Vista版本之间的区别何在，以及升级版本的基本需求。因而普通消费者被挡在门外也就不足为奇了。

让我在极短的时间内解释一下。不过，我们应该先回顾一下Windows Vista推出时的惨败。

升级版本混乱

新闻机构早在几年前就开始报道Vista。过去几个月，新闻机构都在报道其升级版本，微软的相关机构就开始造势让用户检验自己的Windows XP或者2000是否合法。

最初，一些新闻报道称，Vista的升级版本需要用户输入一串XP激活码(也就是在安装XP之前输入的字母和数字的组合)。而后，我们被告知不需要重新输入激活码，而要在Vista安装时插入XP光盘。此星期初，一些网站报道，之前需要计算机上必须安装XP的需求，以及硬盘重新安装系统都可以实现。

如果你不知道哪一种升级策略是真的，你也不要灰心，相信除了微软的人，没人明白。

微软带来了这一场混乱，导致用户没有人能够理解Vista升级版本的需求如何。

与此同时，升级版本也成了毒药：

- 熟悉Windows的用户知道如果你希望Windows更好的运行，你最好将硬盘格式化，而后重装系统。升级版本需要你安装了XP/2000和Vista，这就将系统安装时间无形中延长了一倍。

-升级版本需要你检测你原先Windows XP/2000安装光盘。绝大部分人会从PC销售商那里获得“修复光盘”，不过安装后它通常都包括附带多个其他程序。

-据Vista终端用户许可协议(EULA)称，使用XP或者2000的光盘来进行Vista升级，会将XP激活码变得无效。EULA表示，一旦升级，此协议会取代之前安装系统的协议。在你安装后，你也许就不能使用你原来的系统了。一些博客和新闻组的作者猜测，在Vista双启动安装时，你可能无法使用无效的XP许可。计算机世界就此联系微软，但是未获得任何答复。这也就意味着，又一种Vista混乱出来了。

-许多用户丢失了，或者在购买时并未提供PC安装光盘。因为他们系统上已经安装了XP或者2000，他们决定省钱，购买一个升级版本。如果他们的硬盘出了问题，或者他们需要重新格式化，那他就必须购买第二个Vista光盘，而这次就是完全版本。

几年后，未来的PC的硬件也许XP和2000就无法支持了。如果现在用户购买了升级版本，那么今后购买计算机后，选择转移Vista许可就行了。Vista升级版本需要的XP/2000安装证明是问题不少。

这拥有一个广泛的工作区，帮助用户在无XP的环境下安装Vista的升级版本。它涉及，本质上，安装Vista两次。你可以在计算机世界全面Vista升级指导中找到工作区。当然，微软是否认为这个工作区合法，我们不得而知。


article randomly picked by Aaron.

Greetings from the Five

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One of the Five