On Monday 28 January 2002 15:57, Samir M. Nassar wrote: <snip> > > Besides, the 'windows' GUI is not a Microsoft invention by any means. So > why is there all this bruhaha? Microsoft copied Apple's GUI design. It is > not that Microsoft has a superior methodology (snicker) but they realized > that it just works for most users. With slight variation here and there, I > don't see how any GUI is going to be very different. Maybe I am extremely > dense and lacking in imagination, I could entertain that thought. However, > I want to see this GUI that is so radically different and yet acceptable to > most users out there. > <snip> Of course you could take this a step further back to Xerox PARC and their prototype systems that Jobs and company copied at Apple. If you do that then the basic GUI design is about 25 years old, almost as old as the micro-computer and Microsoft the company. Attempts to change the metaphor of the desktop have met with mixed (okay mostly disasterous) results. Does anyone remember Microsoft BoB? ;-) We will see new and different metaphors come out of the various labs as we go on. I suspect some will be useful for certain situations, others just "interesting hacks". -- Jack Ungerleider jack at jacku.com