Apple-X.net is reporting that Microsoft is "stealing" Exposé from Apple, with their new options for Alt-Tab in Avalon.

First off, as a couple of poster correctly point out over at Apple-X, MS is actually ripping off Looking Glass from Sun.

Secondly, the example as they show it basically, um, sucks. It's shifted in 3D, which looks cool, but then they get the angling wrong. Look at the windows in the example they post:

Wipe On:

Wipe Off:

The Longhorn feature organizes them along the edge, which may work for a few windows, but is going to suck for a large number of open windows, since you can only see the edge of the window. I'm sure the guys at MS are aware that this implementation stinks and are going to fix it, maybe by having the windows do something like this:

I've seen people using Exposé with so many windows open it looks like a mosaic, and yet they can use it. because you can see the whole page.

I can't wait to see what Apple has come up with that trounces this by 1996. :)

8:44:28 AM     Discuss: [] trackback []