Windows Vista

This morning, I went to a Microsoft convention. It was a Windows Vista and Office 2007 preview for IT professionals. Students in the IT track are considered professionals, I guess. The first part of the seminar was on Windows Exchange Server 2007. I didn't understand most of it. Exchange server still looks like Windows 2000. After this summer, I probably will. I have to take the Windows Server class. I saw some heads nodding approval, so I guess a lot of system administrators are going to like Server 2007.

Everyone got a free copy of Office 2007. I haven't installed it yet. I'm going to wait and see if the school arranges for free Windows Vista, like they did Windows XP. We only get one time to download and use the free copy, so I want to put it on a computer I might actually use it. This computer will eventually be converted to an Ubuntu only computer. In actuality, it will probably be a very long time before I use Windows Vista. My next computer will likely be a System76, unless I absolutely have to have Vista for school. Even still, it will probably be a long time before I even get a new computer. I really like making old equipment work, and work well. I have no need for a new computer. But, if the opportunity were to arise, I doubt I'd say no.

The speaker seem to indicate that the name Windows was eventually going to go away, and Vista would remain. They never really said that, but it seemed implied. Windows has had it's day, and a new name does need to come up.

As the speaker was showing us cool things about Vista, I couldn't help thinking, "I've seen this before.":

This is SuSE Linux, Novell's Enterprise Linux distribution. Here's another screenshot:

Now, maybe it's just me, but there seems to be some pretty striking similarities. Gone is the start button. Instead, just the little Windows symbol in the lower left corner. In the SuSE desktop, the SuSE logo in the lower left corner. SuSE Linux mostly uses the KDE desktop, which is a little close to the Windows layout. Gnome is a bit more Mac like layout. I can use either, but I prefer Gnome. If you use Linux, you can use either. You can even go back and forth.

Here's a version of Kubuntu, Ubuntu's distribution that uses KDE:
These are customized desktops, of course. But the similarities are striking.

Vista looks like LINUX!

Let's see; Windows goes into an agreement with Novell, mostly to say, "It's okay, we won't sue you or your customers." From the looks of this, the agreement should have been the other way around. But, you can't steal Linux, or KDE. How do you steal something that is given away?

Sure is close.