I wonder what brand of dictionary the folks over in Redmond are using. But until now, the word “stable” had a pretty well-defined meaning for me. Not so any more… This is a quote from Simon Aldous, manager with the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Ltd. (UK):

One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it’s very graphical and easy to use. What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics. We’ve significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it’s built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance.

(Emphasis added by me)

Well, I admit that I do neither own nor operate a machine with Vista on it; but I do know a fair number of people who do. And while there have been worse operating systems (say, Windows 95), I find it a daring statement to put the stability of Vista even into the same league as any one of the last three or four major versions of Mac OS X.

But then again, it all depends on the definition of the word “stable”: One could say that a solid locked-up BSODed machine somehow meets that definition.

Looks like the look-and-feel of Mac OS X isn´t the only thing that Microsoft guy copied from Apple: now they´re after Steve Jobs´ much-cited reality distortion field, too…

To be fair, I should add that some other folks at Microsoft are not too impressed about the statements Aldous made in that interview. Writes one Brandon LeBlanc on the official Windows 7 blog:

An inaccurate quote has been floating around the Internet today about the design origins of Windows 7 and whether its look and feel was “borrowed” from Mac OS X. Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed.

Well, it might not be the official POV of the Redmond folks, but come on, folks, have a short look at Vista, and then one at any Mac OS X version of maybe three years ago. Notice anything?