Windows 7 continues the tradition of copying OS X and the FOSS community

Arstechnica's First look at Windows 7 User Interface describes some new features in Windows 6.1, and here are my thoughts on them.

Jump lists provide quick access to application features. Applications that use the system API for their Most Recently Used list (the list of recently-used filenames that many apps have in their File menus) will automatically acquire a Jump List containing their most recently used files. There's also an API to allow applications to add custom entries; Media Player, for example, includes special options to control playback.

Why not copy OS X's dock while you're at it?

Window management has also undergone changes. In recognition of the fact that people tend only to use one or two windows concurrently, 7 makes organizing windows quicker and easier. Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it automatically; dragging it off the top of the screen restores it.

I already had this on Gnome for years!

Another common task that 7 improves is "peeking" at windows; switching to a window briefly just to read something within the window but not actually interact with the window. To make this easier, scrubbing the mouse over the taskbar thumbnails will turn every window except the one being pointed at into a glass outline; moving the mouse away will reinstate all the glass windows. As well as being used for peeking at windows, you can also peek at the desktop.

Compiz does it better, and peeking on the desktop, OS X had it since Panther at least.

Peeking at the desktop is particularly significant, because the desktop is now where gadgets live. Because people are increasingly using laptops, taking up a big chunk of space for the sidebar isn't really viable; Microsoft has responded by scrapping the sidebar and putting the gadgets onto the desktop itself. Gadgets are supposed to provide at-a-glance information; peeking at the desktop, therefore, becomes essential for using gadgets.

You mean like OS X's Dashboard?

The icons themselves have also been streamlined to make common tasks (such as switching wireless networks) easier and faster.

Copying Apple again?

Windows 7 introduces a new concept named Libraries. Libraries provide a view onto arbitrary parts of the filesystem with organization optimized for different kinds of files. In use, Libraries feel like a kind of WinFS-lite; they don't have the complex database system underneath, but they do retain the idea of a custom view of your files that's independent of where the files are.

Smart folders by another name?

Once again Microsoft proves its incompetence, Windows 7 will only slow the influx of Windows users to other OSes it wont eliminate it, that's if people are willing to give Windows another chance.