The text of this article is derived from an email response I sent a reader, and I thought it was valuable enough that a wider range of users would benefit from it. Many (Mac) people misunderstood the comments I made comparing Windows XP, Longhorn, and Mac OS X in my Longhorn FAQ. My aim wasn't to make a general comparison between the three OSes, but rather to focus on one specific area:
While Apple can and should be credited with innovating the desktop operating system GUI we still use today, the company has done little over the years to dramatically improve this interface, though it has arguably made it more attractive, especially in OS X. My argument is that Microsoft, of all companies, has done far more innovative UI work, especially in the past eight years, working to extend to the standard desktop interface metaphor with new document-centric and task-centric user interfaces. Microsoft calls its task-centric work inductive UI. Here's the original email here, largely unedited.
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