Apple Releases Lion Developer Preview 3 and Xcode 4.1 Preview 5

4 Comments

1. 2011-05-16 3:51 pm

   Neolander

   First thought : “This new login screen is just like Vista’s with a few tweaks.”

   Second thought : “On these days, this could form the basis of a good patent lawsuit.”

   I really spend too much time on OSAlert

   Edited 2011-05-16 15:57 UTC
• 2011-05-17 1:51 am

  tyrione

  First thought : “This new login screen is just like Vista’s with a few tweaks.”

  Second thought : “On these days, this could form the basis of a good patent lawsuit.”

  I really spend too much time on OSAlert

  That login screen has a history both at Apple and NeXT. No lawsuit. Get real.
• 2011-05-17 7:15 am

  Neolander

  And NEXT’s login screen itself was inspired in a way from UNIX’s, which in turn was inspired by pre-UNIX mainframe OSs’, which in turn were probably inspired by authentication procedures before the days of computers…

  Every design out there is based on a combination of earlier designs. Yet patent laws, which basically permit one to say at a given point of time “I alone have invented this” exist, because some people in the industry still haven’t realized how fundamentally collaborative the creation of a new design always is.

  Since the iPhone’s bezel could be patented, it wouldn’t surprise me that a login screen composed of a centered square picture, with a name underneath, and a password box underneath, with extra controls in the bottom, could be a patentable design.

  Edited 2011-05-17 07:20 UTC
• 2011-05-17 9:23 am

  acobar

  Every design out there is based on a combination of earlier designs. Yet patent laws, which basically permit one to say at a given point of time “I alone have invented this” exist, because some people in the industry still haven’t realized how fundamentally collaborative the creation of a new design always is.

  You hit the point here. Fact is that knowledge is cumulative and how much we modify them to create something we could call new is totally arbitrary. If we look closely on literature, arts or science we well see that all over the process.

  Now, I understand that some pieces of literature and art may be covered by copyright and some pieces of the various fields of “engineering” may be covered by patents.

  Software is something in the middle and has been abusing of a system thought to comply with things way more “elemental”.

  The only solution is “reform”. Problem is, most of the big/medium or even some small users of current system just do not want to touch it. It will take time, but as happened on other social levels, it is unavoidable.