Apple Will be Launching a "Launchpad" with the Upcoming Mac OSX Lion (Wait, Isn't that... yep!)

I actually haven't used an Apple Mac OS (X) computer, so I have no idea why I hear nothing but praises from those who use the Apple's operating system. Although MS Windows is certainly not behind much but I guess that when looking at the features and videos made by others :/... I guess it's about intuition and Apple is extremely good at it without a doubt.

As I've said before, a lot of core/key GNU/Linux developers (both Gnome and Qt/KDE, etc) are quite the admirers of the Apple's way of doing things. Although I won't be going into details since you can read all about from their OS X Lion page, but with the introduction of this latest version of their OS which brings some interesting features compared to the older versions.

One particular feature took my attention, in fact because of its name, I think anyone who's familiar with Ubuntu cannot go pass by without noticing it.

*Welcome to The Ubuntu/Apple "Twin Paradox" ;-)*


Apple's "Launchpad"

Apple's "version"...

Yep... with the OSX Lion a new feature is named as "Launchpad" will be added!. For those of you who haven't heard, Launchpad is actually "invented" by Canonical to make the installation and hosting of software (both pre-builds and source codes) packages for the Ubuntu Linux OS much more easier to perform.

The Unity's (whatever you call it)... which was implemented before Apple...

There's an interesting Ubuntu Forum page going on concerning the whole issue. But before briefing, both Apple's and Canonical's "Launchpad"s are totally different. What Apple calls a "Launchpad" is actually a new feature which basically lets the users see a full list of running applications rather than the application folder.

This actually is something that we already see in the Unity desktop module (both 3D and 2D) which is implemented by Ubuntu/Canonical developers.

But before "blaming" Apple ... well both Unity and Gnome desktops in general do inherit a lot of features that were already implemented by Apple longtime ago (Nautilus file manager, Unity and Gnome desktop GUI in general, etc) but I never heard Apple complaining about any of those. But that's not to say that Canonical should ignore this whole "Launchpad" issue since it seems that the word "Launchpad" is actually a trademark which was invented and owned by Canonical, as far as I know.

In fact it's actually clearly stated in the Launchpad legal-help page by Canonical, saying that...

Trademark

“Launchpad” is a registered trademark of Canonical Ltd

which I think is the standard legal procedure of denoting the ownership of a trademark. Anyhow, according to this Launchpad bug page (Canonical's one... see, now I've got to keep saying who's "...pad" I'm talking about :P) Canonical legal team is aware of this issue seems to be "working on it" at the moment.

It's really hard to say that Apple wasn't aware of this "name" issue which is highly unlikely but I hope they resolve the whole issue in a friendly manner because GNU/Linux do have its fare share of Mac OS in general :).