They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Well, if that's the case, then Apple got its valentine from Microsoft a day early-- in the form of a big, wet kiss known as Windows XP. Yes, Bill Gates finally took the wraps off of his company's next operating system, and we admit that until that momentous occasion, despite the similarity of "XP" to "X,", we still weren't entirely convinced that Microsoft was just planning to clone Mac OS X outright. But if we were still unsure that Microsoft planned to capitalize on Mac OS X's look, feel, buzz, and feature set, any lingering doubts evaporated in a puff of smoke as soon as details about the XP unveiling started to emerge.

Some of the "borrowed" elements are extremely subtle. Faithful viewer The Professor noticed that on Microsoft's Windows XP preview page, Microsoft showcases a yellow flower in the "My Pictures" screenshot. Now take a look at the screenshot of the Mac OS X desktop featured on Apple's site. Well, glory be; a yellow flower. Fancy that. "Just a coincidence," you say? Well, perhaps-- but heck, Microsoft's rip-off artists haven't even limited themselves to Mac OS X for "inspiration." How else can you explain the duck? Faithful viewer Gene Willickers was the first of many, many people to write in about the duck. Take a look at the first screenshot on the very same Windows XP page; doesn't that multiple users login screen look an awful lot like Mac OS 9's? More specifically, doesn't the duck icon that "Connor" has chosen to represent himself seem intensely familiar?

Small details, we know, and taken by themselves they wouldn't amount to much evidence. But it's all the little things taken together as a whole that make Microsoft's copying of Apple so clear. After all, why unveil this new OS just a month before Mac OS X is slated to ship? Why the drastic change in naming conventions to something with an "X" in it? Why a new, "streamlined" interface? Why name said interface "Luna," a word suspiciously close to "Aqua"? Why is the "Recycle Bin" now in the lower right corner of the screen? And, most importantly, why the same duck? We could go on and on (and we often do).

And, in case we thought we were just being overly paranoid (as if there is such a thing), faithful viewer Barry Hamill pointed out that even Windows developers can see right through Bill's plan. A ZDNet News article about the Windows XP launch quotes an anonymous developer as saying, "This is so sad. They're just lamely trying to copy Steve Jobs' Apple presentation-- right down to the guy having a black shirt and black pants. It's almost like Windows ME 2. Or as Apple might call it, Windows Me Too." Burn!!