Who’s Copying Who Here?

Which came first? The chicken or the egg? Or in this case was it OSX or Vista? Is this really a discussion that needs to be taking up the blogosphere? I guess it is since I’m writing about it too.

Didn’t it used to be that copying was the best form of flattery or something like that? Do we really need to know who copied off of who for their user interface and design? I mean it’s not like this is the only industry that does this sort of thing. Have you ever seen the Mercury Sable or Ford Taurus? Not exactly the same, but you get the picture. What about the Digg.com or Netscape.com copying, although that’s pretty much as blatant a copy of something you can find and Apple vs. Microsoft aren’t doing this nearly to that extreme.

Is it contradictive to want to design inspiring products for your users, and then be upset that another company was inspired by what you’ve produced to try and improve their own products?