Microsoft Rips Off Apple’s Workgroup Manager Icon

Monday, 11 December 2006

  1. Go to this page on Microsoft.com for Vista Business edition.

  2. Click the “Buy” tab or “Buy Now” button. The page content changes, to reveal this icon:

    Apple's Workgroup Manager icon on Microsoft.com.

  3. Go to this page on Apple.com for Mac OS X Server.

  4. Scroll down and observe this icon for Apple’s Workgroup Manager app:

    Apple's Workgroup Manager icon on Apple.com

  5. Go “Hmm...”.

  6. Think of a snarky comment making fun of the fact that Microsoft can’t even copy an icon without screwing it up by resizing it. Bonus points if you can work in a crack about the misspelling (“Busines”) in Microsoft’s web page title.

(Thanks to astute DF reader Humberto Becerra for discovering this.)

Update 1: At some point late this afternoon, Microsoft replaced their ripped-off copy of Apple’s Workgroup Manager icon with this gem:

Microsoft's replacement icon.

Judging by the appalling anti-aliasing (look at the edges of the front two displays against the blue screen of the back one), it would appear this replacement icon was rather hastily assembled. Good thing I saved a copy of the original GIF file here. (By the way: GIF? In 2006?)

Update 2: DF reader Jay Woodruff snapped this screenshot around 5 p.m. EST, showing an even crummier-looking replacement icon that looks straight out of Windows 95:

Windows 95-ish icon on microsoft.com