With the introduction of Mac OS X 10.0 in 2001, the operating system immediately stood out for its innovative Aqua interface with transparent, water-like elements.
Leaked code now reveals that Microsoft had a similar theme in store for Windows XP to make PCs look more like an Apple computer with Aqua.
The theme in question from Microsoft, which ultimately never appeared in the final version of Windows XP, was called Candy, tech site The Verge reports.
It looks like two drops – yes – water on Aqua and dates back to 2000 when XP was still in an early development phase.
Like Mac OS X 10.0, XP came out in 2001, but Apple had already previewed Aqua a year earlier, during one of Steve Jobs’ keynotes. There is a good chance that Microsoft shamelessly started the copier after that performance.
The Windows XP source code that was recently released due to a security vulnerability indicates that the Candy theme was not yet fully completed. The theme is described in the code as ‘Whistler skin with eye candy’ (Whistler was the working title of XP) and marked as ‘for internal use only’.
So it was probably never really the intention to actually put the theme in Windows – something that would undoubtedly also lead to a lawsuit from Apple.