So Panther's finally here, and everyone's all giddy with the sheer niftiness of it all. But it's only a matter of time before Microsoft totally steamrolls us all with Longhorn, right? Granted, that next version of Windows isn't available yet like Panther is, but it's still right over there-- lurking in the shadows of development (or, since this is a Microsoft operating system we're talking about, lurking in the shadows of "development"), biding its time and preparing to pounce. And when it does, will we Mac users all look at it and think, "gee, that's so far ahead of Panther we should all switch to Windows right now"?

Well, no-- for one thing, longhorns are notoriously lousy at pouncing, and it's actually pretty comical to watch them try. For another thing, Longhorn isn't expected to ship until 2006, so unless Apple spends the next three years devoting 100% of its development resources to its long-awaited multithreaded, multiprocessor-aware, Altivec-enhanced Mac OS X port of the System 6 "Puzzle" desk accessory, we'll be long past Panther by then anyhow. But the main reason why we think most Mac users won't be impressed is this: so far Longhorn is ugly as sin.

Actually, it's uglier. As a matter of fact, it's uglier than sin is when it's just gotten up in the morning after two hours of sleep and is nursing a hangover. After a botched facelift.

Let's put it this way: in its current state, Longhorn is uglier than Ballmer. 'Nuff said.

Yes, according to IDG, Longhorn just made its first official public appearance today at Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference, and as faithful viewer William Higgins III points out, based on screenshots of the latest development build (such as this one, just one of many linked at WindowsBeta.net), Longhorn's interface looks kind of like Microsoft hired a half-blind intern to try to copy the big, round, inset buttons and brushed metal look of iTunes, crank the whole thing a few shades darker, smooth it out, and then adorn it with color-clashing icons and the same crappy jagged text Windows users have put up with for millennia. (Note that they've even copied the "lighter in the center" gradient from Apple's brushed metal apps, except that on the Mac it's subtle enough where you may never even have noticed it before, whereas Longhorn beats you over the head with it until your eyes deflate.)

Seriously, can anyone look at this desktop and not be simultaneously baffled by its contents and assaulted by its visual design? We start getting short of breath when we try looking at it for more than a few seconds. Wasn't this supposed to be simpler?

Note that we're not lambasting Longhorn for any hardcore technical reasons (some of its announced features sound almost like innovation, amazingly enough), and we're certain that its look and feel will probably change drastically over the course of the next three years, but right now... well, let's just say that most Mac users wouldn't be able to use Longhorn's current user interface for longer than about ten minutes without taking anti-nausea medication or putting a paper bag over the monitor. Finally, something Mac users can agree on! Longhorn: whether you love "brushed metal" or hate it, you will definitely not like this.