Among the styles, codenamed “Candy,” mirrors the design of Apples Aqua user interface, which was first presented at the Macworld Conference & & Expo in 2000. Aqua was an iconic Apple style and provided a sense of depth through making use of shadow and translucency, metal textures, and rounded liquid-like possessions.
Many striking is the duplication of Mac OS Xs rounded water-like buttons. Windows designers apparently utilized the theme as a placeholder to construct the theme engine for Windows XP.
Microsoft tested a Windows XP theme that closely looked like Mac OS Xs Aqua GUI, reports The Edge.
The theme was ultimately rejected in favor of the green and blue Luna style for the final version of Windows XP launched in 2001. The source code leakage reveals another instance of the influence of the Mac on Windows behind the scenes.
The style was described as a “Whistler skin with eye sweet,” with “Whistler” being the codename for Windows XP, and was marked as “for internal use only.” Though the theme was never finished, fundamental elements such as the Windows Start button and numerous UI components were a close match for Aqua.
A current Windows XP source code leak has actually revealed numerous unreleased themes that Microsoft established in 2000, at a time when Microsoft was in heated competitors with Apple concerning desktop os.
