If it wasn't for the thumping and well-deserved success of Windows 7,  I would not be writing this. Funnily enough, I remember writing a speculative piece about the possibility of a future Windows 8 Operating System a few years ago for a colleague, and how we laughed about it.  But that was right after Windows Vista blew a raspberry in Microsoft's face.

This is now, and I might be eating my words, since short of taking my breath away, Windows 7 pleasantly surprises everyone and I hope Microsoft keeps true to its promise, and Windows 8 delivers what it promises.

Windows 7 borrowed heavily from its rival, Apple's very own OS X range of Operating Systems. So it is no surprise then, that the release of the developer version of Windows 8 coincided with the launch of OS X Lion, and features the same 'finger-friendly' functionality.

For the longest time, Microsoft and Apple have been the major contenders in the battle for OS supremacy.  Apple has always been the company known for its rock-solid hardware products (iPod, iPads to name a few), and also for producing spectacular, eye-popping operating systems (the entire OS X range) that actually work.

Microsoft, on the other hand has always projected itself as a dedicated software company with minor success with hardware products (Zune) and its 'omnipresent' flagship product, the Windows OS.

Coming back to the present, both Lion and Windows 8 share a similar design aspect: both borrow heavily from their own respective mobile OS. While announcing Lion last year, former Apple chief Steve Jobs said that it was heavily influenced by the iOS platform used both in iPad and iPod.

Similarly, Microsoft found inspiration from its very own Windows mobile OS to design Windows 8. But multi-touch and synchronisation across multiple devices are not the only similarities between the two. They have more in common than the very obvious. Let's take a look and find out:

Look and feel: This would be the obvious one, but I will not discredit Microsoft here and say that the graphic user interface is an exact replica of Lion. In the latter's case,  Apple users have the ever-present launchpad, which can be used to customise the desktop environment to look like an iPad or iPhone.

On the other hand, Microsoft has completely redesigned its own desktop. It looks clean and stylish, exactly as it is on its Windows 7 Mango phones.

App stores: These have been Apple's stronghold and they will continue to be so, even in forthcoming upgrades. While Microsoft has no such claim, it has hinted at the inclusion of such a feature in the near-future. Only time will tell if it has any takers, if indeed it is included in the final version of Windows 8, since a prototype version of the aforesaid feature has already made its debut on the developer release.

Full screen support:

While Windows users have always enjoyed working full screen on nearly all the releases (by default, or by pressing F11) Mac OS perpetually displayed its menu atop the screen. Lion changes it by letting any programme take up the entire screen.

Touch support:  Both Windows 8 and Lion have claimed greater multi-touch and gesture support, but the difference being that where Windows 8 will actually support touch screens as your input device, Lion will rely on touchpads and external devices.

Footnote:
These are just a few similarities I found while giving a cursory glance to both operating systems. It really wouldn't be fair to compare the two, since Microsoft is still to come out with the final version of its OS, and Lion is already available to existing Snow Leopard users (for a nominal? fee) as an upgrade.

Whatever the comparisons, one thing is clear, when we look at both the operating systems: we have never gotten simpler menus; larger, so-pretty-you-can-eat buttons, and simplified user interfaces. And it is a fresh and refreshing change, a far cry from computers of yesteryears when you had to struggle for cooperation. Also, we get to do more tinkering and customising without the fear of crashing the machine to oblivion, since most of the newer systems come with the option of a total system restore.

All said and done, we can really look forward to more such innovations in the coming days, since tech giants have woken up to what end users like us want. I say this because five years ago, tablets were something we thought only Hollywood could dream of. The time for humanised technology is here!