The OS X Leopard that might have been

Apple gets a lot of accolades for its user interface design, and even Microsoft is turning some heads with Vista and Office 2007, but they should both be paying attention to the OS Eric Patterson made. Unfortunately for us, Eric Patterson's OS isn't real: It's just a mock-up of what he thinks Mac OS 10.5 Leopard should look like, and it's cool enough to have won Phill Ryu's Fake Leopard Screenshot Contest. Ryu challenged would-be interface designers to envision the future of Mac OS X, and the results are truly stunning. Patterson's improvements are attractive, refined, and downright cool, and the other winners and runners-up are much the same. These people should be working for Apple--I want this stuff now!

Tags: apple, contest, design, leopard, mac, macos, osx, Phill Ryu, PhillRyu, ui