fair enough. I wasnt aware that KDE was the originator of the term hot corners. Its so easy to overlook those guys and all they do for modern GUI. The earliest reference I remember for the term was in Mac OSx10.4 Tiger from 2005, if memory serves. KDE has had legitimately popular releases since 1998, so there you go. My bad.
Hasn't, that's still there in current builds. There is actually an attempt to ensure that the same things can be performed in equal or fewer actions in Win8 as Win7; you do often have to know how, though. But the start key + type thing works in almost exactly the same manner. You just get a 2D list now, if there are that many items, and it's also categorized into apps / settings / files. P.S. When did KDE get the hot corners? Last time I used it (back in Mandrake 9.2 in late 03/early 04 I think, so might not count for much) I don't remember seeing them. But that was a while ago.
ah hah, so it works just like spotlight in OSx, then? You hit the apple key and spacebar and start typing. It opens up any files (categorized into text/movie/audio/etc,) applications, and a dictionary entry if you are looking up a word. Apple's only option for a "start menu" is the shortcut bar at the bottom, so you have to get good at using spotlight in a hurry. I started loving it so much, I began using it on Windows, as well. On the KDE thing. I agree. I could have sworn I saw that that was an Apple creation, and my research showed that someone had made a plugin or addon or whatever you call it to add this to KDE. But, Ive never actually used the KDE setup. I just know that crew has had a large impact on modern interfaces, so it surprise me if they had a hand in it. SO, I took the comment at face value.
ugh I look like such an iKid, here. Let the record show I am not an Apple fanboy. I have a hackintosh that I use because I use editing programs that have plugins that are only available on Mac. Thus, I have some experience with the interface.
I am unfortunately lacking in experience with Apple operating systems past OS 9, so I can't confirm how similar it is to the OS X experience; the best I can do is to restate this in more clarity Windows Vista/7 method: Press Windows key; Start menu will appear. Type the name of the application and immediately the menu will switch from its initial "most used applications" view to a "search results list" view. You can use the arrow keys to select the correct result and Enter to start it (sometimes Enter is all that is needed if there was only one match); or use the mouse to do both at the same time. Windows 8 method: Press Windows key and the Start screen will appear. Start typing the name of the application and it will switch from the initial pinned applications list to a search results screen. The majority of the screen, on the left, is dedicated to the results, displayed in a 2D grid and navigable by keys or mouse as such; on the right there is a bar that shows the query you entered, and below that three search categories, "Applications", "Settings" and "Files". I think Applications is selected by default so normally the results are filtered by that initially (there are Windows+letter key combinations you can use to select different categories initially). I don't remember off the top of my head what the fastest way to switch filters by keyboard only is, once you've already started typing; it's possible that the same shortcuts will still work though. Broadly speaking it does sound like your description of Spotlight, but there are some subtle differences.
Just as long as they don't duplicate the Mac concept of "drag a diskette to the trash can to eject the disk" (I guess nowadays it would be a CD/DVD/Bluray disc)
yeah not a fan of that. You can right click the disk and select eject out of the menu to safely remove,though. That became more useful when apple finally realised that two buttons were better than one on a mouse.