The Windows 7 Taskbar
Text descriptions on the buttons are gone, in favor of big icons. The icons can—finally—be rearranged; no longer will restarting an application put all your taskbar icons in the wrong order.
So the taskbar is becoming the OS X dock?

Chris Clark is an interaction designer in Vancouver, BC. Chris hits the Twitter like Sonny hits trees, and rumor has it he likes PiƱa Coladas and getting caught in the rain.
This link and the associated commentary were first published here on October 29, 2008.