It's not just you. Every new thing that's any good is usually a retake on something already though about in the early computer times. But some of the implementation back then were crude. With the reinvention there is usually a rethinking and polishing.

No need for the quotation marks. It’s news because you can’t do it with out-of-the-box OS X right now. It’s not innovation (the UI might be, I don’t know) but the article doesn’t claim it is.

Technology, however beautiful, often doesn’t matter if many people are unable to use it. It’s news when said technology might become more accessible in the future.

It's not just you, Henry Spencer reportedly said it (first?) in 1987.

"Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy#Quotes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Spencer#cite_note-2

It more or less all started with Doug Engelbart giving the "mother of all Demos" in 1968. It's all been catch-up since that event.

It's not new. The way I see it is as in the film industry, it's a reboot. It's shinier, it may lack the depth and revelation of the original, but what it lacks in that area it makes up for in special effects and ease of consumption.

Consider Sendmail vs Exim, or Tron vs Tron:Legacy.

Both are essentially the same thing, but one is infinitely easier on the eye.