Battle of the Operating Systems: OS X Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7

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Which do you prefer, Windows or Leopard?

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SiteWerks
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Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2010 4:05 pm

Battle of the Operating Systems: OS X Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7

Post by SiteWerks »

Battle of the Operating Systems: OS X Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7
Ok, so we have been unhappy with Vista so far and the initially much hyped operating system isn’t convincing as many customers as Microsoft has hoped for. And today Microsoft even admitted that mistakes have been made, but it aims to correct those with Windows 7. At least from what we have seen so far, Windows 7 isn’t an entirely different operating system (well, it is built on top of the Vista foundation after all), but it has a slightly different desktop look new features to navigate and organize your desktop and if we believe Microsoft, it will run faster than Vista, consume not as many resources and even improve the battery time on a notebook.

Time for a first comparison.

The new desktop

Windows 7 tweaks the desktop a bit with tray icons that can be moved, a wallpaper preview, customizable color settings and windows that snap to screen edges. The latter is a nice addition while the remaining new features simply play catch up with Apple. We have seen a stronger emphasis on tabs already in IE8 and in Windows 7 it seems that Microsoft is getting very creative with this approach. Tabbed applications and Jump Lists organize multiple active applications and accelerate access to them. Windows 7 still has a Start button, which is unlikely to go away anytime soon. The look of the desktop is really a matter of taste. In terms of functionality, Microsoft may be able to catch up with Apple.

The new taskbar vs. the old taskbar


The taskbar in Windows 7 is very reminiscent of the dock in OS X – and looks compelling: You can resize it and customize its contents; it shows window thumbnails when you hover over application icons. The taskbar can now house both active and inactive application icons and sports a context menu (Jump Lists) with useful options to access a list of open windows, most recently used **** for an application and more. After a first demonstration, it looks like a job well done. Less clutter is good news.

Although OS X's dock manages applications more efficiently and has an edge in terms of visuals (at least as long as we haven’t seen the animations in Windows 7 now possible with DirectX 2D acceleration), Apple should take a closer look at the window thumbnails in Windows 7 taskbar and the way it enables user to flip through open tabs within an application. As it stands now, OS X' window manager Expose looks a bit old when compared against to Windows 7. Advantage Microsoft.

Tray vs. status bar

Windows 7 beats OS X in two features: The ability to drag and drop tray icons to the desktop and the way how notification settings can be handled. A new notification center (“Action Center”) allows you to configure either global or individual settings for messages - and how they should appear. You can even suppress any messages and check all messages in the Action Center when you choose to. As far as we know, Snow Leopard will lack a system-wide notification feature for applications and we think it would be a good idea for Apple copy Microsoft on this one. Advantage Microsoft.

Multi-touch

Windows 7 is in the lead once again. Microsoft tries to beat Apple in its own game and is likely to become the first consumer OS to deliver multi-touch capability in the desktop and notebook computer space. The technology offers support for multi-touch gestures for mouse actions - which enables legacy applications to work in concert with touchscreen features. Applications that specifically take advantage of the multi-touch capability, like Paint or Microsoft Earth, are certain to attract attention. Gestures are a bit more complicated than what Apple has come up with in its iPhone. OS X has limited multi-touch support for Macbook touchpads, but there is no indication Apple plans to bring the technology on a system-wide level. Since Microsoft also pitched multi-touch as input method that augments a keyboard and a mouse, it may not be a big deal and it is questionable whether users will adopt multi-touch features or not. However, Windows 7 will have the technological edge, no doubt about it. Advantage Microsoft.

Libraries vs. Smart Search


Windows 7 supports complex file searches that span multiple local, external and network drives. There is a clean UI and a web-like preview, in addition to a search field that now displays frequently used keywords. But Leopard's Spotlight already has those features and it can also search content on other computers on the network or even over the Internet, using the Back to My Mac feature. Spotlight also allows advanced Boolean searches; Smart search folders that automatically updates as the content changes. Advantage Apple.

Home networking


Windows 7 delivers a range of interesting new network features that simplify the painful process when you want to connect to a network and deal with its settings. New Windows 7 devices can join a network with a single **** and settings – such as printers - are carried over automatically. You can access content on networked devices and stream content from other networked devices to any device in the network, as long as they are part of the Home Group. There is also a new Device Stage feature that lists all device-specific features (including manuals) in one place. Snow Leopard is likely lack these features, which is remarkable since networking is one of OS X's stronger areas. Advantage Microsoft.

Windows Live "Wave 3" is Microsoft's iLife for Windows 7


Microsoft's cloud initiative should get Apple concerned. Although Apple really defined an easy digital lifestyle with its iLife bundle that comes preinstalled on every Mac, Windows 7 + Windows Live "Wave 3" combination closes the gap. iLife still offers stunning templates, unmatched integration and easy-to-use applications to create and manage music, photos, videos, DVDs, blogs and websites. It is the cloud service that lags behind. Although MobileMe offers 20 GB of online storage, web-based email, photo gallery, contacts, calendars and information syncing with Macs, PCs and iPhones, it is still unreliable and carries a hefty $99 per year price tag.

The Windows Live cloud service offers 5 GB of online storage and matches MobileMe in terms of features, but comes free of charge. Also, there are free downloadable applications to manage photos, blogging, instant messaging, email clients and online safety as well as content filtering that basically mimics the iLife bundle. Both MobileMe and Windows Live do a great job keeping your personal information in sync and sharing content. iLife leads as far as organizing media is concerned, but Windows Live offers more online services and is free of charge.

Windows Live applications and online services are turning into iLife for Windows 7 and are slowly but surely eroding Macs' lead in managing digital content. Apple is clearly barely dipping its toes in online services and shooting itself in the foot by charging what Microsoft offers for free. Looks like a tie to us right now, but Microsoft is clearly in the process of taking the lead.

Code improvements


If you were hoping for substantial code optimizations in Windows 7, you may be disappointed. There are under-the-hood tweaks, such as a smaller memory footprint, faster boot times, reduced disk I/Os due to less file indexing and fewer registry accesses, GPU-accelerated 2D text rendering and animation as well as a more responsive UI. But we expect OS X to take the lead here. We already know that Snow Leopard will have an extremely small memory footprint, fast loading times and OpenCL-based GPGPU acceleration. As far as performance is concerned, Apple’s focus on shaving weight off its software and enabling the massive horsepower in GPUs should deliver a substantial speed advantage for Mac OS X. However, Microsoft’s decision to stay with the Vista foundation and its driver model has a key advantage. It can carryover all the developments and drivers that have been created for Vista can brag about a huge ecosystem supporting the Windows 7 launch. Still, we believe that Apple has an advantage here.


Conclusion

Of course it is too early to draw any conclusions which will be the better operating system and the comparisons listed above represent a very limited view on the entire feature set of both operating systems. Apple has the advantage of working with a much better base level than Microsoft, but it seems to us that Windows 7 will be a huge improvement over Vista. We will have to wait until Q1 2009 to get a first look at the feature-complete Beta and for RC1 in Q2 or Q3 to see how fast Windows 7 really is. Snow Leopard is expected to surface as a beta in January 2009 and debut in the June/July timeframe.

The good news for the user is that Microsoft apparently listened to the waves of complaints and has put lots of brainwork in the question how it could improve Vista with effective features while leaving the core of the OS nearly untouched. As a Maintenance release, Windows 7, essentially is Windows Vista SE (“Second Edition”) and appears to have all the features to bridge the time until Microsoft can roll out a next-gen operating system.

What remains to be seen is if the next desktop OS battle will be fought over speed or features, but Apple certainly has enough ammunition to wage war on both fronts. Microsoft is catching up with useful innovations and meaningful tweaks. The big downside of Windows 7 will be a lack of GPGPU acceleration and if Apple is actually able to implement this feature system-wide, then Microsoft will have a problem it cannot fix short term, not even with a Windows 7-sized patch.


aolko
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2010 5:01 pm

Post by aolko »

And windows wins 'cos its better then ever
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