14 DAY TRIAL // The world's most advanced and still advancing operating system will never be the same in the Wow aftermath. Mac OS X Tiger has been downgraded to nothing more than a modest platform by Windows Vista.
This past week I had a Tiger test drive. One of our iMac G5 computers was just lying around so I picked it up and moved it on my desk. Next to Windows XP and Windows Vista running on Intel based Mac computers my desk is the epiphany of a sacrilege with the G5 and my AMD PC running side by side and with the Windows Vista box straight in the middle. And since Apple is taunting Tiger as the world's still most advanced operating system with Leopard scheduled for a fall release, all the way in October 2007, the comparison has to be made with the high end edition of Windows Vista, namely Ultimate.
One ridiculous anti-Vista argument that I constantly hear is that the latest operating system from Microsoft is just an upgrade to Windows XP, an upgrade that Windows users have had to wait for six years. During all this time Apple managed to make available versions 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4 of Mac OS X. This is nothing more than average Apple arrogance bundled with ignorance. And it is a behavior condoned at the highest levels of the Cupertino-based company. The fact of the matter is that Mac OS X and Windows XP were both released in 2001. And since then, Microsoft has made available a collection of Windows titles, just as Apple was going from cat to cat. I'm not going to count the first service pack for XP here, but I think that we all agree that Windows XP SP2 is a standalone operating system and not just a service pack.
None other than Jim Allchin, the former Co-President of Microsoft's Platform and Services Division offered a perspective of just what Microsoft has done in the ?gap? between Windows XP and Windows Vista. A little piece of advice to Mac users: you can trust Jim; after all, he would have bought a Mac, except he worked for Microsoft.
- Windows XP Service Pack 2 August, 2004): Other companies would have called this a major release and charged money for it! - Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 (August, 2004): Our handwriting recognition is even better in Windows Vista, but this innovative product broke new ground in handwriting capability. - Windows XP Starter Edition (September 2004): Our innovation here is opening computing to many throughout the world where previously it was out of their price range. - Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (October, 2004): This innovative product ushered in a new era in home entertainment -- moving computing into the living room -- that others are just trying to imitate now. - Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (March, 2005) - Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions (April, 2005) - Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (April, 2005) - Windows Server 2003 R2 (December, 2005) - Windows XP Embedded updates.
This enumeration belongs to Jim Allchin, it was published shortly before he retired from Microsoft. But the most important aspect is Windows Vista, available since January 30, 2007. Although Apple promised to deliver Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in the spring of 2007, the Cupertino-based company has found new priorities in building some sort of a mobile phone they originally dubbed iPhone and left Mac users hanging. Well, last I've heard, product delays build character.
And Apple needs a character in a world of uniformity. Because that is exactly what Apple is, a world of uniformity, where everything is bubblegum white, where there is only one edition of Mac OS X and where the customer choices are limited to... ?I want the one in the corner! No, no to the left of that one! Oh, they're the same? Well the one in the corner looks whiter to me. That's the one I want. Now I'm satisfied. Pack it up so I can get home and play the two games that support Mac OS X.?
With Windows Vista, Microsoft is delivering nuances enough to satisfy any taste and for all available hardware configurations. Sure Tiger runs ?great? on a 1.6 Ghz PowerPC Processor with just 512 MB of RAM, and it should, it is a modest operating system, created for modest configurations. Windows Vista Basic is in fact the perfect equivalent of Mac OS X Tiger. Unpretentious and basic...
But Windows Vista Basic is a stripped down version of Windows Vista Ultimate. And the Ultimate edition spells the Wow you've undoubtedly been hearing about. It's $399 and worth every cent, it's resource hungry and worth every bit of RAM and is well beyond anything Apple has ever done with Mac OS X Tiger.
So I moved the iMac on my desk. I just want to say a few words about my first comprehensive Mac experience. Using Mac OS X Tiger is in a sense much like a trip to England by car. You simply can't stop bitching about driving on the wrong side of the road. The Tiger graphical user interface is like that... driving on the wrong side of the road. And the Close, Minimize and Maximize buttons are on the wrong side of every window.
The desktop functionality is similar both on Tiger and Windows Vista. Users have the same basic set of options for managing desktop icons, scaling, grouping and arranging. Still I will go for my Control+scroll in Vista anytime rather than for the Icon size scale bar in Tiger. Also, while the Tiger icons are limited to 128X128, in Windows Vista you can go all out and the resolution will be nothing short of impeccable.
Additionally, the live previews of the items in the Taskbar make Tiger's Dock look obsolete. And obsolete in an 80's disco kind of way with its flashy and useless magnifying effect. Tiger's Dock quickly becomes overcrowded and the magnifying effect only manages to get in your way taking the items to the periphery and out of the desktop. Not to mention the fact that every accessed Dock item that is then minimized overhauls the order of the pieces. This little detail manages to deliver a considerably affected workflow.
Oh yes, did I mention the buttons on the windows? When over 93% of the world's computer users go right in order to close, minimize and maximize a window and only Mac OS X goes left, it's a problem. Apple should just get with the flow, understand that Microsoft has set up a standard of functionality and fall in line. It's a simple redesign that will go a long way.
The lack of full screen capabilities is also a major impediment. Together with the Apple menu at the top of the desktop. It feels like the Cupertino-based company simply built one menu for all its applications, taking the easy way out. Sure it's context sensitive and adapts to the application that is into focus, but why take the time to implement menus across Tiger, when you can just build one, and you're all set to go. The problem is that, no matter where a window is opened on the Tiger desktop you have to travel all the way to the top of the screen in order to access the menu. Driving on the wrong side of the road yet again...
I realize now that I should have started with the beginning. The installation. Both Windows Vista and Mac OS X Tiger come on either DVD or CD-ROM support, although DVD is the standard. PC and Mac users are now able to perform in place upgrades, clean installs or installs by archiving the previous operating system. The Vista installation DVD delivers Windows Imaging format code and, as such, Vista users can effortlessly upgrade from one edition of the operating system to another. In addition, both operating systems come with comprehensive migration tools. However, I find Windows Vista's installation process superior to that of Tiger. And after installation, Windows Vista welcomes users with the Aero melody, courtesy of Robert Fripp. The Mac user will hear a nasty dong sound that it is impossible to turn off. Guess it's the acoustic trademark that just screams white!
Obviously, the most relevant comparison that users will make from the get go is Aero vs. Aqua. Well, there's no comparison, the graphical user interfaces in Windows Vista and Tiger are in a whole different league. Windows Aero delivers elegant transparencies and glass effects for a top desktop experience, but the animated backgrounds via DreamScene are the feature that truly makes Tiger's interface look out of place, gray, insipid, unattractive and inconsistent. Not to mention that Expose does not deliver an effect even close to that of Flip 3D, and is simply inferior as far as multiple application management is concerned compared to Vista's Flip or the Cascade Windows, Show Windows Stacked, Show Windows Side by Side options.
The Dashboard is another area where Apple has claimed superiority. Microsoft was even accused of copying the Dashboard with the Windows Sidebar. Nothing could be further from the truth. So Mac users have widgets and Vista users have gadgets. There have been some fingers pointed at Apple over Konfabulator too, so I guess that what goes around comes around. The Dashboard's main downside is the fact that it takes the user out of the desktop into a whole new different area. Tiger users cannot access Dashboard widgets and desktop applications on the same layer, they have to do a sort off trade-off, either one or the other. By comparison, Vista's Sidebar is right there on the desktop.
Spotlight is yet another feature that Apple accused Microsoft of copying with Instant Search. Windows Vista enables users to search across locations on the operating system or via the Start Menu Search Box in a manner similar to that of Spotlight. I failed to find a patent owned by Apple for search, so I guess Microsoft is off the hook on this one. But how about the File, Edit, View options in Tiger's desktop menu? I wonder where the Cupertino-based company found inspiration for those.
Now Apple has touted the fact that Tiger brings to the table some 200 new features, but that is nothing more than marketing. The fact of the matter is that the actual features are Address Book 4.0 , AppleScript, Aqua, Bluetooth support, Finder, Font Book, iCal, iChat AV, Mail 2, DVD Player 4.5, Mac Sync and Quick Time 7. And that's about it. Sad but true.
By comparison, here is a list of features from Windows Vista: User Account Control, Windows Security Center, Windows Defender, Windows Firewall, Next-generation TCP/IP stack IPv6 and IPv4 support, Windows ReadyDrive, Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM), Ad hoc backup and recovery of user files and folders, Scheduled backup of user files Shadow Copy, Aero, Instant Search, Internet Explorer 7 with RSS feed support, tabbed browsing, and integrated search, .NET Framework 3.0, Windows SuperFetch, Windows ReadyBoost, Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Sidebar, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Media Player 11, Native DVD playback, Windows Media Center Support for Media Center Extenders, including Xbox 360, Windows Movie Maker HD, Windows DVD Maker (Video DVD Authoring and Burning), Windows Mobility Center and the Sync Center.
Windows Vista simply has more to offer. But the most important evolution is the fact that Windows Vista has become a safer operating system than Mac OS X 10.4 in terms of code quality. A comparison of the vulnerabilities that have affected Windows Vista and Tiger revealed that the code in the latest operating system from Microsoft is superior to that in Tiger. But Mac users have a unique way of ignoring the truth and claiming foul play against the most logical and lucid statistics. It's like that in the white, Aqua bubblegum Apple world, where everybody is happily building iPhones ever after.
But at 6% of the operating system market, Tiger continues to be overlooked by attackers. It's not that Apple is safe, or that it's foolproof. It's that people even barely notice that it exists. This gives the false perception of safety. Things will undoubtedly change with Leopard judging by the poor condition this cat is in.
Apple is simply stuck in the past, and will never be more than second best. Moving to Intel is the only revolution that Apple can truly be credited with. The best thing that Tiger does is the fact that it runs on Intel-based Mac computers. The best thing about Intel-based Macs is that they can run Windows Vista. Now Mac users too can experience the Wow, and stop feeling like the kid that has been left out of the game just because of his strange if not bad taste in hardware design. Apple itself is building Boot Camp, a software solution designed to let the Mac user experience a true operating system. Now, can you go any lower than that? After claiming that PowerPCs are the world's top processors Apple adopted Intel, and after applauding Mac OS X as the most advanced and still advancing operating system in the world, Apple is embracing Windows Vista. This is laughable!
All roads lead to Windows Vista, even if you are driving on the wrong side of the road.
Q.E.D.
Now read the alternative approach via this link.
