14 DAY TRIAL // Although I am not a Mac or Windows evangelist and I try to be as impartial as possible when writing about this hot "Vista vs Mac OS X" topic, I can't say that Apple was playing soft when they put up the "Get a Mac" page on their official site. I agree with the fact that Mac OS X Tiger is more advanced than Vista when considering many aspects, but I never liked this kind of comparative marketing "look, their products are bad, ours are better", and this is what happens with "Vista vs. Mac OS X" battle these days. Anyway, after checking Apple's side of the story yesterday, now it's time to see what Microsoft has to say about this...
First of all, I think that some additional facts would be interesting to point out at this time. According to previous reports, iTunes was not compatible with Windows Vista, but Apple just released iTunes Repair Tool for Vista 1.0, a tiny 88KB download that should be able to "repair permissions for important files required by iTunes to play your iTunes Store purchases." On the other hand, Apple will respond on the 21st of February to Cisco's lawsuit in the UK, but no date has been set for a response to the lawsuit filed by Cisco in California. These being said, let's move to Bill Gates now, shall we?
In a recent interview given to Newsweek's Steven Levy, Bill Gates talked about the "Get a Mac" ads, Apple's attitude towards Microsoft's OS and a few other things. Needless to say that the best thing to show to a user to make it upgrade to Vista is the Sidebar, the new search tool and the new look, according to Gates, and I don't want to be rude, but this looks like advertising a product for kids and absolute beginners, in my opinion.
When asked about Apple's commercial where the PC has to undergo surgery to get Vista, Gates said "I've never seen it. I don't think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are." Well, I think he should see it, because the truth is that most computers over an year old should go "under the scalpel" to be fit for Vista...
At last, it should be noted that Bill has no idea why Apple is "acting like it's superior".
"I don't even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you're really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There's not even the slightest shred of truth to it," said Gates.
Well, the idea goes like this - nobody has a perfect operating system, but where would be Microsoft today, if Apple wouldn't have existed? I'd probably be writing these lines using a command line interface text editor in MS-DOS 12.23, but getting back to the reality, I think that everyone should acknowledge its weak parts and strong ones. After all, Microsoft has a decent product and knows how to make it sell, since it has over 90 percent of the market in control, while Apple has a better product but has a long way to go in learning to conquer the clients, and this is not going to succeed by throwing mud at Microsoft. About the "who made a copy of what" part, I won't say anything now. That's for you to decide.