I had blogged earlier about the Apple tiger release. Now, that the entire Mac world awaits for the release, and the Windows people wondering why they can’t have the uber-cool stuff, Microsoft steps up t0 the challenge.
Take a look at the this CNET article . It says that Microsoft has broken new ground with this:
But while the OS bears plenty of similarities to Tiger, Allchin stressed that Microsoft has broken new ground in Longhorn. For example, document icons are no longer a hint of the type of file, but rather a small picture of the file itself. The icon for a Word document, for example, is a tiny iteration of the first page of the file. Folders, too, show glimpses of what’s inside. Such images can be rather small, but they offer a visual cue that aids in the searching process, Allchin said.
Next, about security:
Security is something which you expect the product to built in with. Windows XP SP 2 was such a hassle to install with broken software, and stuff. A study detailed here show that only 24% of admins installed SP2 as they were afraid that their system would break.
Also, Longhorn obviously needs faster hardware. My experience with Apple software (also true with linux) is that my hardware runs better on newer versions of the software, instead of slower. Obviously, if I had better hardware, it would run faster, I could get uber-cool effects, eye-candy etc., but all i care about is getting my work done.
When will Microsoft quitting giving people eye-candy, and actually work on delivering users stability, and speed? I dunno, and I don’t care.
Anyways, getting to the main point, check out this article .Blurb from article:
Availability and licensing
Apple Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” will become publicly available April 29 and sold only on DVD, though beta versions were available both in DVD and CD formats. My sources tell me, however, that Apple will swap the Setup DVD to CDs upon request for a small charge. Tiger costs $129 for all users of previous Mac OS X versions, contradicting promises from the company that every other OS X update would be free. Apple also offers a 5-Mac “Family Pack” for $199 that lets you install the system on up to 5 Macintosh systems, though there is no copy protection or activation scheme in the single Mac version that would prevent you from installing a single copy on multiple machines. If the past is any indication, Apple will release numerous fixes for Mac OS X 10.4 within days of the software’s release. My sources on the beta tell me that testers were shocked Apple decided to finalize the software when they did. Apparently a lot of problems still exist in the final code. I didn’t experience any major issues in my own testing, however, and found Tiger to be quite stable.
Apple users probably don’t pirate CD’s of Apple becuase they think it is a reasonable price to pay for the software, not like Windows users where every two years they have to pay for security updates in form of a OS. Let me elaborate:
Win 95 -> Win 98 : Better hardware support, nothing impressive here
Win 98 -> Win 2k : More stable, no major usability improvements
Win 2k -> Win XP: Better eye candy
Win XP SP1,Win SP2: Security improvements for errors made from Win95 onwards!
SO, who would like to pay abt 100$ for all that?
Conclusions
Apple Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” is the strongest OS X release yet and a worthy competitor to Windows XP. Though it is marketed by Apple as a major release, Tiger is in fact a minor upgrade with few major new features for end users (though developers will be interested in some of the low-level work Apple has done with Core Image, Core Audio, and other technologies. That won’t stop Apple fans from flocking to Apple Stores on April 29 and standing in line to buy it, even at its inflated $129 price. That’s fine, I guess: Tiger performs well, looks great, and offers many modern OS features. Tiger builds on the rock-solid foundation of previous OS X releases, adds a few major new features, and applies a nice spit polish to hundreds of other small features. Tiger may lack some of the niceties that make Windows more appealing to new users, but it does reward those with existing computer skills with a minimalist yet elegant user interface that, as advertised, “gets out of the way” and lets you get your job done. If you can look past Apple’s corporate bravado, you’ll see that Tiger is one impressive cat. And unlike Longhorn, it’s shipping now. What a concept.
What the author misses here is that Apple offers a lot of improvements to a wide vareity of people. Something here for Graphic developers, improvements to gcc and other low level stuff. All I care about is getting my job done, and Apple has come up with features which help me do just that, which were absent in Panter, aka Mac OS X10.3 . And security updates all the time, and free too!
You probably won’t understand what I am talking about, but you need to use a Mac atleast once to find out what I am talking about. And, I probably will be getting Tiger once I get some more $$.
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