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MacChat: Snow Leopard vs Windows 7
FINAL versions might still be vaporware, but enough is known about Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 to make a head-to-head comparison.
Both are relatively minor updates, but critical to their respective platforms: Windows, to make up for the failure of Vista, and Snow Leopardshowcased by Apple’s Bertrand Serlet at the recent Worldwide Developers Conferenceto maintain the recent Mac momentum. We stage a five-round title fight to predict the winner.
Usability: The Mac’s strong suit has traditionally been its user-friendliness, and this advantage continues in Snow Leopard. But Apple and Microsoft continue to borrow from each other, so the two operating systems are more alike than ever. The Taskbar in Windows 7 is now similar to the Mac OS X Dock, with bigger icons and more functionality, and the Dock has incorporated window previews when you mouse over an application icon. Winner: Apple
New features: Apple plays down the number of features in Snow Leopard, saying it’s more an under-the-hood upgrade. Grand Central Dispatch takes advantage of multi-core processors while OpenCL taps the power of your GPU to increase speed, and major applications are now 64-bit. As for Windows, it runs more efficiently than Vista, there’s the Taskbar on steroids, multi-touch controls and window “peeking”. Winner: Microsoft
Legacy support: Apple is always pushing the industry forward, but it comes at a cost. Older hardware and software tend to become obsolete quicker than in the Windows world. Snow Leopard marks the completion of the Mac’s transition to the Intel platform, with PowerPC support cut. Conversely, Microsoft has always bent over backwards to support legacy systems, and in Windows 7 this takes the form of a virtual machine running Windows XP. Winner: Microsoft
Enterprise support: Microsoft has always been the dominant force in the business world, but Apple has claimed an unlikely victory in the area of out-of-the-box Exchange support. Snow Leopard now boasts support for Microsoft’s own Exchange at the system level, meaning you can use Apple’s own Mail, Address Book and iCal seamlessly in corporate environments. With Windows, Exchange support is still an optional extra in the MS Office suite. But while this makes the Mac more viable than ever for business use, it remains easier to add Windows PCs to most company networks. Winner: Microsoft
Versions/pricing: Apple’s “keep it simple” philosophy extends to how it sells its operating system. As always, there will be only two versions of Snow Leopard: client and server. Microsoft does not seem to have learned from its mistakes with Vista, and will offer six versions of Windows 7. Apple has also trumped Microsoft on pricing, offering Snow Leopard for $US29 for existing Leopard users or $14.95 for anyone who buys a Mac before December 26. For Tiger users, Snow Leopard will be available with iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09 for $380. Windows 7 will cost up to $469 for the Ultimate Edition, with upgrades up to $429. Winner: Apple
The verdict: Snow Leopard is better overall than Windows 7, and would be our first choice. But Windows 7 appears to deliver the bigger improvement, hence it takes three of the five rounds and wins our match-up.
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