Cargo craft docks with space station

Cargo craft docks with space station

EURussia-Space Station,0119 Cargo craft docks with space station Eds: NewsNow.

NASA photos show moon strike created plume
LOS ANGELES -- NASA's much-hyped mission to hurl a spacecraft into the moon turned out some worthwhile data after all, scientists said.
MacChat: Has Windows caught up to the Mac?

IS it true? After 24 years, can Windows now be considered a match for the Mac OS? One of America’s most respected tech journalists thinks so.

The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, who has traditionally recommended Macs over PCs for most users, now says the choice is less clear. While he gives an edge to the Mac for its security and superior bundled software, he says it’s now more of a “toss-up” between the recently released Mac OS X Snow Leopard and the forthcoming Windows 7.

Indeed, back in July, MacChat awarded our smackdown crown to Windows 7 for being most improved, even though we preferred Snow Leopard overall.

The Mac vs Windows war is almost as old as the computer industry itself. While it’s been generally accepted that the Mac OS has the more elegant and intuitive interface, Windows has dominated the market by being licensed to most PC makers.

After the disaster of Windows Vista, when the Mac made dramatic market share gains also aided by the iPod and iPhone halo effect, Windows 7 marks the first time Windows users have been excited about a new version in some time.

With Snow Leopard being a maintenance release featuring mainly under-the-hood refinements, Windows has taken the opportunity to narrow the gap with more visible user features.

On the surface, Windows now looks more Mac-like than ever, with its oversized taskbar resembling the Dock and windowing features not unlike Expose (Apple borrowed Windows’ taskbar window previews for Snow Leopard). Windows 7 even supports multi-touch, both on the screen and trackpad (Snow Leopard only uses the trackpad).

“Windows 7 beats the Mac OS in some areas, such as better previews and navigation right from the taskbar, easier organisation of open windows on the desktop and touchscreen capabilities,” Mossberg says.

“So Apple will have to scramble now that the gift of a flawed Vista has been replaced with a reliable, elegant version of Windows.”

But there are still several important reasons why the Mac OS is superior to Windows. The first is the fundamental reason the Mac OS has always had the edge: its clean and simple interface. While it might now look shinier, Windows 7 still has more cluttered and clunky file navigation than the Mac, and less aesthetic use of fonts and space.

Also, Snow Leopard sees Mac OS X get faster and more efficient, using as little as 6GB of hard disk space and taking full advantage of multicore processors and tapping the latent processing power of graphics cards.

Meanwhile, Windows 7 is stuck with its DOS-based legacy code and the dreaded Registry, and can take more than two minutes to start up, judging by the latest tests.

There’s also the iLife factor. Apple’s suite of digital lifestyle applicationsiPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and iWebremain unrivalled on the Windows platform for power, ease of use and integration.

Still, competition is good, and if the popular perception is that Windows has improved, Apple will be spurred to get even more innovative with the next version of Mac OS X.