Software
Mac OS X vs. Windows 7: Who has the best upgrade?
By Jim DalrympleJune 9, 2009, 4:29 pm PT
I wrote a story at CNET earlier today asking the question: Who offers the best upgrade, Apple or Windows?
The basis of the argument is this. Both companies are upgrading an existing operating system and both claim better performance with their upgrades.
Apple has made no bones about the fact that Snow Leopard is a maintenance release designed to improve stability and integrated technologies. Microsoft is trying to get past the disaster of Vista, but the OS still the same core engine.
Overall, I think that Apple coming off its most successful release ever with Leopard with have a better upgrade than Microsoft. They are going to have to convince the consumer than Windows 7 is better than the experience they had with Vista.
That will be an uphill battle.
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Discussion
4 comments so far
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I guess it depends on who you are. Apple could charge $1000.00 for snow leopard, and to me it would still be a better upgrade. Windows 7 is still windows.
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I live in both worlds. I’ve been running the Windows 7 RC in VMware Fusion on my MacBook Pro as my standard Windows desktop OS, and I have to say that it’s the best Windows OS I’ve used. (I skipped Vista.)
While I firmly believe that Mac OS X offers a better user experience, someone going from XP or Vista to Win 7 may very well feel their upgrade matters more than someone going from Tiger or Leopard (which were already pretty damn good) to Snow Leopard.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Sure puts the pricing pressure on Microsoft, though…
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Though Microsoft will be coming out with an operating system that seems to be huge improvement over the previous one, Apple seems to be in a position to fare far better with the upgrades. (Relatively speaking…)
I’m sure Windows 7 will sell a lot more copies than Snow Leopard, but I’m also sure that an immensely larger percentage of OS X users will upgrade and be running the latest and greatest OS. In the mean time, Windows users, faced with much higher prices of the OS (not to mention myriad SKUs) will think several times before upgrading.
The move of making Snow Leopard only $29 was a fantastic one. This pretty much ensures that most Leopard users will upgrade to Snow Leopard sooner, rather than later.
-
Watching the keynote yesterday, I couldn’t help but thinking that Apple is solidifying their lead against Windows with this release. By fixing things rather than emphasizing new features, Apple is doing what Microsoft should have been doing more of over the past 10 years or more.
Snow Leopard is going to be solid, fast and clearly better than anything Microsoft or any other OS developer is going to be offering for general use. Sure BSD might be better for scientists, and Solaris better for some UNIX admins, ISPs, etc., but for general use, nothing can touch OS X already, and this just makes it better yet.
No contest.
Post a comment
Mac OS X vs. Windows 7: Who has the best upgrade?
By Jim DalrympleJune 9, 2009, 4:29 pm PT
I wrote a story at CNET earlier today asking the question: Who offers the best upgrade, Apple or Windows?
The basis of the argument is this. Both companies are upgrading an existing operating system and both claim better performance with their upgrades.
Apple has made no bones about the fact that Snow Leopard is a maintenance release designed to improve stability and integrated technologies. Microsoft is trying to get past the disaster of Vista, but the OS still the same core engine.
Overall, I think that Apple coming off its most successful release ever with Leopard with have a better upgrade than Microsoft. They are going to have to convince the consumer than Windows 7 is better than the experience they had with Vista.
That will be an uphill battle.
Email This Post
⋅ Print This Post
⋅ Post a comment
Discussion 4 comments so far
-
I guess it depends on who you are. Apple could charge $1000.00 for snow leopard, and to me it would still be a better upgrade. Windows 7 is still windows.
-
I live in both worlds. I’ve been running the Windows 7 RC in VMware Fusion on my MacBook Pro as my standard Windows desktop OS, and I have to say that it’s the best Windows OS I’ve used. (I skipped Vista.)
While I firmly believe that Mac OS X offers a better user experience, someone going from XP or Vista to Win 7 may very well feel their upgrade matters more than someone going from Tiger or Leopard (which were already pretty damn good) to Snow Leopard.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Sure puts the pricing pressure on Microsoft, though…
-
Though Microsoft will be coming out with an operating system that seems to be huge improvement over the previous one, Apple seems to be in a position to fare far better with the upgrades. (Relatively speaking…)
I’m sure Windows 7 will sell a lot more copies than Snow Leopard, but I’m also sure that an immensely larger percentage of OS X users will upgrade and be running the latest and greatest OS. In the mean time, Windows users, faced with much higher prices of the OS (not to mention myriad SKUs) will think several times before upgrading.
The move of making Snow Leopard only $29 was a fantastic one. This pretty much ensures that most Leopard users will upgrade to Snow Leopard sooner, rather than later.
-
Watching the keynote yesterday, I couldn’t help but thinking that Apple is solidifying their lead against Windows with this release. By fixing things rather than emphasizing new features, Apple is doing what Microsoft should have been doing more of over the past 10 years or more.
Snow Leopard is going to be solid, fast and clearly better than anything Microsoft or any other OS developer is going to be offering for general use. Sure BSD might be better for scientists, and Solaris better for some UNIX admins, ISPs, etc., but for general use, nothing can touch OS X already, and this just makes it better yet.
No contest.
Post a comment