Smackdown: Windows 7 takes on Apple's Snow Leopard
Microsoft's new OS is the best Windows yet. Is that enough?
By Michael DeAgonia
October 28, 2009 06:05 AM ET
Computerworld - Last week's release of Windows 7 had Microsoft Corp. executives from CEO Steve Ballmer on down confident that this version of Windows is
everything Vista wasn't.
The launch of
Windows 7 followed by two months the release of Apple's latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard." The latter mainly focused on under-the-hood technologies, and Apple went out of its way to promise no major obvious changes.
Snow Leopard, which looks just like its predecessor except for a few UI tweaks, is supposed to provide a solid foundation for future technologies and hardware.
Microsoft, in many ways, took a similar tack with Windows 7. Following on the heels of the much-unloved Vista, focusing on the basics made sense. Windows users, like Mac users, want
an operating system that works.
Fair warning: I come to Windows as a Mac user by nature and background -- I've worked with Macs for 17 years, although as an IT professional, I've had more than my fair share of time with Windows machines. Put simply: As an IT professional, I work on whatever hardware is in front of me.
In recent months, Windows 7 has been praised for righting many of Vista's wrongs. Back in August,
Computerworld's
Preston Gralla offered his own take on the two operating systems. Preston, who leans toward the Windows side of things, evaluated them both and declared a tie.