Windows 7 vs Snow Leopard: The Great Debate

[Everlong]

A couple of weeks ago, I got a surprise offer: Apple wanted to go on record and talk about why Snow Leopard is better than Windows 7. Apple's Senior Director of Mac OS X Product Marketing Brian Croll gave me his side of the story. Then I interviewed Microsoft's Jay Paulus, Director, Product Management Windows Client, to let him make his case.

Although the interviews were conducted separately, I've tried to blend the comments to make it something of an ex post facto conversation. It seems fair enough, as each side knew I would be talk to the other. What I ended up with is a good-old-fashioned debate, in which I play the moderator—and occasional fact-checker. It may not settle the question of which OS is better, but goes into a lot more technical detail than the 30-second spots that will be all over TV this holiday season.

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[Lee]

Here we go again. Please stop this is getting out of hand. These post are just plain annoying.

 

[Jordus]

People can and will use whatever they want at home because the requirements are very slim. They need to do basic tasks and pretty much any OS out there can meet those requirements.

When you get into the Enterprise environment, there is a very clear cut winner and I don't think I even have to mention names.

The articles on "which OS is better" are really a waste of time because there are multiple different ways to use an OS, and they cater to different people.

 

[Mark Phelps]

To me, this just seems like so much BS -- making headlines for headlines' sake.

Do we really think any siginificant number of Vista users are suddenly going to abandon their $$$ investment in hardware and software to suddenly buy a Mac?

Or ...

Do we really think any significant number of Mac users are suddenly going to abandon their $$$ investment in Apple to suddenly buy a Wintel box with Windows 7 on it?

I really think that those who plan to "jump ship" (either way, but most likely MS-to-Apple) already did so in the "Vista-really-sucks" era when a website of a very similar name was all the rage.

 

[Klaw117]

I think Apple was the one that started this, since they were the ones who offered the interview in the first place. Personally, I think they're desperate to show off Snow Leopard.

The truth is, an OS isn't better than any other OS. They all do the same exact thing, just in a different way. I don't understand why some people can't get that through their heads.

 

[Everlong]

Yea, it's the fact Apple specifically asked for this interview to try and show off Snow Leopard.

 

[SquonkSC]

Here we go again. Please stop this is getting out of hand. These post are just plain annoying.

Couldn't agree more. +1

 

[Hunter007]

Latest Mac OS X is completely competitive with latest Microsoft Windows operating system. Both are highly secure, have stunning graphics and they are software compatible. But $29 of Mac vs $119.99-preorder Windows? What do you think?!

 

[SquonkSC]

Latest Mac OS X is completely competitive with latest Microsoft Windows operating system. Both are highly secure, have stunning graphics and they are software compatible. But $29 of Mac vs $119.99-preorder Windows? What do you think?!

Only a pity their hardware will cost you double of an equally powerful PC.

 

[H2SO4]

I like the way the Apple guy spins the lack of real 64-bit support to present it as a positive. Marketing skill lurks therein. Take the most obvious shortcoming and tout it as an advantage - and most of 'em won't be able to tell what you've just done

 

[SquonkSC]

I like the way the Apple guy spins the lack of real 64-bit support to present it as a positive. Marketing skill lurks therein. Take the most obvious shortcoming and tout it as an advantage - and most of 'em won't be able to tell what you've just done

Lol.

And people keep forgetting how much easier it is to design an OS for limited variations of hardware, oppose to thousands of different possible configurations in the PC world.
Apple just dictates on which hardware it will run.
Windows runs on practically any configuration.
Linux is even better at it, some distros run on your coffee machine if it has a microprocessor.

Win7 runs on my 6yr old Dell lappy, with almost all drivers out of the box.

Apple just drops support for their older hardware. Problem solved.

Greetz

 

[Big Dan]

I'll bite. As has been said pretty much any OS will work for basic web surfing, IMing, and email checking. I'd probably using Ubuntu full time if Flash worked as well as it does on the other platforms that being said an OS is a personal choice what ever works best for you. Each operating system has it's own set of negatives and positives which are relative to personal preferences.

I bought a used Mac Mini earlier this year just to test out the Mac side of things, I upgraded to Snow Leopard in September, over all I find SL a little snappier than Leopard but not much over all.

I like Macs because The GUI is just easy on the eyes and pretty much every app conforms to Apple's GUI guide lines.. It's cohesive all apps act as expected from one app to another for instance Cmd , always brings up the apps preferences. The included apps with OS X are actually useful. Most open source software available on Windows have an OS X port. Time Machine takes something as mundane as backups drop-dead simple and full of eye candy. I also like the fact that despite having less memory and a slower processor my Mini runs faster than my laptop running Windows.

I dislike Macs because there aren't all that many great free apps aside from the aforementioned open source apps. It seems that the really awesome/useful programs are paid and the price tag often isn't cheap. The Mac world is a lot more 'closed' then the windows side. Accessories made specifically for Mac seem to carry a higher price tag than Windows.. Try finding a $20 Webcam for Mac. Also Macs are prohibitively expensive, IMHO. The fact that OS X can now run on any Intel box and Apple explicitly forbids running OS X on non Apple branded machines really doesn't sit well with me.

I like Windows because no matter what you plug-in it's pretty much guaranteed to work. The hardware Windows runs on ranges from old and cheap to cutting edge and expensive. The ginormous variety of both free and paid software. By being familiar with Windows allows me to jump on ~90% of the world's computers and instantly know how to navigate and do stuff. Lastly, Supporting Windows users makes me money.

I dislike Windows because of the constant stream of security patches and the need to run AV, which takes resources away from doing computing that I want to do. The price tag is expensive when compared to OS X (arguably though the price of Mac hardware is expensive to cover OS X development), DRM BS like Media center's saving TV shows in a locked down format, to me that shows MS has put the needs of corporate strong arms above those of it's home customers. The included software with Windows is practically useless I assume this is so you'll buy Office.

I could add Ubuntu into the mix but it's probably not worth it for this post. As I said above an OS is a personal choice and I choose to use Windows as my main web development box and my Mac for email, IM, facebook, etc.

 

[SquonkSC]

I'll bite. As has been said pretty much any OS will work for basic web surfing, IMing, and email checking. I'd probably using Ubuntu full time if Flash worked as well as it does on the other platforms that being said an OS is a personal choice what ever works best for you. Each operating system has it's own set of negatives and positives which are relative to personal preferences.

I bought a used Mac Mini earlier this year just to test out the Mac side of things, I upgraded to Snow Leopard in September, over all I find SL a little snappier than Leopard but not much over all.

I like Macs because The GUI is just easy on the eyes and pretty much every app conforms to Apple's GUI guide lines.. It's cohesive all apps act as expected from one app to another for instance Cmd , always brings up the apps preferences. The included apps with OS X are actually useful. Most open source software available on Windows have an OS X port. Time Machine takes something as mundane as backups drop-dead simple and full of eye candy. I also like the fact that despite having less memory and a slower processor my Mini runs faster than my laptop running Windows.

I dislike Macs because there aren't all that many great free apps aside from the aforementioned open source apps. It seems that the really awesome/useful programs are paid and the price tag often isn't cheap. The Mac world is a lot more 'closed' then the windows side. Accessories made specifically for Mac seem to carry a higher price tag than Windows.. Try finding a $20 Webcam for Mac. Also Macs are prohibitively expensive, IMHO. The fact that OS X can now run on any Intel box and Apple explicitly forbids running OS X on non Apple branded machines really doesn't sit well with me.

I like Windows because no matter what you plug-in it's pretty much guaranteed to work. The hardware Windows runs on ranges from old and cheap to cutting edge and expensive. The ginormous variety of both free and paid software. By being familiar with Windows allows me to jump on ~90% of the world's computers and instantly know how to navigate and do stuff. Lastly, Supporting Windows users makes me money.

I dislike Windows because of the constant stream of security patches and the need to run AV, which takes resources away from doing computing that I want to do. The price tag is expensive when compared to OS X (arguably though the price of Mac hardware is expensive to cover OS X development), DRM BS like Media center's saving TV shows in a locked down format, to me that shows MS has put the needs of corporate strong arms above those of it's home customers. The included software with Windows is practically useless I assume this is so you'll buy Office.

I could add Ubuntu into the mix but it's probably not worth it for this post. As I said above an OS is a personal choice and I choose to use Windows as my main web development box and my Mac for email, IM, facebook, etc.

Excellent, well balanced post mate.

Welcome aboard.

Let me start you off for adding to your reputation for this nice post.

Greetings.

edit: damn, I can't rep you in this section.
You will have to write another good post somewhere else on this forum, so I can rep you.