Mac OS X Leopard has been freed from captivity and is now in the hands of keyed-up Apple fans. The question in the minds of many Apple and Windows users alike is how is Leopard stacking up to Vista out of the box? Well, for starters, Leopard has its very own “blue screen of death!” According to Computer World, a “significant number of Macintosh owners upgrading to Leopard on Friday reported that after installing the new operating system, their machines locked up, showing only an interminable — and very Windows-like “blue screen of death.” Perhaps the two operating systems are more alike than anybody ever expected?
Engadget set out to compare Leopard vs. Vista to find out if one was better than the other, and to see just how alike the two are with a feature chart showdown. Of course many of their conclusions could be argued, but the end result was this: Leopard scored a 46 while Vista scored a 41. That means that Leopard had five more features that were considered “better” and offers a better user experience. In the grand scheme of things, the two nearly scored the same with Leopard getting high scores in the software (thanks to iChat, iCal, Apple’s Address Book and more) and system tools section with Vista receiving high scores in the Media, (thanks to Media Center, and Media Center Extenders) gaming, and performance and hardware sections. Both were nearly equal when it came to security. And remember, this was “out of the box.” As Engadget points out, a few 3rd party applications could give Vista quite a bit of an edge over Leopard.
So what is someone to make out of all this? If you’ve been paying attention in the blogosphere, you probably noticed several articles over the last several months discussing how Leopard is that good that this could be the turning point where more people start purchasing Mac computers and leaving PCs behind. In Paul Thurrott’s opinion, this is no turning point for Apple at all. He says “The biggest problem with Leopard is that it doesn’t really offer enough of an advantage over Vista to make anyone want to switch.” Then he continues, “No matter. Leopard is an excellent product. Mac users will upgrade immediately or purchase new Leopard-based hardware with no regrets, and that’s just fine. But if you’re a Windows user sitting on the fence, Leopard doesn’t change the switcher equation at all.”
I think Paul Thurrott summed it up best. Leopard is a great product, there’s no doubt about that. But for those who thought Leopard was going to come in and steal the show, it’s just not going to happen. Die-hard Mac fans will remain loyal, and PC users are likely to remain loyal to Windows with a few curious enough about Leopard to go check it out. Neither Apple nor Microsoft have reason to worry until the two go at it again and release a new operating system. Any guesses on when we’ll see Apple and Microsoft launch their next operating system and how many years (if any) they’ll be delayed?
As a side note, if you’re looking for a great in-depth review of Leopard, Ars Technica put together a very thorough review that’s divided into sections for easy reading.
The Ars review is well worth the read. As for the comparison, out of the box undoubtedly Leopard is ahead….when you consider the apps available on both platforms, I honestly think Vista is better except for those who love eye-candy and presentation more.
I’ve already upgraded my Macbook to Leopard and so far it’s working very well. The upgrade went easily and the tools are pretty cool. The ones I liked most are the new Finder that imports the Cover Flow function from iTunes and the new iChat which allows the insertion of images and films. If you haven’t upgraded yet, there are some interesting videos I’ve found that show Leopard’s new tools and effects:
weshow.com/us/p/20050/mac_os_x_leopard_ichat
weshow.com/us/p/20048/mac_os_x_leopard_finder
weshow.com/us/p/20052/mac_os_x_leopard_mail
For me the two best things about Leopard are Boot Camp and the installation. I wont have to clear my hard drive to upgrade like (I think) all Windows OS make you do. If I could get rid of Windows forever I would but sometimes I need it, and that’s where Boot Camp allows me to make the switch easily.
I’ve recently switched to a MacBook Pro. I am running Tiger and really like it. I’m sure I’ll really dig Leopard when I can get it. I had Vista before this. I switched when my PC was stolen. I wasn’t unsatisfied with Vista, I just wanted to have the best of both worlds. I still think that OS X is quite a bit ahead of Windows. The security is still far better. Vista security is a lot better than previous versions of Windows but Macs still don’t have viruses. I run security software still to be on the safe side. OS X is better in another way because it is not a system resource hog like Vista. I currently have Firefox, Thunderbird, Weatherdock, and Caffeine running. I am currently using 670 MB of memory. In Vista, it would be over 800 MB with Firefox and Thunderbird running. I could never get below 650 MB in Vista with only Windows processes running. I did not have any programs open. Leopard I’m sure is as good as Tiger with system resources. These two reasons alone for me make OSX the far better OS.
You Fools! There’s only ONE way to solve this issue: Thunderdome
Ballmer vs. Jobs.
Two men enter, one man leaves.
No comparison; Leopard is much better
The absence of the ‘blue screen of death’ or something similar is enough advantage. But I personally and most of others grew up with windows and learned how to get along with it. Moreover, if am to switch to mac I wont be happy running hassle free
You know, I’m sure there are plenty of people out there like you who want the best of both worlds which is why Apple was smart for developing Boot Camp. Now people don’t really have to choose one over the other— they can just get a Mac and have their cake and eat it too.
I think Vista’s eye candy is pretty good though.
I’ve heard some complaints about the Cover Flow though that if you move through it too quick it won’t have time to load in the previews.
You can upgrade from one version of Windows to another, such as from XP to Vista. Just like with any major upgrade though it’s normally not the preferred route to go. You’re better off starting with a clean install because of how many things have changed. Same goes for Macs.
That’s good to hear that Leopard is resource friendly. Vista is a little bit on the heavy side, but a few hundred MB of memory more isn’t all that bad for such a big upgrade. In terms of security Leopard isn’t necessarily better, it’s just that the number of viruses are much less compared to Windows. But it’s good that you’re still running security software, I would be too. Heck, I do even on Linux.
I think that next version of windows is not delayed much. If I understod right, it will be based on vista and is not a major release. So some kind of upgrade to vista. So they release what they have on the release time. I think that ms has also learned something about those management and leadership problems with vista and the whole project goes better.
Sleepy wrote: “I am currently using 670 MB of memory. In Vista, it would be over 800 MB with Firefox and Thunderbird running. I could never get below 650 MB in Vista with only Windows processes running.”
You should remember windows superfetch that loads much used programs to memory on startup so that they can be launched more quicly. So your memory is just used wisely, and it just seems that your memory usage is high, but if you need it elsewhere, then the memory is released to other softwares.
I actually heard that the next release of Windows was going to be a bit bigger than Vista since many of Vista’s features didn’t make the cut.
“I think Vista’s eye candy is pretty good though.”-Ryan
Sorry, still trying to figure out how to use quotes…
I do agree with that Vista has nice eye candy. Well, to me it’s way better than XP.
Windows is way better than OSX! I am a die hard microsoft/windows/zune/xbox fan only for the fact thet apple likes to overcharge for there crappy computers. they are just embarassing their selves by even thinking that they can compete with microsoft. I bought a mac and all i got was a rainbowey beachball.Windows rocks hands down!
by the way, for all of you who say that macs have better security making them not get viruses, there is a reason. Because PC’s are probably 80-90% of the population, so why would any person that deals with putting viruses on other peoples computers even want to target 10-20% of the population when thye can target 80-90%?
also, for those of you have have mac computers, you are paying very heavily for that stuff that you think is so much better. If windows takes way more memory, you can just get more memory on a windows computer and it would still be cheaper, i have looked in ads for stores, and saw a mac computer for $1300, and a pc with all the same stuff, memory, hard drive space, disk speed, newest operating system…it costed anywhere from $650+ depending on what kind u get, that is so much cheaper
hackintosh
Ok -for starters, vista stinks. It crashes loads. And that was my out of the box experience with my new $3200 Toshiba Vista PC. It’s recent too. only just came out.
And for those who say that they are die hard microsoft xbox zune fans. They DON”T BUY MACBOOKS. They lie about it. No macbook when bought from the shop gives you only a beachball. Maybe these liars need to actually use a mac before they go bragging about the crap which never happens.
Beleive it or not, but Xbox, zune, and windows all suck.
PS3 is way better then xbox, iPod Nano pwns the zune by sheer masses of users and OSX is just so much better value.