Vista and Leopard race to the line misses the point

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 08 August 2006 18:46

Your IT - Home IT

There seems to be a perception that there is a race between Apple and Microsoft to be the first to bring their new operating systems to the market. This is total baloney there is no race, no competition because the two systems don't intersect and anyway Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is already probably at least on a par if not ahead of the upcoming Vista. Leopard, when it is released, will likely be way more advanced.

One of the big things that is being touted about Vista is its improved security. Unlike previous versions of Windows, Vista will implement a privilege based security system similar to Unix (including Mac OS X) and Linux. That's the point.

For Windows users, who happen to constitute 90% of desktop users on the planet, they will finally have a system that affords them a level of security that Mac users have enjoyed for many years. This is important because most desktop users do not have the choice to use a Mac at work.

Now as far as the competition between Vista and Leopard is concerned, there is none. Steve Jobs and the Apple team have shown enough at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco this week to demonstrate that Leopard is light years ahead. That may not help desktop users at work but it certainly throws the cat among the pigeons when they get home.

The reason is that users will have the option of running Vista on their Intel Mac if they really need to use Windows applications. However, there will be many new buyers who buy a Mac box because it gives them the option of running Windows but who may later decide that they don't need Windows at home. This is bad news for Microsoft.