Windows 7 vs. Apple Mac OS X
Well, it looks like a horse race has ensued between Microsoft and Apple that might change the complexion of those humorous TV commercials that we have come to know and love. Microsoft may be taking back some of the Operating System marketplace that it lost to Apple over the years with vulnerability ridden operating systems, starting back with Windows 95 thru Windows XP. As you have probably experienced, these versions of Windows required numerous patches along with critical and security updates on a regular basis.
The new Windows 7 version from Microsoft is due out sometime between October 2009, for the Holiday shopping season, and 2010. No one seems to be absolutely certain when it will be available for purchase but when Microsoft unveiled Windows 7 at its Professional Developers Conference some months ago it showed a great deal of operating system changes and bore a slight resemblance to Apple’s Mac OS X.
Apple’s Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Apple’s latest operating system, is due out in mid-2009. Apple Contends that its Snow Leopard will best any operating system it has ever released.
One of the strong points of the Apple OS X is security and the fact that you rarely, if ever, hear of a virus threat that affects Max OS. However, it has been reported that Vista, with all of it’s performance problems and the humor aimed at its inquiries to “Allow or Deny”, was the most secure version of Windows yet and many miles ahead of Windows XP on security. I, myself, have noted that there aren’t near as many Critical and Security updates for Vista as there are for Windows XP SP2 and SP3.
Windows 7, which is in actuality an update to Vista, has reportedly overcome those performance problems and will rival the security of Max OS as well as adopt some of the functionality of Apple’s popular operating systems. This will position Windows 7 to at least be equal in performance to Apple’s famous Mac OS and potentially recoup some of the market share that Microsoft has lost over the years with its fledgling Windows versions.
Here’s the Buzz about Windows 7…According to Peter Bright, of ArsTechnica, “All in all, Windows 7 is shaping up well. It’s a far more modest release than Vista was, but it’s no worse for that. The new OS introduces a compelling combination of welcome innovations and much-needed polish, and that’s exactly what Microsoft needs right now. Vista’s foundation was solid, and Windows 7 just makes it better.”
However, before CPU Help will begin recommending this upgrade to its customers, we would like to make sure that there is backward compatibility to all of the various third party applications, especially the accounting applications. This would include the various Versions of MS Office currently in use as well as the graphic and database applications that our customers use. The reasoning here, as mentioned in a previous CPU Help Blog post, is that many independent software vendors (ISVs) will not support their applications running on it [Windows 7] for six to 12 months or more.
We’ll be looking forward to torture testing Windows 7 and making sure that it is everything it is being touted as. Personally, I will also wonder if Apple will be ingenious enough to retaliate and make their OS compatible with the same programs that currently work on Windows XP. Wouldn’t that be a hoot?
About the Author:
Frank Verdusco is President & CEO of CPU Help
and can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CPUHelp as well as LinkedIn.