Microsoft’s Windows 7 is scheduled for a late 2009 release. The pundits are already starting to chip in on its possibility of success. Consumers are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to finally get their hands on the operating system. Companies are wondering if it will be better than Vista.
And Apple, cool consumer-friendly Apple, is preparing an operating system of its own, Snow Leopard, that it contends will be the best operating system it has ever released.
In the meantime, at Apple, they have made little mention of some obvious questions that the company might have: Will Windows 7 be any good? Will consumers like it? Most importantly, what if it boasts features that make Mac OS X look dated?
Since Microsoft has said that its most recent Windows 7 release, Release Candidate 1, is close to the final version of Windows 7, I think we can answer those questions now. Yes, it will be good. Yes, consumers will like it. And yes, it will boast features that make Apple’s operating system look dated. And yes, Apple will be forced to respond.
The Windows 7 task bar makes Mac OS X’s Dock less appealing
The Taskbar boasts both open and closed applications, similar to Mac OS X’s Dock. But when you hover your mouse over the open application icons, you’ll find a thumbnail of every open instance of the application. Whenever you move your mouse over an individual thumbnail, it will be brought to the front and fit to your screen. Opening the window you’re looking for, takes much less time in Windows 7 than in Mac OS X.
Spaces, Mac OS X’s multi-desktop tool that aims at keeping you organised and getting you to the desired application sooner, can’t compare on any level with Windows 7’s task bar. So Windows 7 (finally) provides a much nicer experience when it comes to opening and organising applications. The onus is back on Apple to improve it.
The software conundrum
Whenever we consider the Windows and Mac OS X environments, we need to look at software. Before Vista was made available, there weren’t many issues affecting the Windows ecosystem. Companies had the software they wanted, since there were no compatibility issues. All that changed when Vista was released. IT managers were wondering when their broken applications would be updated to work with the OS. Developers were scrambling to find solutions to the incompatibility issue. And Microsoft kept promising results.
Many companies were turned off Vista, and it ensured that either XP or other solutions, including Mac OS X, would be deployed. It gave Apple the upper-hand. What was worse, it made Microsoft look bad and generated bucket loads of negative publicity for Vista and Microsoft.
But Windows 7 is different. It has an XP mode which will allow any company to run apps that might not work in Windows 7, on a virtual instance of Windows XP. That means that deploying Windows 7 won’t be a problem for companies that are in desperate need of a company-wide operating system deployment. And it ensures that Windows 7 won’t leave companies who rely on business-critical software, out in the cold.
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The view that Apple is consumer and is somehow threatened by Windows 7 is so far from the truth as to be delusional.
Apple is, and will make inroads into business, but does not need to become Windows. It's hugely successful on the road it is on.
Microsoft needs 7 to stop the rot. Despite your glowing comments, the jury is still well and truly out on how much of an upgrade 7 is from Vista.
I'm Leopard user but used to be Windows user too for many years, therefor I can compare these two systems. It's is really hard to make people understand how both these OSes work if you use only one of them and the rest of your knowledge are articles or videos you've seen. Comparing new W7 taskbar features to Leopard Spaces is not very good example. If we talk about some desktop features making the work better organized and more transparent for Leopard there is not only Spaces to help doing this but Exposé too and I would really appreciate if someone make really good presentation what these too features actually do. New W7 taskbar has become partly a Leopard's dock by possibility of adding apps icon onto it acting like in Leopard. Showing some small thumb windows of currently running apps is more for fun then for a purpose to compare with Spaces.
This is a shockingly bad article.
Windows 7 Task Bar doesn't even provide the same functionality as Spaces. They aren't even intending to be the same/similar.
As for Task Bar being faster than the Dock, OS X has Expose (for at least a few years) which is even faster than Task Bar. One key press and you see every window open.
The tone of your post suggests you're yet another "Apple right or wrong" evangelist, Jon. The truth is that it's Apple's success in breaking into the business market that is questionable, whereas the jury so far is overwhelmingly positive as regards Windows 7.
I'd correct the statement at the end of the article; the assertion that it is the software, not the hardware that one interacts with.
I recently bought my first Mac when the time came to change my laptop. I'm using Windows at work and have used windows since 3.11 but now have Leopard at home. The biggest surprise for me has been the hardware and especially the MacBook track pad. For those out there who are unfamiliar with this it is an adaption of iPhone technology - the track pad is a large (10 cm by 7.5 cm) touch sensitive glass tablet, twice as big as any conventional laptop touch pad; it has no button as the entire surface is clickable, in addition the bottom right hand corner can work as right click which is great for contextual menus and windows users making the transition to Mac OS.
However the real plus of this track pad is that it accepts 1, 2, 3, and 4 finger gestures as it can distinguish between how many fingers you are using. Dragging 4 fingers down the screen allows instant visualisation of all open app windows, which can be selected and switched to in an instant. I won't go into more detail - this is simply a hardware solution to switching between apps that is intuitive and split second fast.
I don't believe that there there is anything that Windows can do to its task bar that could compete with this.
In addition as a laptop user who always hated touch pads and always used a mouse I have now retired my mouse. In fact if I could buy a version of the the Mac track pad as a piece of hardware for my desktop I would and give up the mouse altogether. I hate the hardware I have at work now.
There is some irony here as the author mentions Apple is also a hardware company (and a good one!) but clearly dismisses the importance of hardware.