With the release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, “Apple’s acting like a bunch of jerks about how much better they are at these things than anybody else,” Andy Ihnatko writes for The Chicago Sun-Times. “I mean, they’re really rubbing Windows’ nose in it with this one. Which is hardly sporting, but it’s undeniably Good News for users.”

“There are plenty of brand-new features in this new release (200, according to Apple’s press release) but the true superstar is Spotlight. It’s capital-R Revolutionary, making the whole concept of organizing your data into folders and volumes seem, well …quaint,” Ihnatko writes. “Use it for just a couple of days, and you’ll imagine a future visit to Colonial Williamsburg where you can watch re-enactors churn butter, make candles and manually manage their files.”

Ihnatko writes, “Spotlight is more than a search utility because it’s actually a system-wide resource, just as important as Tiger’s printing system or its networking features. Its benefits aren’t limited to just files, or even the Finder. Nearly every new feature of 10.4 includes some sort of Spotlight-powered enhancement. And if software developers begin to understand what this new resource can do for their own apps, Spotlight could become the most transformative thing to happen to desktops since the drop-down menu.”

“Clearly, the folks at Microsoft have their work cut out for them. The next edition of Windows won’t ship until 2006 — maybe — and while the company certainly has the sort of smart and creative talent pool that’s required to produce such an OS update as jubilant and successful as Tiger, is that part of the company’s nature? Every past edition of Windows emphatically indicates the answer is no,” Ihnatko writes. “All I can tell you is that with Tiger on store shelves, and a new Windows a mere shapeless dot shimmering vaguely over the horizon, there has never been a more compelling time to switch to a Mac.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Gee, Mac OS X Tiger is getting some good reviews, huh? Do you think Windows users are noticing?

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