“Who will emerge as the king of the desktop OS jungle: Apple’s Panther or Microsoft’s Longhorn,” ask Mary Jo Foley & Matthew Rothenberg over on Microsoft-Watch.com?
We know, that site’s name causes us to shudder, too. But, that’s what we’re paid to do; we have to read it all from everywhere. But, hey, why not just watch what Apple was doing 3-5 years ago to see where Microsoft will be going today? Wayback Machine, anyone? But, we digress…
The tandem Redmond peepers write, “Sorry, Linux desktop fans: When it comes to desktop operating systems, it’s currently a two-way race between Windows and the Mac OS. While Microsoft’s market share dwarfs Apple’s, the GUI diehards have keep each other busy for nearly two decades – and end users have regularly reaped the benefits of that competition, thanks to upgrades designed to top the competition’s features and performance.”
“This week, the cross-platform debate’s been hot and heavy. Is Microsoft racing to catch up to Panther, the Mac OS X upgrade due to roll out at June’s Worldwide Developers Conference? Should Apple be running scared after Microsoft’s demos of its Longhorn OS at last week’s Windows Hardware Engineering conference,” ask the dynamic duo of monopolist ogling?
In the end, these twin titans of evil viewing get it right, “But based on the timing of the companies’ releases, the real question isn’t whether Longhorn will take the hide off Panther, which sources said is due to ship in September. Instead, it’s whether Longhorn be able to best Cheetah… or whatever feline Apple has in store for 2005. Microsoft last week said on the record that it won’t RTM (release to manufacturing) until 2005. And contrary to rumors circulating as of last year, there won’t be any kind of ‘Shorthorn,’ or interim Windows release, between Windows XP and Longhorn. It’s true that the Longhorn ‘technical preview’ alpha release that Microsoft is expected to distribute at the Professional Developers Conference in October could have some kind of chilling effect on Panther. But let’s face it: Panther will be going head-to-head with XP, not Longhorn. And XP shipped in 2001… until Microsoft lets Longhorn out of the corral, Panther will rule the desktop OS jungle.”
Full article, “Why Panther May Tear Up Longhorn,” here.
