Apple’s Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ vs. Microsoft’s Windows ‘Longhorn’

21 years ago

“After years of relative quiet, both Microsoft and Apple are frenetically working on major new upgrades to the base software that run the personal computers of tens of millions of business and consumer users. Microsoft is using the code name Longhorn to refer to its next upgrade to the Windows operating system. Apple, keeping the theme of naming its operating system software after big and fast cats, calls its next release Tiger,” Mike Wendland writes for The Detroit Free Press. “We’ll see Tiger in stores this year — perhaps within a few weeks. Longhorn, as is typical of Microsoft, has been delayed a couple of times and is now not expected until mid-2006.”

“Apple won’t confirm reports that Tiger is now pretty much complete. But its worldwide developers conference June 1-10 in San Francisco is expected to focus almost entirely on Tiger. And with Chairman Steve Jobs doing the keynote speech, speculation is strong that he will announce its public release at that time,” Wendland writes. “Analysts are predicting a halo effect for Tiger, with the system basking in the stunning popularity of the iPod and the slew of new products Apple has been releasing, like its $499 Mac mini.”

“Unlike Microsoft, Apple is talking up Tiger’s more than 100 new features big-time. The new operating system will come with something called Spotlight, which will allow any file or document on the hard drive to be instantly found, much as a user does a Web search,” Wendland writes. “Tiger has speed improvements, networking enhancements and new video display and editing features, too. With around 5 percent of the personal computer marketplace, Apple has nowhere to go but up, and Tiger — capitalizing on the company’s new hip status — is going to generate a lot of buzz. Longhorn, meanwhile, will hit a marketplace already dominated by Windows. Microsoft is going to have to dig into its very deep pockets to convince people that it’s worth the hassle.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Windows XP, not Longhorn, is the “competition” to Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger, which is due in a couple of months, if not in a couple of weeks. Microsoft’s Longhorn, if it does indeed ship in mid-2006 – over a year from now – will be competing with a Tiger OS that will be several point releases along in its development and the next version of Apple’s Mac OS X will already be well along its development track, too.