“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.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Microsoft to use Apple’s ‘Piles’ in Longhorn? – March 22, 2005
New Microsoft Longhorn chief was former Pepto-Bismol brand manager – March 18, 2005
Report: Early Microsoft Longhorn beta slips – February 18, 2005
Report: Microsoft to release ‘Longhorn beta 1’ by June 2005 – February 07, 2005
Bill Gates: Microsoft ‘working hard’ on Longhorn – ‘won’t be a radical shift’ just ‘an improvement’ – January 29, 2005
Apple CEO Steve Jobs: Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ will ship ‘long before Longhorn’ – January 11, 2005
Thurrott: Apple copying Microsoft’s Longhorn search features with Mac OS X ‘Spotlight’ – December 15, 2004
Microsoft’s Longhorn fantasy vs. Apple’s Mac OS X reality – September 14, 2004
Is Microsoft’s stripped-down ‘Longhorn’ worth waiting for? – September 10, 2004
Microsoft to gut ‘Longhorn’ in attempt to ship in 2006; Avalon faces knife – August 27, 2004
Analyst: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘going to have quite a lead on Longhorn’ in search technology – July 02, 2004
PC Magazine: Microsoft ‘Longhorn’ preview shows ‘an Apple look’ – May 06, 2004
Gack…
Why not just stop whining.. Apple’s Halo effect is working, and yet you still won’t stop whining? Let them plug the music store, knowing 20% of iPod sales become Mac sales…
Believe me.. there is nothing Apple could SAY in ITS OWN commercial that would impress people
“No Viruses”
“SMALL MARKETSHARE”
“Worlds Most Advanced OS”
“Rhetoric!”
“Slick INterface”
“yawn, HIPPY!”
“Worlds Fastest Home Computer”
“LIAR!”
I love this in the article :
“For all its early security faults, Windows XP has been greatly improved through patches and fixes and is now fairly stable and comfortable to consumers and corporate users, if not exciting and new.”
EXCITING AND NEW? I’ve been using that POS since 2001.
I can’t wait for Tiger, and it is going to be the release of OS X that keeps giving.
Here’s how:
Step 1: The new release, and all of the fun of seeing the amazing things Apple did.
Step 2: A flood of widgets hit the market. Because widgets are a low effort/cost development platform, and the possibilities are endless, I think we are going to see some amazing things from developers
Step 3: A flood of spotlight and Automator plug-ins. It will take OS X to the next level
Step 4: In about a year, applications such as iLife 06, CS suite, Office, Macromedia, etc, will start taking advantage of CoreAudio and CoreVideo. If the vendors get serious about leveraging these technologies, it will take the Mac platform to the next level.
Tiger is different than the other releases of OS X. The prior versions added more features. Tiger does that, but more importantly, it gives 3rd party developers new platforms to make our Macs 100x better than anything on the market.
And that is where Longhorn is dead in the water. It’s the energy that Tiger will unleash that will make the Mac thrive.
I simply can’t wait.
Amen!! Retro Cat, Amen!!!
My thoughts exactly.
longhorn is a freudian slip on how MS see there customers, cattle
magic word ‘can’
Line me up for a copy!
I WANT TIGER NOW!!
The more I hear about tiger,I realize it’s going to be another great upgrade for mac users, but at the same time, I have the feeling that nobody at Microsoft
or the Longhorn design team is worried about Tiger or anything that comes after.
Microsoft has been quiet about about Longhorn, but it’s not for the reasons that most people think.
Lets reserve our comments for when we actually know
what were talking about.
Joe
Will the mac mini come with Tiger installed by June??
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