“With its new operating system ready to ship, Apple felt justified in kicking some sand in Microsoft’s face. Its marketers crowed about how its new Mac OS X release included features that Microsoft could only talk about while it continued to work on its own long-delayed successor to Windows XP,” Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes for The Washington Post.
“That was a problem for Microsoft — in 2003, when Apple was talking up Mac OS X 10.3, a k a Panther. Now, two years later, things haven’t changed much,” Vaughan-Nichols writes. “A new Apple update, OS X 10.4, or Tiger, is on store shelves while that XP replacement — nicknamed Longhorn for now — is still, well, not here.”
“Longhorn is now scheduled to arrive during the 2006 holiday season. Originally, it was to show up sometime in 2004. It was also supposed to have a lot more features in its original incarnation,” Vaughan-Nichols writes. “…Instead of the biggest, baddest operating system ever, skeptics see Longhorn as Windows XP Service Pack 3.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, it’s Mac OS X Tiger vs. Windows XP (for the next 18 months or so) and then a stripped down “Longhorn as Windows XP Service Pack 3.” Now, if only Apple would let the masses know about Mac OS X, so that when people are in the market for a new personal computer, they can make an informed choice.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Mac fans line up for new operating system as passberby asks ‘what is a tiger?’ – April 29, 2005
Forrester analysts: Apple should advertise Mac OS X Tiger on television and in movie theaters – April 29, 2005
Why doesn’t Apple advertise Mac OS X on TV? – April 12, 2005
PC World review gives Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger 4.5 stars out of 5 – April 30, 2005
Ars Technica: Mac OS X Tiger ‘at least twice as significant as any single past update’ – April 28, 2005
CNET: ‘If you’re tired of Microsoft’s promises, Mac OS X Tiger may be your best incentive to switch’ – April 28, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘Tiger bolsters Mac OS X’s edge as the best personal-computer operating system around’ – April 28, 2005
Associated Press: Mac OS X Tiger ‘provides another excellent incentive to switch from Windows’ – April 28, 2005
Mossberg: Apple’s Tiger ‘the best, most advanced personal computer operating system on the market’ – April 28, 2005
InformationWeek columnist: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘a compelling upgrade’ – April 28, 2005
NY Times: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger is the most secure, stable and satisfying OS on earth – April 28, 2005
Wired News: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘full of welcome surprises’ – April 27, 2005
Windows is weak, Longhorn will be cosmetic upgrade; Apple can deliver killer blow to Microsoft – April 27, 2005
Thurrott: ‘Longhorn is in complete disarray and in danger of collapsing under its own weight’ – April 27, 2005
Thurrott: Longhorn ‘has the makings of a train wreck’ – April 26, 2005
Thurrott: Longhorn demos ‘unimpressive, fall short of graphical excellence found today in Mac OS X’ – April 26, 2005
Microsoft employees leaving due to (and blogging about) malaise smothering company – April 25, 2005
eWEEK Editor Coursey: Longhorn so far ‘looks shockingly like a Macintosh’ – April 25, 2005
Due in late 2006, many of Windows Longhorn’s features have been in Mac OS X since 2001 – April 25, 2005
Apple’s Tiger debuts Friday while Microsoft’s Longhorn is burdened with one delay after another – April 25, 2005
Nearly every segment of the PC food chain needs Longhorn to succeed – April 22, 2005
Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Microsoft’s Longhorn: ‘They are shamelessly copying us’ – April 21, 2005
Apple shows off Mac OS Tiger in Microsoft’s backyard while Microsoft previews Windows XP ad push – April 19, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X reality vs. Microsoft’s Longhorn fantasy – April 19, 2005
Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn will bear more than just a passing resemblance to Apple’s Mac OS X – April 15, 2005
Analyst: ‘Microsoft’s Longhorn is going to have hard time upstaging Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger’ – April 13, 2005
Analyst: Apple in ‘position to exploit Microsoft missteps, claim leadership’ with Mac OS X Tiger – April 13, 2005
Apple’s Schiller: Mac OS X Tiger ‘has created even more distance between us and Microsoft’ – April 13, 2005
Will Mac OS X Tiger add fuel to Apple’s recent momentum in the computer business? – April 13, 2005
Analyst: Tiger proves ‘Apple is light years ahead of Microsoft in developing PC operating systems’ – April 12, 2005
Analysts: Apple’s new Tiger operating system could really impact Mac sales – April 12, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ vs. Microsoft’s Windows ‘Longhorn’ – March 31, 2005
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
Silicon Valley: Apple CEO Steve Jobs previews ‘Longhorn’ – June 29, 2004
PC Magazine: Microsoft ‘Longhorn’ preview shows ‘an Apple look’ – May 06, 2004
Microsoft concerned that Longhorn’s look and feel will be copied if revealed too soon – August 25, 2003
Windows ‘Longhorn’ to add translucent windows that ripple and shrink by 2005 – May 19, 2003
shhhh … it’s secret.
And the beauty for us mac users is that irrespective of whatever new version apple comes up with by the time Longhorn launches, Tiger itself will only get better as applications increasingly make use of the features it offers. Oh how I wish I could use a mac for my work.
“Microsoft representatives have also said that Longhorn will run best on dual-core processors, which put the guts of two processors on a single chip. AMD and Intel are both hard at work producing dual-core chips, but none are sold in home PCs.
But Microsoft also insists that users will be able to run Longhorn on older machines with 128 or 256 megabytes of memory and today’s graphic cards. It just won’t be a great experience, they admit, and may not look much different from XP today.”
…and all those Windows users that still use 98, on their P2 machines are going to want to switch why?
Loving this. Too bad M$ doesn’t just collapse in on itself due to the immense gravitational force of bloat.
Dammit Apple, advertise. I admit – I like smaller market share for the most part – it has many perks. But I’d prefer a 10% margin.
Just wondering. Why is it that every time I read a good review about Tiger, MS has to pop up like some unwanted ad, in the article. I am sick of hearing about an OS that does not concern us OS X users. There is no comparsion to the current MS OS, to TIger.
Its not a superior complex either. I am just stating truth. OS X has been updated five times in four years, Windows? Not included the service pack scams. I say scams because its like buy a car, driving it, wondering what the noise is, then have the dealer tell ya not to worry about it, you spend crap loads of money to fix it, then six months later, the dealer gives you an updated part that was causing all of the problems, I know, long, but true!
Please MDN, could you find the would be writers in the tech world and beat them with their own pc’s, everytime they breath the same words as TIger vs. Longhorn. There is no vs. Longhorn didn’t or couldn’t even show up! And for all you PC bent on market share, yeah, well, the whole world us to think the planet was flat too, see where that got them!
nuff said…
can someone tell me whats going on with virex 7.5… does it not work for tiger
And the beauty for us mac users is that irrespective of whatever new version apple comes up with by the time Longhorn launches, Tiger itself will only get better as applications increasingly make use of the features it offers. Oh how I wish I could use a mac for my work.
What do you do?
Hmmm.. noticing a trend.. Mac users whining about lack of OS X advertising…
*yawn…
Apple is a hardware company.. they advertise hardware all the time.
When was the last time you saw a software ad, period (not including games, which are mostly graphical masturbation)?
Oh yeah.. not many MS Office ads even show the program, ditto for Windows. Apple’s marketshare strategy is tied to the Apple Stores, millions of visitors per week.
Let’s work on those guys first, okay.. the millions/week, other than thinking that showing off how pretty Aqua is, will make Windows users switch.
They’ll see the ads and think.. ‘neat..’.. and head over to http://www.roXXorskinzz.com or something.
Ah, so it’s the usability of Spotlight and Dashboard that is what makes OS X so great. Uhm, you can’t really show that in an ad. So what are you guys planning for this groovy ad? Brightly colored backgrounds and people dancing with their PowerBooks… how about a metrosexual lugging an eMac upstairs while Maroon 5 plays in the background.
LOL!
Stop whining! The Apple Stores promote Macs… people go to Apple Stores to pick up iPods.. and they browse the Macs …CHILL!
PS> Speaking of marketshare.. do you really want people asking WalMart employees about whether you can run Office on the Mac??
What did you guys and gals think of MacDailyNews’ idea from their take in Friday’s article, Forrester analysts: Apple should advertise Mac OS X Tiger on television and in movie theaters?
MDN’s idea:
“Imagine a movie-trailer-length Mac OS X Tiger ‘show and tell’ that runs before the next Pixar film and is also conveniently included on every Pixar DVD. It would be seen by many millions of people who today simply have no idea what Apple offers with Mac OS X. Couldn’t Apple’s CEO call up Pixar’s CEO and make something like that happen?”
Sometimes I think that Apple wants to gain marketshare only by word of mouth. They seem to be doing a decent job of that. I agree totally with what Mike said…I don’t want the Wal-Mart culture invading the Mac space.
I’m tired of people saying that Apple is a HARDWARE COMPANY!!! IT is NOT a HARDWARE company…who makes the cpus…motherboards..RAM….Hard Disks….GPUs….Displays…..Hard drive’s for iPods???? Apple puts together hardware: computers, monitors and peripherals, but the most enticing thing about using a Mac these days is OS X, not the beatiful hardware!!!
By the way, the iBooks are designed by ASUS and then given Apple/IBM parts, OS X and an Apple logo. The Powerbooks are built off the iBooks…SO stop saying that APPLE is a HARDWARE COMPANY!!! THey’re noT!!!!!
Ms is a bloatware, vaporware, spyware, malware and beware company. ‘Really looking forward to 2006 or 7 for Longwilly.
I’m tired of people saying that Apple is a HARDWARE COMPANY!!! IT is NOT a HARDWARE company
Except they still make most of their revenue from hardware sales.
Of course, in my opinion Apple is best at software, and I’d wager most people buy the hardware just so they can get OS X. They don’t “put up” with OS X so they can get the hardware, unlike people who “put up” with Windows so they can get some really cheap Dell box.
Apple should seriously consider to make OS-Panther ready to a cisc – x86 platform and let the Macintosh-computer hold an advantage of one OS-Tiger generation, or ± 2 yrs.
I dont see any point in advertising – windows can get much worse and still the world beholds it as the OS of choice. Lets face it M$ owns the market and always will.
Apple IS a hardware company. Do you think that HP is building its own PCs? They are designing them and others (like ASUS) are building them. Does this make HP a software company? So: WHERE is the great HP software????
If Apple wasn’t a hardware company, they wouldn’t need Jonathan Ive, he would be working for ASUS…
winmacguy,
I work in insurance in the uk and am reliant on quotation software which has to be supported by a large voluume of underwriters to be competitive. All the software houses currently only support windows (and are crap even for windows software).
The developers have no interest in supporting mac because no-one uses it because they would have no facility to quote if they did.
I even considered using vpc, however I was told that it would not be supported and therefore any rates quoted would not be guaranteed by the underwriters.
The sad thing for me is that all the quotation software houses have spent forutnes on updating software to windows (up until 2000 most were legacy systems on dos) most of which still don’t work, that they charge a fortune for and make everything much slower than it should be.
Just as bad is the fact that any online services that are offered are all ie only, every time I mention firefox I am met with blank looks and then told that because it’s free it can’t be any good and that ie offers security. The amount of times I have almost laughed out loud at these idiots is ridiculous. Thing is I need them more than they need me.
After a long day at work, I have to play around on the mac for a while even if I have nothing to do, just to remind myself that computing can be easy.
Apple has marketers?!
What do they do …? No seriously …
What ever happened to that totally bitchin’ RSS screen saver?
What do you mean, what happened to it? I found it on my new iBook last night. I haven’t bothered to try it out yet though.
Ive just installed tiger and believe me – IT ROCKS!!
Simple to upgrade from OS 10.3.9 – now problems, faster and rock solid!
WHO THE HELL NEEDS WINDOWS???
“…Instead of the biggest, baddest operating system ever, skeptics see Longhorn as Windows XP Service Pack 3.”
Longhorn IS the biggest, baddest OS ever. Biggest as in delays, baddest as in empty promises. PC users, be careful what you ask for!
“But Microsoft also insists that users will be able to run Longhorn on older machines… It just won’t be a great experience, they admit, and may not look much different from XP today.”
That’s why it’s remarkable Tiger will run very well on G3 machines and up. We’re talking hardware 7+ years old, an eternity in PC terms. Granted big apps like iDVD and Garage Tunes will run like cold molasses, and you might not get the Quartz Extreme eye-candy like the fast-user-switch cube effect. But most of the OS will work acceptably well. I’ll pit Tiger on my G4 Cube 450 against Longhorn on a comparable speed/age PC any day.
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Good Sir Java:
No one had mentioned it so I was afraid it had been cut or something.
My tiger doesn’t come until tomorrow. I now loath UPS.
The article has a small paragraph about Mac OS . Then spends pages BSing about the promises of windows. What rot!!
Even has a link to microshaft.