“In a bizarre display of desktop one-upmanship against Apple, Microsoft herded some Longhorn news off the development ranch for their partners and programmers. Details are a mile wide but only an inch deep, as the goal of WinHEC seemed to be more about Longhorn headlines than Longhorn details. Only the most blatant Microsoftie claims Longhorn will see the light of day before 2007, but that didn’t stop Bill and Company from trumpeting pseudo-details at high decibels,” James Gaskin writes for ITworld.com.
“Their goal, of course, was to distract everyone from Apple’s release of OS X version 10.4 aka Tiger. People still line up to get OS X upgrades when the Apple stores open at midnight, and the news on the upgrade has been wide and deep, unlike the news about Longhorn which is just wide. But for $129, you better get something of depth, and Mac fans believe they have,” Gaskin writes.
“By some accounts, Tiger does more for corporate desktops than any previous OS X release. This means your fellow employees who are Mac-obsessed will be knocking on your door again soon demanding the ‘best personal computer for their jobs,’ which they consider to be the Macintosh,” Gaskin writes. “Humor them, for they may be right, at least in the short term.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you define “short term” in the computer business as 1.5+ years, you must be a Windows user. Chances are that Apple will be very well along the development timeline for Mac OS X 10.5, Tiger’s successor, by the time Windows Longhorn even sees the light of day.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Tech pundit Enderle: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger’s main features ‘borrow heavily from Longhorn’ – May 02, 2005
Longhorn mentioned in nearly every Apple Mac OS X Tiger review to assuage Windows masses – May 02, 2005
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
Chance are that OS X 10.5 will be released in January 2007. Longhorn will be lucky to be released two weeks before that.
MDN Magic Word: “Power” As in the Microsoft OS PR machine has lost all its power.
That’s nothing. For pure amusement value, you just have to read La Enderle’s verdict:-
LINK
This is actually a case of “desktop one-downsmanship”. How can you possibly one-up a shipping piece of software with nothing (which is what MS announced)?
“Er, uh, we are confident that we’ll ship Longhorn by December 2006, so what if it’s only 18 months after Apple shipped Tiger.”
“And we might have search capabilities even better than spotlight, which they clearly stole from MS even though our software is coming out 18 months after theirs'”
Microsoft used to inspire fear in their competition, now they only inspire laughter and pity. As Steve Jobs so aptly said “They can’t even copy quickly”
If SJ is smart, which he is, he will figure out Longhorn’s official release date, and then release 10.5 just a few days before. Not too far before, but just before it, so that articles about Longhorn will mention 10.5, in the same way that articles about Tiger now mention (annnoyingly) Longhorn.
and how far down the road will tiger be by that time? 4.6? 4.8?
Dave H, thanx for the link. How can a person be such a twit, I gave up reading after the first two sentences.
The saddest thing will be though, is that when longhorn is finally released, it will be up against the next stage of OSX development, and If Apple does not release an upgrade within 30 or so days of the release of longhorn, the PC-Pro press will harp on the fact that Apple has “no new offering to date”.
The fact that Apple is lightyears ahead, will not really matter to those people. when car magazines pitt new model cars against each other, some of these “new” models may be 1 to 2 years old, but in the IT field, anything older than 6 months is on the border of being obsolete, even though the technology may function perfectly.
Here’s the one thing I didn’t understand about Enderle’s article: he claims that Apple “stole” the ideas for Dashboard, Spotlight and Smart Folders from Microsoft when MS demoed an early version of Longhorn a year or so ago.
Though he may be right (I don’t know), on what basis is he making this claim? Does he know for a fact that Apple wasn’t already working on those technologies?
He’s a Windows guy and that’s fine. He even managed to say nice things about Tiger, which is nice, but that little bit journalism reads like Fox News speculation rather than a researched fact.
Dave H: I got as far as the second sentence, “Borrowing heavily from what we had seen in Longhorn (Microsoft’s next version of Windows) last year, Tiger is an impressive piece of work”, and closed the page. I should have known this would be a typical Enderle article.
It’s so funny that these half-wits (as MacDailyNews so aptly describes Enderputz) continue to recommend that people stay with Windows with the logic that there are more “games” for Windows. Well Putz, if you want more games for Mac, buy Mac and buy games for Mac. Their logic is kind of like complaining about how the USA is run, but not voting.
Vote dammit!
Here’s how it will all play out.
1 – Longhorn will continue to be stripped down (Windows XP SP3) and won’t see the light of day until late 2006 or mid 2007.
2 – Apple will announce developement of Mac OS X 10.5 at Macworld 2006 with launch schedued for 2007 Macworld.
3 – Mac OS X 10.5 will be called SaberTooth.
4 – Mac marketshare will double by end of 2006.
5 – Linux marketshare will double by end of 2006.
6 – Microsoft will miss more Revenue and Profit projections; stock slumps.
7 – Microsoft will spend over $200-million for FUD campaign in 2005/2006.
8 – SaberTooth will ship BEFORE Longhorn ships.
9 – Microsoft will be caught funding virus development against Mac, Linux.
10 – Apple will launch Mac iBook mini with “tablet” technology.
11 – Apple will launch iMovie store similar to iTunes Music Store.
12 – Apple will launch “media center Mac” in Mac mini clothing.
13 – Apple’s stock will rise again; Microsoft’s stock will drift lower.
And the usual supply of Steve Jobs’ surprises.
Tera Patricks
Mac360.com
I hate reading anything by End-a-what’s-his-name because I feel bad knowing that I contributed to his “hit” total on his website. Even his “positive” comments are like a backhanded compliment. The last paragraph of that article is like a compilation of all of the FUD arguments against trying a Mac.
MDN magic word: hard – as in Enderle is hard to take
Heres some thing to think about.
Smart Folders are an MS Idea (Um. Didn’t we have those in iTunes before Longhorn was though of?)
Smart Searching, its been in the works by all companies for years.
Dashboard is not from Window Blinds, it’s from Konfabulator. I feel sorry for those guys.
I feel sorry for those guys.
—
I know.. they gave up cool jobs at Apple to go on to write Konfabulator.. now they’re writing Windows apps..
Did microsoft personally hurt you? This site is such a downer. So negative to MS. They won, apple will never gain it back. Computer OS is just a tool, enjoy your mac but get some therapy. You will feel better for it.
I do use a Mac and enjoy it thank you. And I no longer needed therapy the day I finally quit using Windows. Too bad it took me 10 years to realize the error of my ways, but at least I’m making up for lost time now…
re. macuser guest
Everytime I HAVE to use a Windows computer it’s like being forced to drive a car with the car-cover left on. Yes Microsoft has hurt me psychologically – perhaps I can sue them for the frustration and lost productivity I have experienced at workplaces over the years.
Yes, I use to use the Windows side of the house…….I felt the pain!
Sorry “macuser guest”, but the fact is-you are in pain.
I no longer fight my computer daily, lose information (not one byte on my mac in over eight years) and had it corrupted it monthly (on windows).
I try to get people to understand that by dumping their yugo’s (windose xp) and going to a reliable, sexy, Mercedes (Panther-less not mention Tiger), that get to go around the city and not worry about the tow trucks (virus scanners, spyware, and malware checkers) constantly in the rear view mirror with the other yugos’ headed for the service center (pc techs).
So go in the knowledge that you have seen the light and must first try it and feel the freedom that bondage has not let you feel.
From the greener side of the of the meadow with the rainbow!!!!