“Microsoft’s Windows operating system is old — about four years old, which is ancient in the computer world. So is the last major revision of the company’s Internet Explorer Web browser. Both products dominate their categories, but both have fallen behind less widely used competitors with better features,” Walter S. Mossberg writes for The Wall Street Journal.
“Apple Computer’s new Tiger operating system for the Macintosh has a dazzling integrated desktop search feature that can find any common file in seconds — something Microsoft has talked about for years but hasn’t delivered in Windows. The upstart Firefox Web browser has tabbed browsing [as does Apple’s Safari], which allows users to open multiple Web pages in a single window with just one click,” Mossberg writes.
“Windows won’t have integrated desktop search until the fall of 2006, and IE won’t have built-in tabbed browsing until this summer. But Microsoft has just released a free product [MSN Search Toolbar With Windows Desktop Search] that adds both features to Windows computers. These add-on versions of desktop search and tabbed browsing aren’t as good as their built-in counterparts, but they get the basic job done,” Mossberg writes. “In my tests, MSN search did pretty well at finding things, but not as well as Apple’s. Because it is built into the operating system, the Apple search feature could turn up words in emails seconds after they arrived. The MSN search had to wait to index newly arrived files.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s Windows ‘Longhorn’ has been alternately described as “Windows XP SP 3” and “a train wreck,” so don’t bother holding your breath waiting for Longhorn.
MacDailyNews Note: Newsweek magazine calls Mr. Mossberg “the most powerful arbiter of consumer tastes in the computer world today.” Time magazine calls him “the most influential computer journalist.” And Rolling Stone calls him “the most powerful columnist in technology.” The Washington Post declared Mr. Mossberg “one of the most powerful men in the high-tech world” and “a one-man media empire whose prose can launch a new product.” And the New York Times calls him a “protean critic of the new economy’s tools and toys.” Mr. Mossberg was awarded the 1999 Loeb award for Commentary, the only technology writer to be so honored. For seven years in a row, 1995-2001, he was named as the most influential journalist writing about computers, in the annual ranking published by Technology Marketing magazine.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Windows users who try Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger might not want to go back – June 07, 2005
Columnist: ‘PC users have had what Apple Macs offer for years and it all makes me vaguely sad’ – May 17, 2005
Manually organize dinosaur Windows PCs while Mac users already have the future with Spotlight – May 18, 2005
CBS News: how envious Windows users can attempt to poorly simulate Mac OS X Tiger’s Spotlight – May 04, 2005
Apple Mac OS X Tiger Spotlight spells the end of organizing files in nested folders – June 09, 2005
PC World names Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘Best Operating System’ – June 01, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘is the most advanced operating system on the planet’ – May 31, 2005
TrustedReviews: After using Mac OS X Tiger ‘going back to Windows XP is something of a joke at best’ – May 18, 2005
The Butler Group: ‘Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger the best desktop operating system in the world to date’ – May 13, 2005
BBC News: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘the most stable and reliable OS, well ahead of Windows XP’ – May 10, 2005
Windows users show strong curiosity about Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger – May 09, 2005
Windows tech writer Thurrott: ‘In many ways, Mac OS X Tiger is simply better than Windows’ – May 07, 2005
EarthWeb: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger is a ‘serious enterprise operating system, a pivotal release’ – May 06, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘Tiger bolsters Mac OS X’s edge as the best personal-computer operating system’ – May 06, 2005
The Guardian: Mac OS X Tiger a powerful solution while Microsoft’s Longhorn remains on drawing board – May 06, 2005
Chicago Sun-Times: Mac OS X Tiger shows ‘there’s never been a more compelling time to switch to Mac’ – May 05, 2005
Dan Gillmor: ‘With Mac OS X Tiger, Apple is plainly in the lead today’ – May 05, 2005
Jupiter Research VP: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘runs rings around Microsoft Windows’ – May 04, 2005
The Independent: Apple’s ‘faster, smarter, simpler’ Mac OS X Tiger ‘a must-have’ – May 04, 2005
Mac OS X Tiger review for a Windows PC audience finds Tiger’s ‘far, far better than Windows XP’ – May 03, 2005
Boston Herald: Mac OS X Tiger should compel Windows PC users to think about switching to Apple Mac – May 02, 2005
Mac OS X Tiger will likely improve performance of your Macintosh – April 30, 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
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
Apple posts QuickTime movies of Mac OS X Tiger features in action – April 13, 2005
I am using this new search bar with tabbed browsing because I work for the govt and have no other option 🙁
I was forced to remove Firefox
they have made it so you cannot have the tabbed browsing without having thier MSN search bar at the same time
garbage but I have no other choice
ert, do you work for Homeland security or something? I’ve heard that the CIA and DARPA use Macs.
heh. I want the best of both worlds. As soon as I can be dual booting, I will do so. Piece of crap or no … I’ll use Longhorn. On a Mac.
that’s a positive on the CIA, bob
It’s good to have Walt in the Mac Camp. Of course he is only in it because the Mac and OS X actually ARE better. If Apple falls behind he won’t hesitate a second to point it out.
I have heard Leo Laporte (who is a big Mac Fan) say that another third party search bar on windows ( I believe it was the one that was bought out by Yahoo) is actually better in some ways than Spotlight. Anybody have any experience with this?
I just installed Longhorn latest build to operate my toilet and it failed the flush the water.
MS is playing it safe with the highly sophisticated and soon to be released Longhorn OS. Standing still for four years has let them survey the software scene very thoroughly. MSN Search Toolbar is only a hint to what is coming.
Those in the “real IT world” know that MS is the logical choice at work or at home. iPod fad will soon pass and Longhorn will be left standing.
©
gwm: dual booting will only be possible on a Mactel. So you’re gonna buy a Mac and run Windows on it? Mmmmhh…. ’nuff said…
“The MSN search had to wait to index newly arrived files.”
This capabilities was there is Mac OS 7 if I remember correctly.
Creating indexes of files or volumes that become immediately obsolete at every change is something rather old in Mac OSes .
Thanks for the Mossberg bio. So many articles quote him, and have never really known who he was.
In a good position to be advocating the Mac
“Longhorn will be left standing” – sputnik
Ahh, the truth, the pure truth. Indeed, Longhorn will be left standing from day one. That is, if day one ever arrives. Left standing WAY BEHIND 😀
I just love Sputnik. Hey “MSN Search Toolbar is only a hint to what is coming” – well it’s a add-on, like all MS-software are just patches and add-ons. That’s why they call Longhorn SP3. Service Packs of MS are just MAJOR add-ons and patches.
®
” Longhorn will be left standing. “
Good one Sputnik.
Longhorn has already been left standing – At the starting gate!
Heh Heh
sputnik,
So, are you going to wire $50,000 to make your copy of WebObjects legit in the “real IT world” or what? You didn’t reply to my previous offer, so I thought I’d give you another opportunity.
Or, are you just crop-duster in these posts? Drop your bomb and run and anwering retorts be damned…
Good one sput.
Haven’t BallGates put a contract out on Mossberg yet for heavens sake?? Yet again they’re slow as a steer’s ear.
Hi guys don’t waste your time responding to that moron sputnik. He’s just an abused and insecure 10 year old yearning for attention. He’ll do any thing hanging around this site every day, all day to incite people. How little does he realize he is such a pathetic little degenerated mind who has NO one to talk to. Leave him alone and let he rot in the “real IT world”, which mean in front of his Pee Cee running “Swindle XP” and yearning for “Lonfyearn”.
Zupchuck and others:
I can never understand why people don’t get Sputnik’s humour when it is so obviously a satirical take on the way “real” IT people (or at least, those who consider themselves to be “real” IT people) think and issue their pronouncements.
Lighten up, ferchrissake.
“sputnik” forgot to mention .NET, which makes me believe he’s not the REAL sputnik!! OMG, he’s been kidnapped and replaced with an exact replica!!
Sputnik rocks!
Regarding Sputnik’s comments:
It’s plain human nature, those who criticize are doing so out of insecurity.
Those confident in themselves and their personal choices will not (and do not) criticize others for their beliefs or choices. He’s obviously insecure about his platform of choice. Why else would he be trolling around on a Mac news site?
On the flip side, I believe that this applies to many of us on this forum not just Sputnik.
Dear Sam: Please see MCCFR’s comments. Yours in insecurity, Jose
I like sputnik’s posts. It’s funny watching him try to demonstate the benefits of an inferior product. Microsoft has been standing still for the last 5 years or more, while the technology world has moved on. Longhorn may at one time have been a respectable stride forward, perhaps enough to keep them in the game, but not anymore. Microsoft has stripped it down to the point where consumers are just going to shrug their shoulder when (or is it if) it’s released.
The existing catalog of applications, especially custom built commercial apps is the only thing that keeps Windows sales moving. Oddly enough that is also their downfall. Keeping backward compatability has turned Windows into resource hogging slow-motion bloatware.
I can’t wait to see comparative benchmarks on OS performance now that OS X and Windows will be on the same hardware. That is one of the reasons Apple moved to Intel, you know they already know that OS X can smoke Windows on the same hardware. I want to see Sputnik put a positive spin on that!
Guys Guys Guys, layoff sputnik! Of course Longhorn is going to be the last one standing in the “real IT world”, cause if the world ever quit using windows those real “IT” guys would have NO JOBS!!!!!!!
“Damn, your company switched over to Macs too? Well, I hear theres openings down at McDonalds since there is nothing left to fix.”
“I’m reminded of the proverbial “Bone-button soup” story – a beggar claims he can make a beautiful soup from a magic button that he owns. Everyone wants to see this impossible feat, so they watch as the beggar begins to simmer his button. “Not bad”, he eventually says, tasting the boiling water, “but a pinch of salt would bring out the flavor”. In the same way he persuades the crowd to contribute some onions, a few potatoes, carrots, beets, a marrow bone… So it is with [Windows] XP. By the time you’ve bought and installed your virus scanner, system utilties, backup software, a working web browser, a mail client, etc., you might as well have bought a real operating system.”
-A Wise Amazon Reviewer
I think Sputnik is really the former Iraqi Information Minister for Saddam