“After years and years of waiting, we finally have a reasonably stable Windows Vista beta build to work with. Windows Vista Beta 1 doesn’t feature many end user features per se, but it does include a nearly complete next-generation Windows shell, instant desktop search, a preliminary version of the new Aero user interface, and other useful functionality. For Windows enthusiasts, Windows Vista Beta 1 is a much-needed demonstration that Microsoft can still churn out valuable Windows releases, after years of doubt,” Paul Thurrott writes for Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows. “For Mac OS X users, however, Windows Vista Beta 1 engenders a sense of déjà vu. Isn’t a lot of this stuff already in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger?”
In part one of his comparison, Thurrott looks at:
• Look and Feel: “In short, though there are some bizarre inconsistencies in the Tiger UI, it is far more elegant looking than Aero in Windows Vista Beta 1. That makes sense, as Vista is still in a very early beta version and will likely be improved dramatically in future releases.”
• Desktop Search: “Overall, the search functionality in Windows Vista Beta 1 is very similar to Tiger’s Spotlight.”
• Data visualization and organization: “Even in this early Beta 1 release, Windows Vista far outstrips the data file visualization and organizational features in Mac OS X Tiger. It will be interesting to see what Apple comes up with for Leopard, the next OS X release.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Comparing a beta version to a shipping product that won’t even be the shipping product (that’ll be Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) when Windows Vista ships is an interesting exercise. The two products likely won’t ever be competing against each other (unless Microsoft is early and Apple is late), but Thurrott’s comparison gives us a sense for where both Apple and Microsoft are today and where they might be heading with future OSes.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Thurrott: Apple Macs offer a safer computing experience than Microsoft Windows PCs – July 20, 2005
Thurrott on spyware: ‘we should have paid more attention to those Apple Switcher ads after all’ – July 08, 2005
Apple to unleash Leopard on Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn; Mac OS X 10.5 due late 2006 – early 2007 – June 07, 2005
Windows tech writer Thurrott: ‘In many ways, Mac OS X Tiger is simply better than Windows’ – May 07, 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
The MS Start Menu has been the single consistent theme in Windows and STILL to this day is as unintuitive and cumbersome as ever.
MW: “Start” as in, start over
There’s one thing I agree with Thurott about (and only one): Although OS X outstrips Windows in every other away, I can’t say that Finder is a great app. Apple has done almost nothing with this app since the introduction of OS X, and that’s rapidly becoming a problem. It’s time for a rewritten Finder that advances the state of the art, instead of clumsily bandaging it with half-assed improvements like Smart Folders.
The lame state of the Finder is why programs like Quicksilver and Launchbar are such godsends. I almost never spend time in the Finder anymore, but that’s still no excuse for Apple just letting it die in the corner.
Hopefully the pressure from this kind of unfounded Vista hype will get Apple to devote some man-hours to Finder before Leopard comes out. With all of the under-the-hood improvements that Tiger put in, an amazing (perhaps Beos-style) file manager should be a breeze to implement.
iMaki:
In what way is the Dock clunky? Drag an application, folder or document onto the Dock. Drag it off.
I’m using a Power Mac G5 1.8 Dual: no hesitancy in my Applications folder, and it’s better than the Windows equivalent because I can either install a systemwide application or a user-specific app simply by choosing which Applications folder I wish to drag it to. This is when compared to Windows, where installing an app can write registry keys to any number of places, and where DLLs can be installed either with the app, or in the root Windows directory, or maybe even in Windows/System32.
And if I want to de-install an app, I pick it up from the Applications folder and throw it in the trash. As opposed to screwing around with InstallShield.
Next problem: if you find desktop icons a pain, don’t put things on the desktop – gosh, that was simple.
As for Finder means opening window after window – read a manual: alternatively, go to [B]Finder>Preferences>General[/B] and turn off [I]Always open folders in a new window[/I]. Then, if you do want to open a new window, simply hold down CMD-SHIFT when double clicking the folder, and it works just like Safari. BTW, this also works with Favourites in a Finder toolbar.
Why open multiple windows when you can use Column View. Now and then, when I want to move something around, I’ll open two or more windows, but I totally prefer Column View.
Loving the Dock. Especially for drag-and-drop working with files in multiple apps.
No easy way to find and launch apps. Dock is clunky, apps folder is hesitant and awkward, desktop icons is a pain, Finder means opening window after window after window followed by hierarchal navigation.
apparantly someone didn’t read their book on Mac OS X.
All one has to do is take a folder of their choice, even the boot drive and drag it into the area on the dock near the Trash (not in it mind you) and it creates a alias which if you click and hold on it, gives a pop-up menu/sub-menus etc.
Try it.
As for the META DATA argument:
Click on a file or a folder in Tiger, now hit +i. There at the top of the Get Info window it says Spotlight Comments, click the little arrow to drop down an entry window. Enter words that you want to correlate with your search results so you get them in there for sure, THAT’S META DATA. Does it get any MORE simple than that? I CAN’T IMAGINE THAT IT COULD.
Honestly, Thurrott is a HACK. Longhorn WAS the early beta, this build of Vista is NOT an early build, that’s a bunch of BS to make it seem like Vista is somehow magically going to leap 10 tall buildings before it’s release; very very doubtful.
Quote:
When Microsoft announced that it was adding integrated desktop search functionality to Windows Vista (then called Longhorn) in October 2003, the race began. Since then, various companies, including Apple, Copernic, Google, and Yahoo have all released desktop search products and all of them, except for Apple’s, are free (Microsoft even got into the game with MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search, see my review). But all of these products have one thing in common: They never would have been announced during 2004 had Microsoft not first revealed that it was making the feature a standard feature of the next Windows. The company’s competitors had wisely gambled that Longhorn wouldn’t ship on schedule and that their solutions would benefit from time to market.
He’s kidding, right? MS announces desktop search, which then sends ripples through the computer industry and instantly compels the likes of Google and Apple to scramble to add it to their next big thing? And to top it off, Apple and Google come out with it first, but that’s only because they “took advantage of the fact that they knew Longhorn would be delayed”? Let’s see, Spotlight is out and works fantastically (despite the blatant botched review that Thurott gave it in this article); Google IS IN THE SEARCH BUSINESS, but it’s unlikely that they would have thought of implementing a desktop search on their own- they needed MS to kick-start their search ideas….
Please… is this guy for real?
Windows has never had anything like the Finder. You stick a CD in a PC and… what? You have to double click on MY Stupid Computer to see what’s what, whaereas on the Mac it’s always been right on the desktop. And you can’t even name your hard drives in Windows, how lame is that?
I’ll be very surprised if Vista has any decent search capability, as Windows can’t find its ass with both hands, expecially on a network. And will MS ever fix the suffix idiocy? Probably not…
Don’t forget, that Vista is the Microsoft OS for the next 5 years.
Tiger is the OS for the next year until Leapord. (sic)
pfft.. he talks abotu Data File visualization as if its something Apple is freaking out about and working on…
not an important feature..
but paul included it to show the weird list of priorities MS has when developing/ripping off for their OSes.
Save your breath Paul.. zooming into a file like that is dumb. There’s a reason the file has a name, and a datte.. if that’s not enough for you.. you’re an idiot.
‘m not claiming that Microsoft “invented” anything. What I am claiming, however, is that Microsoft legitimatized certain technologies at PDC 2003 by announcing that they will be included in Windows, and that Apple seized on the opportunity to add those features–whether they were previously planned or not–in Tiger, which it knew would ship well before Windows Vista.
Does he really expect us to believe that the most inventive pc company in history, said wow look what microsoft is doing, we must add those features to Mac OSX before the next version of windows hits the stores.
What a load of horse manure! More likely the other way around when some microsoft spy found out what Apple was doing long before 2003.
This actually seemed like a fair comparison of the two products as they stand right now. The only difference and the reason we can’t be upset like a lot of people’s comments I’ve read is that we are already using the product he’s comparing to the beta of windows.
We don’t need to attack anything MS outright, if we’re going to hate it, we need to do so for what it is not just because it’s an MS product, that’s not good enough. Otherwise we’re just like the Mac bashers who haven’t touched a Mac since 1984.
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Our OS is superior to anything MS has on the shelf today… and I’m sure the next version of OS X (Vista’s actual competition) will be even better
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What the heck is a “windows enthusiast”. That’s like calling someone a Chevette enthusiest. A lot of people owned one, but only cause they had to. And would some IT journalist please respond to this guy in print about the following:
“After all, Apple was clearly influenced by some of the technology Microsoft showed off back then and knew that it could come to market much more quickly than the software giant.”
.. and he goes on…
“…Microsoft legitimatized certain technologies at PDC 2003 by announcing that they will be included in Windows, and that Apple seized on the opportunity to add those features”
Excuse me???? Yeeesh!
Leo Leporte, where are you? Please respond in your TWIT next week.
I saw the screen shots for Micros**t ‘Vista’ last week.
I about fell off my chair laughing!!!
They copied Apple AGAIN!
I mean really. I was told it would have some new funky 3D file navigation or SOMETHING that Apple would have to work hard to beat.
But No.
It looks like a badly designed and poorly executed Tiger skin effect.
I saved some screen shots it was so funny.
Meanwhile, we’ll have Tiger for more than a YEAR.
Even the stupid name is utter tripe.
I’m still smiling.
MW – ‘got’. As in: You’ve GOT to be kidding!
So, Thurrott makes a big deal out of how Longhorn is going to be so bad in comparison to OS X about a month ago, and now that Vista is out, he’s changed his mind. What a surprise. He did it on purpose to give his love of Vista and all things Windows credibility that is sorely lacking since he’s sounded like a broken record.
He didn’t sound believable a couple months ago, he still doesn’t sound creidible.
Microsoft must have had cut off his hot air salary awhile back when he started saying halfway decent things about Tiger; but then they decided he was too important a propagandist to lose and doubled his salary. Thus, Thurrott is back to awful comparisons. GAG.
Vista might not be all that but im surprised by all the GUI bashing its getting. Granted, XP is not a great looking OS, its final GUI was much different that the GUI that the betas sported. That has been the case for just about any Windows release since 3.1. Vista will not look like what you see in the screenshots and MS said that it will not show the final GUI to the public until a few months before RTM.
If any of you have been following the Longhorn beta since its early inception then you will note that the Plex GUI is no longer there. This is the 3rd GUI Longhorn has had and it won’t be the last. If you are gonna bash the OS do it because of its feature set/instability/security issues, not because of the GUI. Seems kinda pointless at this stage.
Just my 2 cents.
I don’t think Thurrott can help himself. He tried to make his review sound authoritative, and even complimented the MacOS several times, but there’s an underlying tone (a strong one) that he is pumping an OS that is late, stripped down and contains nothing that hasn’t been on the market for a few years.
There’s no doubt “Vista” beta will improve over the next 12 – 18 months. But so will the MacOS. The deal is that, MSFT is playing catch up to Apple, and until Apple stumbles all the gloss in the world won’t change that.
MW “Close”, as in not even.
“Finder means opening window after window after window followed by hierarchal navigation.”
iMaki, you haven’t used a Mac since OS 9, have you? Either that or you accidentally clicked on the tab to disable single-window view.
“Windows Start menu is much better. Apple just doesn’t get it in this regard.”
Er, the Start menu is a ripoff of the original Apple menu (only they put it at the bottom rather than the top so it wouldn’t be as obvious). You could put any folder in the old Apple menu and get a hierarchical menu, and as MacDude says you can now do it in the Dock.
MW: “took” – what Microsoft did to Apple’s ideas
Really i dont understand, Mac says Vista copied it, but how ca they really look at such little tiny similarities when Mac can’t decide on what to make. they keep on making newer and newer products, for such a high price, how can anyone keep up with that kind of technology, atleast with Windows they have a product that is still good and still selling. It just took 5 years to finally get over with windows xp, but why is Mac making newer and newer ones, trying to hide all the flaws that they made rushing into things. And the only reason Mac is going at such a fast rate is that Mac is already making what PC already had, why bother making Windows Vista come out so fast when Mac is only proving its intherior design. That proves that PC is better than Mac in my eyes. Maybe not all the programs.
Amit
If you are going to troll, at least pick a topic from the current year.
Also, its not intherior ; I think you meant inferior (unless you meant interior , which wouldn’t make sense in context). If you were using Safari on a Mac, you could use the built-in spell check to avoid those embarrassing mistakes.
well do u think that i care if i make a mistake like that, will everyone just get pissed off cause i made a spelling mistake, if u care that much u shouldnt even be here, alright, i have the right to say what i want, and tahts what i think about Mac alright, if u got a problem then say it but dont come here and tell em that my spelling is incorrect.
Ok, Amit
You have the right to believe anything you want.
I was just trying to point out to you that if you wanted to troll, you should pick a more current thread. You might get more response. Because the post just before yours was almost one year ago. People have moved on.
Best of luck to you and whatever OS you want to use. Bye now.