“On Monday, Steve Jobs addressed thousands of Macintosh hardware and software developers at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The clear message: the traditional Cold War between Mac OS and Windows is back on, and now it’s wearing spurs,” Andy Ihnatko writes for The Chicago Sun-Times.
“No kidding. Steve did everything but pound his shoe on the table and insist that his placement of iMacs in Cuba was merely a case of helping a brother revolutionary defend itself from industrial imperialism. Vista, the new overhaul of Microsoft Windows, will (dear Lord, please) finally be released in January, after five years’ worth of delays. Steve was keen on sharing Apple’s impartial opinion that Vista is but a shabby clone of Mac OS… last year’s Mac OS,” Ihnatko writes.
Ihnatko writes, “And Apple hasn’t exactly been sitting on its hands for the last 15 months. ‘Well, if you can’t innovate… impersonate,’ Apple’s VP of software engineering chided. And then the conference hall’s giant screens were filled with a photo of a fat Elvis.”
“Ouch,” Ihnatko writes. “They do have a point. If Microsoft’s current public beta of Vista and Apple’s sneak preview of Mac OS 10.5 (“Leopard,” promised for spring delivery) are anything to go by… Microsoft is in big, big trouble… Steve Jobs generated more genuine enthusiasm for Leopard in 90 minutes than Microsoft has generated for Vista in the last five years.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
InfoWorld: With Mac OS X Leopard, Apple aims to ruin Vista’s chance of gaining early traction – August 09, 2006
Big race? Which will ship first, Microsoft’s Windows Vista or Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard? – August 09, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Gartner analyst: It’s a ‘distinct possibility’ that Mac OS X Leopard will ship before Windows Vista – August 07, 2006
Apple WWDC banner: ‘Mac OS X Leopard. Introducing Vista 2.0’ – August 07, 2006
Ballmer analyzes Microsoft’s One Big Mistake, Vista… er, ‘One Big’ Vista Mistake – August 02, 2006
Leopard attack on Vista: Apple taunts Microsoft with much faster operating system launches – July 05, 2006
What Microsoft has chopped from Windows Vista, and when – June 27, 2006
Microsoft botches another copy job: Windows Vista Flip3D vs. Apple Mac OS X Exposé – June 26, 2006
Windows Vista rips-off Mac OS X at great hardware cost (and Apple gains in the end) – June 13, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Thurrott: Microsoft collapsing under its own weight, Gates has driven Windows Vista into the ground – April 20, 2006
Thurrott: Microsoft going to get eaten alive over Windows Vista’s resemblance to Apple’s Mac OS X – March 09, 2006
NY Times’ Pogue on Gates’ CES demo: Most of Vista features unadulterated ripoffs from Apple Mac OS X – January 05, 2006
Analyst: Windows Vista may still impress many consumers because they have not seen Apple’s Mac OS X – January 05, 2006
Gartner: Ignore Microsoft Windows Vista until 2008 (why not just get Apple Mac OS X Tiger today?) – November 12, 2005
Microsoft’s Windows Vista strives to deliver what Apple’s Mac OS X already offers – October 10, 2005
Thurrott: many of Windows Vista’s upcoming features appeared first in Apple’s Mac OS X – September 26, 2005
Microsoft’s Ballmer: It’s true, some of Windows Vista’s features are ‘kissing cousins’ to Mac OS X – September 18, 2005
Windows tech writer Thurrott: ‘In many ways, Mac OS X Tiger is simply better than Windows’ – May 07, 2005
Thurrott: Longhorn demos ‘unimpressive, fall short of graphical excellence found today in Mac OS X’ – April 26, 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
Microsoft’s new mantra: ‘It Just Works’ ripped straight from Apple’s ‘Switch’ campaign – April 22, 2005
Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Microsoft’s Longhorn: ‘They are shamelessly copying us’ – April 21, 2005
Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn will bear more than just a passing resemblance to Apple’s Mac OS X – April 15, 2005
Steve Jobs: Microsoft copied original Apple Mac with Windows 95, now they’re copying us again – February 08, 2005
The Age: ‘Apple’s Mac OS X at least a generation ahead of Windows XP, iMac G5 clearly the best’ – December 15, 2004
Silicon Valley: Apple CEO Steve Jobs previews ‘Longhorn’ – June 29, 2004
Apple CEO Steve Jobs: Mac OS X Tiger ‘is going to drive the copycats crazy – June 28, 2004
PC Magazine: Microsoft ‘Longhorn’ preview shows ‘an Apple look’ – May 06, 2004
Windows ‘Longhorn’ to add translucent windows that ripple and shrink by 2005 – May 19, 2003
Apple leads; Wintel follows as usual – November 11, 2002
Sadly MS doesn’t need to do much to sell Vista other than finally release it. It will be on all new PeeCees sold by Dell, HP and such. Those companies all hope many will decide to upgrade hardware to run Vista but the excitement level is just not there. I know many that have older windows machines running ’98, 2000 and NT. People running XP may be content with what they have and not see enough new stuff to justify upgrading to new hardware.
“pound his shoe” LOL!
Vista will never ship.
Enterprise types could care less about it.
Steve: “Is that my operating system? What’s it doing here?”
Uncle Fester: “We f***ing stole it, man…”
Longhorn is soooo late that Tiger beat it out.
Now people are saying Vista will beat Leopard.
So what!!!!
Tiger is still better than Vista.
Advantage Apple-
There are a large majority of older PC’s that will not run Vista worth a hoot. A large reason for this is low-end PC’s with stripped down video cards, low-end Celeron or AMD processors, and the list goes on.
Suffice to say, this may spur a hardware upgrade cycle for Windows users.
Reading between the lines yet?…
With Mac’s being able to run Windows, this may become the perfect time for many more Windows users to switch platforms and go Mac.
Apple’s timing for Leopard and it’s Intel switch couldn’t be more perfect.
They needed a poster with a monkey fur background and sweat pouring off of it that read; developers, developers, developers, developers… developers, developers, developers, developers,
And another poster that said; watch for flying chairs
And another poster that read; we’re throwing in the towels.
What is great about Apple’s current situation is that it will sell record-breaking numbers of Macs (and iPods), whether Mac OS X Leopard is release tomorrow or a year from now. But all this press about Mac OS X Leopard versus Windows Vista, and the perceived “race” to release… they just generate more publicity and awareness in the general public about the Mac alternative. Apple is getting a lot of free publicity by encouraging these comparisons articles, by taking its own shots at Microsoft. Very smart tactics…
Our company WILL NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, move to Vista. Our backward, incompetent IT department may possibly be replaced, and we go to Macs. Its been too long, and some of our software does not exist in the Mac world, but we will improvise.
ENOUGH OF WINDOWS.
On that same note:
My father told me that his company was planning on buying Macs later this year- and installing Windows.
But, why would they have wasted money on the macs just for Windows?
Right.
Because of the fact that they’re going to gradually switch, getting all their other software they need over to the Mac side (currently, they’re just too damn entrenched in the Windows software, it would be too costly to radically move all at once.)
Eyes are opening.
“If Microsoft’s current public beta of Vista and Apple’s sneak preview of Mac OS 10.5 (“Leopard,” promised for spring delivery) are anything to go by… Microsoft is in big, big trouble…”
Yeah right. As much as we love Tiger, and will love leopard, we all know that the day vista ships, IT people across the world will be loading it on tens of millions of machines. It may stink, but it will still sell. Businesses do not care about OSes. They only care that their people can run the basic Office software they need. And as long as they can buy cheap underpowered machines from Dell, they will. It’s that simple.
I love mac – love the os – wouldn’t buy anything else… but the day apple wins is the day it crosses the 50% threshold of users. Until then, the 800lb gorilla is in charge.
Hopefully this will be a boost up a long trek uphill…
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What is with the “this beat that to market” talk anyway?
I am so sick of hearing speculation about which OS will be first to market and that that somehow makes it better.
In the sceme of things, I think of mature software (like an OS) released within 6 months of its competition as being released at the same time.
What is much MORE important is the feature set…does it crash all the time? is the new feature X a timesaver or a hastle?
Ray, you could not BE more wrong in what you say.
My brother is a senior systems analyst for a Forbes 500 company, and in a recent, lengthy conversation he revealed that his company will not even LOOK at Vista until its second Service Pack release! How long from now will THAT be?
When you say IT managers do not care about OS’s, you are so far off the mark, it’s frightening. They asbolutely DO! Perhaps OS X is not one of them, but IT professionals are getting by just fine right now with XP (or so they believe). It runs “Office” and is more or less manageable given the current state of the patch-upon patch-upon patch cycle.
Vista’s “tens of millions” of business adoptions is YEARS away. THAT you can believe, and if Apple continues to grow and refine Leopard+ in that time, the OS game will become, I believe, a toss-up!
Windows: A Brief History.
Born: 1980’s
Ascendent: 1990’s
Decline: 2000’s (esp. post VISTA)
Death: 2010
AMEN
I think Apple’s main goal is to take over the consumer market. I think the business market will eventually go to linux. So Apple will focus on hardware for that market. With the new Mac Pro and Xserve, there’re there.
Ray: That’s just plain wrong what you said about IT people installing Vista right away. Are you nuts?? It took most companies YEARS just to move to Windows 2000. You don’t go and upgrade working systems which are used for work on the spur of the moment and then incapacitate your entire business. IT departments test these releases out on temporary networks they build for that purpose. They evaluate all their software and make sure it still works. I know for a fact that tons of large companies are still using Windows 2000 right now and are not planning to upgrade to XP nor Vista until absolutely forced to.
MonkeySoft will be lucky if they can get the stripped-down (yes, even further!) corporate edition of Vista out the door in January. No worries for old Steve-O.
“Steve Jobs generated more genuine enthusiasm for Leopard in 90 minutes than Microsoft has generated for Vista in the last five years.”
Priceless!!!
“I think the business market will eventually go to linux.”
Great news. You can run Linux on a Mac.
A recent survey of IT Managers in major corporations indicated it would be a minimum of one year before they would consider installing Vista. Over 65% had this response. Migrating to a new OS is a VERY expensive, risk prone move whether it’s Vista or OS X. For corporate environments going to OS X won’t happen until an enterprise class fully integrated system that manages email, database applications, and other accounting functions is deployed for the Mac OS. They are out there now…true…but they are not ready for large corporate environments since they are either too new or would require massive retraining for all those MCSE people out there who are now in charge.
That’s a shame. If IT folks don’t immediately upgrade to Vista, everyone will miss out the latest and greatest malware technology. Hundreds of Symantec and McAfee engineers will suffer. And MS won’t be able to sell many anti-virus subscriptions.
That’s not fair. I expect mass protests.
What if?
What if the overhead requirements for Vista were so great, that 75%+ of all PC’s in service today would not be able to upgrade because of incompatible components or sloth-iness?
What if the WinDell & WinLen(lenovo)& WinGate & WinPaq (HP,Compaq) all got on board because they were told by the monkey-man that new hardware will fly off the shelves in the rush to upgrade to Vista?
What if Jobs has forseen this?
Easily Apple could have made sure that OSX Leopard would run quite well on all of those other 75% machines in service.
Therefore, when both new OS’s are released the Consumer will have a choice to make;
– Upgrade to Windows Vista, ($199) then purchase new computer ($799 minimum), possibly have to upgrade most of your existing software to run on Vista ($500+) Total= $1498.00
– Upgrade to Mac OSX Leopard ($149) Install on existing PC, runs great! Included software replaces 90% of previous PC S-ware. Total = $149.00
Makes switching very attractive from this perspective.
LOL, Our company moved to XP last year. LAST YEAR!
Vista is not even on radar. Concur with others here. It has to reach not less than SP2 before TESTING will start. IF Vista ships in 2007 we are talking about 2009 ~ 2010 for serious business to start looking at it seriously. By then, the two versions released after Leopard might have already made its entry on that sector.
Vista is seriously in trouble even before shipping.
It’s simple, Leopard works, Vista doesn’t.
I have to agree…
I work at a really big company (really, really big) and we just moved to XP this year.
Prior to this we had been running NT. XP sucks horribly, but the IT guys who help us over the phone say we’re stuck with it for while.
No plans to move to Vista…
~M