“As you probably already know, Apple recently released the final version of its Mac OS X Leopard operating system. And, judging by its initial sales (more than 2 million copies sold already), Apple seems to have hit a major home run. So what’s the big deal about Leopard and why should you care? In this review we’ll answer those questions and we’ll take a look at what’s good and bad in Leopard,” Jim Lynch reports for ExtremeTech.
“Some of you might be thinking ‘So what? I don’t own a Mac, what the hell do I care about Apple’s stupid operating system, Jim?’ Well that’s a fair sentiment if you’re not a Mac owner since Leopard doesn’t run on any other hardware…yet. But as we saw with Apple’s switch to Intel processors a while back, what seems incredible or even impossible can sometimes be quite possible. There may come a day when Leopard or its successor is available on non-Apple hardware,” Lynch reports.
“Plus it’s worth knowing what Leopard has to offer because Microsoft tends to use Apple as its research and development lab at times. In other words, if there’s a great feature on Leopard that’s not on Windows then you can bet Microsoft will steal…er…excuse me…borrow the idea for a future version of Windows at some point. Who knows…you may even see some of Leopard included in a future Windows Vista super-duper mega-patch or ‘service pack’ or whatever Microsoft is calling it these days,” Lynch reports.
“I have run Windows Vista Ultimate and I find it quite underwhelming compared to what Leopard offers. Microsoft just didn’t deliver the goods with Vista the way that Apple has with Mac OS X Leopard, and there’s just no other way to put it,” Lynch reports. “Vista is an example of what happens when Microsoft takes its eye off of operating systems so that they can compete with Google. Vista might not have been such a turd if Microsoft had only focused the appropriate amount of time, resources, and attention. Alas, it is what it is and it simply can’t compete with Leopard as a desktop operating system.”
“I’ll keep Vista on my Mac for the times I need to run a Windows-only game and/or test Windows applications for reviews and columns. But there’s no way I’d run it as my primary operating system. Life is just too short to bother farting around with Windows Vista, I’ve got better things to do with my time than spend it on fixing or tweaking Microsoft’s mistakes,” Lynch reports.
Full, comprehensive review – highly recommended – here.
