Is Snow Leopard just a cheap Windows 7 knockoff?

obvious troll is obvious

This is the single most biased thing I have ever read. Your saying how Windows users have had 64-bit for 3 years, so have mac users, OS 10.4 supported 64-bit applications and that wasn't an extra you had to pay $100 extra for. Do you even know what quicktime is for? Its not a movie making program it plays movie files and converts them, Apple computers already come with a movie maker or did you forget? You also seem to miss out one of the best features of the new operating system OpenCL which allows for graphics acceleration, oh wait Windows doesn't have that. Now lets see you saying that Windows 7 is just righting the wrongs of its predecessor, so what the whole OS? which cost, for the version your bragging about, $320, versus Apple's $100 which was mostly flaw free, and now Windows users that were suckered into Vista have to fork out another $120 and thats the cheapest one, and this you say is just fixing a few minor a flaws and you reckon these minor flaws are $120 worth? Yet Apples "bug-fix" isn't worth $29?

It's quite a tragedy that infoworld allow such ill-informed pieces to get published, and thus sully their reputation.

Cheap attempt by Randall to attract attention. I guess his minuscule brain couldn't have done it in any other way. Its a shame InfoWorld approves such articles. Randall - sincere suggestion - you are fit to review small user-level applications at best. Don't talk about operating systems if you don't know what you are talking. Scroll down to Windows and 64-bit and you will understand what went wrong with Microsoft and where and how Apple avoids it. Seriously, get a Mac, use it and then review it. Don't just throw words in the air to attract clicks. I pity you.

Missed the link in previous comment - http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/08/26/road_to_mac_os_x_10_6_snow...

I'm not even a Mac user and even I can see this article is biased rubbish, in fact having looked at the real information on this OS release I am now thinking of getting a Mac rather than upgrading to Windows 7. Oh and Randall ... get a life mate!

OMG--Talk about being Sally-Sensitive Apple users.

Is this writer a disgruntled ex apple employee...

What silliness. Here we have a tech writer who shows the same lack of knowledge about the workings of a Mac as most of the Windows world. Talk about shilling!

Ah, August...

Wait, you mean Apple put something out that's more hype than substance? Alert the media! And, ya, I think you have quicktime confused with something else. What you should recommend is that they abandon QT altogether. What a bloated piece of garbage! If I ever get a QT file (like from my damn digital camera) I immediately convert it to a worthwhile format.

Haha, funny article. I hope the author is attempting sarcasm, and not being serious. Having used Windows and Mac OS extensively, and having tested Windows 7, it is clear that the author has not researched or even used Mac OS before writing this article. Windows has always included Movie Maker? Mac has always included iMovie, which although it sucks for anything more than a basic movie, is still significantly better than Movie Maker. Quicktime Pro is for converting formats, not for making videos. Expose, which does window previews, was included in Mac OS X long before Vista came along. The Windows 7 taskbar is a huge improvement, and basically finally brings similar functionality as Mac OS's dock. Next time try using the system before attempting to review it.

Except for the 64-bit remark, the author's complaints all have to do with the UI or applications - not the OS. To be honest, I would say there are some UI features that Windoze has, that I wish MacOs's aqua UI had. Getting back to comparing the actual underlying OSs - then forget about it; Windoze is crap - a glorified CP/M, whereas MacOS, being based on UNIX, is much more stable and robust.

Oh please! Get your history correct! The new Task Bar is a cheap knock off of the Macintosh Dock that has been out since before Windows XP. "The new Taskbar puts Apple's clumsy Mac OS X Dock to shame" Are you for real? I mean really? The Dock can size its icons automatically, and works perfectly when placed on the left or right side of the screen, unlike the new Task Bar that is fully functional only on the bottom. In the era of Widescreen monitors you would think that Microsoft would have gotten that one right, but they didn't, and I'm not surprised!

How much does Microsoft slip you under the table in cash and goodies to justify your dribble? I've always been a PC user both at work and at home except for two years when my supervisor suggested that I try his IMac as I selected equipment for a new lab. Besides the obvious appeal of the compact unit's large screen, I found the Mac's to be more stable on the internet, never crashed, and was a refreshingly user friendly format. Not one of the 20 Mac users that I know at work uses a virus or spam program and they've never had a problem. Try to duplicate that with a PC. There were some problems with our early IMacs such as overheating and high fan speed but it was hard to criticize them. I just retired after 30 years of managing labs and purchased a twenty four inch IMac for my home. I'd almost forgotten the good experience that I had using Macs several years ago. In the month since I received the unit since retiring it's been an absolute pleasure to use. Your Snow Leopard rant seems excessive, way too personal, and strangely motivated.

Is this guy for real? There is so much i can say, but i just can't make myself. Try to fair and research before your write for a reputable sites.

Putting these trivial feature functionality discussions aside, the truth is Microsoft just doesn't speak to the typical computer user anymore. Their products are frustratingly over engineered, riddled with bugs and just simply boring. Shopping for PCs at Best Buy ranks up there with looking at radial saws in Home Depot. Just boring. I can't remember the last time someone said to me "check out this awesome PC i just bought," or "i can't wait till Windows 7 comes out so i can put all my files on an external hard drive, wipe the entire hard drive clean and start all over again!" weeee.. I honestly think microsoft has given up and are just going through the motions at this point. They've gone macro soft. At least Apple seems to be curious and trying new things. I would welcome more options, but microsoft ranks up there with radioshack to the younger generation...

Since I switched to Mac last spring, everything I do is faster. Not just a little faster, but incredibly faster, and without all the hassles I had learned to live with using Windows. I was a longtime Mac hater like this author, but buying the iPhone showed me how far Mac had come to making an OS intuitive. My Windows machines are gathering dust now. AND, the thing windows will never even come close to is the customer service. Everytime I call 800-MYAPPLE, I speak to someone who speaks english as their first language, and they aren't running a checklist. They actually know their systems. They never seem to want to rush me away. Oh, and I have never been on hold, and they answer right away. As far as I am concerned, Apple is hitting homeruns in all they do.

This is the first InfoWorld piece I've ever read, and I have to say that it's at best a bad forum post and at worst an embarrassment to the writer. If it's satire, the writer may want to revisit freshman composition classes or at least read some Jonathan Swift. Advertisers take note: I won't take time in the future to read cpm-fodder such as this, and I am making a deliberate effort not to support advertisers of this publication.

Troll. No doubt trolling for hits and page ranks. The article is so misleading its hard to know where to begin. Go ahead, keep your Windows machines, see if we care. Meanwhile, I'll choose a system that allows me the freedom to run every operating system out there, simultaneously on one machine, for the most expandable, flexible computer experience ever. You can keep your one-trick dog and pony show. And while you're sitting around waiting for your anti-virus software, spyware, and other security toys to update daily, I'll be enjoying the best computing experience, built on the Unix kernel and dressed into a bullet-proof system that makes you envious enough to write bull-crap articles like there to troll for responses from guys like me who laugh at you.

...also why should Apple support XPS document format, which was developed by Microsoft to compete with PDF? The XPS spec is based on XAML, which is hopelessly tied into Microsoft's technology stack, whereas PDF is platform-neutral.

so how does an "incremental follow-up release that was mostly about righting the wrongs of its predecessor" (Windows 7 or 'Vista R2') justify an upgrade price that is as high as fully new versions M$ has offered in the past? Please, already.

This author is an idiot. Please do some research before writing an article. there are so many things you write that are false that I don't even know where to start, the 64 bit piece is great, OSX has been doing that since well before Vista was out, and it is native, but runs some apps in 32bit mode, just like Vista. QuickTime is not a movie maker, the movie maker in Vista doesn't compare to the movie maker in OSX - iMovie. Please buy a Mac and use it before acting like you know what you are talking about.

I registered here just to reply to this article. This is the first article I've read on infoworld and I hope life isn't always this boring and the articles this lousy around here. If there was only 1 or 2 errors here, I would try to write something to shed light on those error, but as it is, the whole article is so hopelessly biased and misleading that I feel like the best thing for me to do would be to write a very pointed suggestion to the author that he amend this article with an apology and promise to do his homework before he ever does this kind of bashing again. I will openly admit that I primarily use OSX, if I didn't, how could I prove that I know what I'm talking about when I say this guy is speaking lies. Now that I've said I use OSX primarily, I WILL say, that I am not entirely apposed to people using different os's. I believe everyone should use what they feel most comfortable with and what makes them the most efficient in their computer use. I have experience with all the windows operating systems from 95 all the way to windows 7. Infact I am running windows 7 on my PC laptop here. It is by far the best OS ever to come from redmond. It is what vista should have been. However, there is still no comparison to the ease of use and flexibility that the Mac platform or even Ubuntu linux provides to computer users. The troll that wrote the article above, obviously does not have any experience with Mac OSX or he would have known what foolishness it is to write some of the things he did. Lets here some unbiased reviews from people that actually understand how computers work and can better define their strengths and weaknesses.

I also registered just to make a comment about this article. The author is obviously out of his depth. Try using a Mac for a couple of months and then write this article again... What an embarrassment for this site!

This article was so bad that it inspired me to register just to leave a comment and let the author know how bad I thought it was. This is probably the worst IT related article I've read in years.

Randall, some career advice: Consider becoming a sports reporter where bias and ignorance are entertaining (and expected) and there is no pretense that you are knowledgeable or informed.

I think the writer must have jumped ship from TMZ. First he riles the Windows crowd, now it looks like he's trying to get a rise out of Mac users. Next there'll be an article about Linux being too expensive. If you'd used a Mac for any period, you'd know that some of this is just plain silly; and wrong.

Everything he says in this article is so true. .... on opposite day. George W. Bush's second term set a new bar in presidential excellence.

Randall, just once I'd love to see a column of yours that elicited responses that addressed issues, and weren't just ad hominem (look it up, kiddies) attacks. As it is, responders to this column, as with almost all of your others, merely attacked or insulted you and/or IW, with a precious few actually mentioning an issue along with the insult. They'd be funny if if they weren't so pitiful. To quote Bob Dylan, "When will they ever learn?" (And yes, I know this post can be considered an ad hominem remark about other responders.)

It is true, there is really no comparison between Windows and OS X. Unlike the author, I am not being paid by Microsoft to promote their garbage operating systems. I've used Unix, Solaris, Windows, and OS X. Windows comes in dead last among these--except perhaps for gaming. Leopard, and soon Snow Leopard are hugely robust operating systems that are also easy for novices to use. At the same time they offer god-like power to those who appreciate the Unix kernel. Apple is about to give their users what they asked for--more speed. Thank you Apple. Microsoft gives user more bloat which requires newer faster machines to run. The primary difference between Microsoft and Apple is that Apple build a good product. Microsoft puts unstable products out that drives their customers crazy. Microsoft drove me away with Vista and I'm so happy now. I didn't just buy one Mac, I bought four. Snow Leopard will be leaner and faster than Leopard. Each update to Leopard has increased it's speed. I know I've checked and documented this with benchmarks. Snow Leopard will be better--faster and smaller, with a few new features. The only disadvantage to Snow Leopard is some of the older Apple machines will not be able to run it. For the author to whine and whimper about the 64 bit attributes is nonsense. The issue was all about backward compatibility. At some point a company needs to stop trying to extend the life of older machines. Apple chose this point in time to do that. Apple was smart enough to switch to Unix kernel, and then focused on improving it's GUI to make it the best in the world. Ok. Let talk about price. Snow Leopard is cheap. Leopard was relatively cheap. How much does Windows cost? Microsoft has crazy insane prices for an inferior product that is so susceptible to viruses that expensive virus checkers must be used which also slow down performance to a crawl. Apple makes their money using premium hardware and offering outstanding, awesome tech support. What was the issue with the Dock? It works like some of the other Unix launchers and it is configurable. Compare to Microsoft's "Start menu". I hate it. It is not organized in a logical manner. On Windows machines I spend a lot of time reogranizing the start menu to have folders for Internet, Graphics, Office, Accessories, Games, Utilities, and Media folders. I spend hours deleting all the crap software, but when the time comes when I have to repair my OS, which is constantly with Windows, I have to do it all over again--all because Microsoft doesn't have the sense to organize their menus intelligently. And I have to do this for every account--Administrator, Every User, and for my self--just to make the start menu look clean and functional. I do some of this on my Mac's, in a very small way because I can't fit everything on my dock. I rarely have to reinstall my OS, and if I do it is because I'm upgrading a drive--not because the OS is screwed up. So who is Windows good for? Anyone who plays games. Anyone who never installs new applications. So enough of the biased reviews--next time Microsoft sends you talking points, file them in your trash basket on your iMac.

I also registered because I was shocked at the amount of misinformation in this article. The author shows a sever lack of knowledge about the topic he is writing and a complete lack of ability or interest to do research. Like it or not Snow Leopard from DAY ONE was not a feature upgrade. Rather it is something shocking for any company: it is a MAJOR release meant only to speed up an existing operating system and to allow many users to get a LOT MORE out of their existing hardware. And it lays the foundation for moving forward. Completely opposite of majority of Microsoft bloatware releases. So if you are looking for new features don't upgrade. If you are looking to improve the performance of your existing computer by a LOT then do. Macs have always been able to go to sleep (hibernate for windows users) and wake up very quickly, reconnect to existing wireless networks and all services (something Windows still can not do reliably). With Snow Leopard application launches are near instantaneous, my laptop goes to sleep and wakes up ready for use in under one second, and feels faster than my quad CPU desktop computer. To me this is worth the small $29 price tag. Compare that to paying 2 full upgrade prices from XP to Windows 7 only to come within 5% of XP performance and gain a bad ripoff of the MacOS X GUI from 4 years ago. Do some research, know what you write about.

I had to check to make sure this wasn't _The Onion_. So this is actually supposed to be serious? Almost none of his statements are true, but they still make no sense. I literally LOL'd when I read this. I think this was some kind of PR stunt. Just haven't figured out how it works yet.

WHAT AN IDIOT! And yes I yelled that one. It is obvious that the author wanted to invoke a reaction from fans of Apple and Macintosh. He got his wishes. I will never read another one of his articles. Mac OS X is so far ahead of Windows 7 that Apple did not need to put out a feature release. Rather Apple focused on cleaning up their code base, Removing redundant code and making better what is a great OS. I am a beta tester for both win 7 and OS X. Trust me Snow leopard is light years ahead of Windows 7 and until MS chooses a different method of developing it will stay that way. Apple Innovates while Microsoft Stagnates... but puts pretty cellophane over the jello to make it look nice. WHAT AN IDIOT!

Dear Mr. Kennedy, I loved your article about Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7. Brilliant! Your craft, style and creativity really impressed me. But why are you writing for the tech industry? Your work is head and shoulder above tech. You should be writing mainstream sit com. Truly, I believe that you are not living up to your potential. It is obvious to me that your grasp of tech is mediocre at best. But your comedy sense is inspired. Please let me know if any theatre groups or television production company's are producing your work. I would love to see a show written by you. Keep working hard, it's worth it. a new fan PS your email address was undeliverable - it got bounced back. I noticed that the message came from Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Maybe you could check it out.

Link bait. Anybody remember when InfoWorld had serious writers?

Had to register just to reply to this nitwit, he lost me at BFD! Well spoken, you must have been quite the cub reporter at your Jr. High School paper. Unfortunately your talents seem to have stopped maturing about then. Talk about fair and balanced. Its one string banjo's like this that is the major problem with getting accurate information today. If you didn't realize this is a fluff piece written by someone with an agenda you may actually believe this crap. Just look at the last half dozen or so articles Randy has written. He makes Paul Thurrott look like the ultimate Mac fanboy. I haven't heard of him before (and won't be reading much by him in the future) but if he keeps working for Infoworld they will have to come up with a replacement for the word Info. It is sad IW values webpage hits over accuracy and fair reporting. BTW... I am a Windows user.

I'm just going to assume this article was nothing more than satire. A few things are so far off base it is very funny. PDF (Entire GUI has been PDF based for 10 years), Expose (been around since 2003), QuickTime Player (It's a player, need to edit? use iMovie), Enhanced multiple-CPU support (happened in Tiger 2005), Grand Central Dispatch (an API/service for making it easier to program for multiple cores), Not a worthy upgrade for the price (90% of the projects were updated and several fundamental architectural changes to the OS foundation), however for something he considers "righting the wrongs" a full OS price is justifiable? It's fair to say this person has no prior knowledge of Mac OS X what-so-ever or is just playing stupid.

Where, oh where, is Tom Yager?

HE is the one I want to read, commenting wisely and truthfully regarding OS X Snow Leopard, and all other things Macintosh.

Randall, your trolling probably drew in some readers, but shame on you for offending them with untruths, ignorance, and Micro$lop.

I hope your advertisers die a slow death from boycotts.

Win7 is better than Vista, and that's a good thing. But it may be marginally better in corporate IT than XP.

Snow Leopard is a near-complete rewrite of Leopard in 64-bit form. That it is 32-bit compatible and comes in one flavor for all multi-core Intel machines is huge. Apple has had/took the luxury of starting over with OS X, with Intel processors, and now with Snow Leopard. They are best poised of any company to "grow forward" with new technologies.

Microsoft will eventually die a death of a thousand tiny cuts, or the death of a slowly-boiled frog. They will see short term success, but the market will move out from under them, in an entirely new direction.

"Is Randall C. Kennedy a Cheap Paul Thurrott Knock-Off?" Honestly, is Randall here just to write troll-bait?

How could InfoWorld publish this??? Totally ridiculous!

I don't know Mr. Kennedy personally, but I can say this: If he doesn't understand the meaning of the words "journalistic research", then he shouldn't be writing op-ed pieces in ANY magazine. Five minutes worth of browsing Apple's web site would have been enough for him to realize that he was about to open mouth and insert foot when he wrote this nonsense. The whole point of Snow Leopard was not to introduce new features. The point was to optimize the code to make the OS run as quickly and efficiently as possible. Hence the "snow" (as in 'white as snow' or 'pure as new fallen snow') in Snow Leopard vs just plain, ol' 'Leopard'. The size of the codebase is nearly cut in half while delivering a supposed 200% performance increase in Finder and other operations. This officially makes a full installation of Mac OS X a tiny fraction of the size of a comparable Windows installation. I'd love to see the boys in Redmond even come close. And for crying out loud, it's only $30! That versus $120 or more to upgrade to Windows 7, presumably for 'features'. I love seeing Windows-heads try to talk about stuff like this. It just goes to show how truly ignorant some in the press can be.

Brilliant article. Apple should stop stealing Microsoft's ideas, it's almost criminal. I mean, phones running Windows have been around for years and then Apple comes along, steals the idea and everyone wants an iPhone. They should sue. And as for the iPod; just a Zune rip-off. And Expose on OS X is clearly just a copy of Aqua. Don't even get me started on the copied Start menu that became the Apple menu, the stolen Gadgets that became Widgets... Snow Leopard may be 6 times cheaper than Windows 7 and "presses the pause button on the features" but next they'll be copying the blue screen death.

Somebody's jealous of John Dvorak's fat paycheck! Too late to catch a ride on that trollwagon! He'll mention in his next article how excitable Apple customers are. It'll be the proudest moment in his career.

This the same guy who was blabbing about Grand Central Dispatch being copied from MS a couple of months ago but he clearly didn't understand that GCD was....and he didn't know that MS won't be delivering a rough equivalent of GCD until VS 2010 ships. He doesn't have much credibility when it comes to technical analyses.

Randall,
Do you just sometimes have some uncontrollable urge to write and post flamebait? I don't know how many articles I've read that seem to just come across that way. Do you subscribe to the idea that bad publicity is better than no publicity at all? I'm starting to wonder, though... Is it possible that Randall C. Kennedy is really Robert X. Cringely (or vice-versa)?

I also registered just to respond. I hate to dignify this article with a reply, but this has all the earmarks of being paid for by Microsoft. And frankly demonstrates some lack of knowledge from the writer. 1) I believe Snow Leopard was announced before Windows 7. I could be wrong, but I remember Snow Leopard being discussed in 2007. 2) Mac OS X was 64 bit, the kernel itself was not. This release addresses that. And if Windows was so 64 bit awesome, why can it only access 4 TB of addressable memory instead of the 16 EB a 64 bit system should allow? (disclosure: I haven't seen how much Snow Leopard will allow access to) 3) Compare to Leopard, the Exchange support is a nice upgrade. Frankly, previous versions of Mail and iCal were weak in this area, from what I've seen in the most recent Snow Leopard build this is much better. And now I don't have to have Entourage as a backup, especially for calendar. 4) I'm quite happy that Apple has handled this release the way they did. Personally I think the 64 bit kernel improvements and the Exchange integration improvements make it worth $29 (I paid more for Mac Office). Obviously this is an individual choice, I chose not to upgrade my Windows PC from XP to Vista, and I could see someone who does not use Exchange or care about the other features not upgrading. I'm not going to compare to Windows 7, because I've only barely used the release, and would only indulge the "us vs. them" trolling that this "writer" is practicing. Microsoft puts out some good products, evaluate them on your own. Suggestion: if you're going to evaluate an OS, evaluate it. Try the new features, see how they work. Questions of value vs. price are fair as well. But unsubstantiated comparisons are not the way to do it.

People still read Infoworld? Articles like this are what made me stop reading it.

What an embarrassing article for Infoworld. You guys are above this stupid OS trolling for clicks. Just really disappointing.

FAIL!

Disgusting!

It appears Mr. K is getting bashed big time today, so I don't need to dwell on the obvious errors, omissions, bias, and just plain ignorance of the article. One thing people have not pointed out, or I missed somewhere, is that the column Mr. K is writing under is titled "Enterprise Desktop". Not too long ago I would have been surprised, nay shocked, to see a piece written in this column that even mentioned the Mac. Now the Mac has taken center stage. Methinks this is a glimpse into the future where the Mac gets even billing with the venerable PC in such articles. With regards to the article (remember the name of the column again? "Enterprise Desktop"!!) I find it quite humorous that Apple baked in native Exchange support, wait for it, FIRST!! Microsoft is not even close to doing this, if ever -- why? Money plain and simple. Microsoft wants (needs actually) to keep Outlook bundled with Office so they can keep that money train humming along from those corporate coffers. Yes you can buy Outlook separately -- for $100!!! but who really does that? How much is a FULL VERSION of any version of Mac OS X? Oh yeah, $129. Sure M$ reduced the upgrade price of Win7 to $50-$99. Of course that was a 2 week offer that is no longer available. Now Win7 is back up to the clear and concise price of.... Oh forget it. You need a PhD to figure out the pricing structure of any Microsoft product. In summary -- It's all about money folks. And Microsoft needs a lot more to stay afloat than Apple does....... PS I have been in IT for 25 years. I was there when Windows 1 came out (and even installed it on a Compaq 286 PC using the pile of 5.25" floppy disks). I have architected, designed, and deployed almost every Microsoft product since the early 80's. So I know the Microsoft market very well. I have also worked with Apple products for even longer. It's very obvious that Apple is making huge inroads into the Microsoft space and Microsoft is, and should be, very concerned about their market share dropping a bit faster than they had forecasted. This article is yet another example of how the Microsoft ecosystem is trying to protect its turf. There will be many more articles like this leading up to the Windows 7 launch. "It's gonna be a bumpy ride".........

Um... Is this a real article? Did Steve Jobs make you cry Randall? Have you even used a computer, Mac or PC, in the last 10 years? Are you Rush Limbaugh's bother? I can't really say much else...

5 or 6 years ago when I first made the switch from Windows to Mac, it was quite common to see articles like this in the mainstream press. An article like this might have attracted a few angry comments from the Mac crowd, but there would have been many supportive comments from the windows base - who were, then, largely ignorant about the Mac. The almost entirely critical response to this article is interesting on two counts: firstly that this magazine employs someone who is so evidently unqualified to write on this issue, and the evidence of a huge change in the user base. Those who are interested in IT, and knowledgeable about IT, are much better educated about the Mac - and perhaps most of this group have either used the Mac, or already made the switch themselves. If Microsoft paid for this article, they have achieved an "own goal" since anyone reading the article will find the comments much more illuminating - there are any number of examples of people with IT expertise who have abandoned Windows for the Mac. I read somewhere recently that Apple has 90% of the US notebook market now (excluding netbooks). At any rate, the Mac is now mainstream among personal users - in fact, anyone buying a Windows machine for their own use is likely to face incredulity from their friends and colleagues. Whatever else you can say about this article, it is a damning indictment of American journalism.

I hate to steal RCK's thunder but I have a feeling I know what's going to happen. He did something similar a while back when he posted a series of flamebait articles about Linux then he followed it up with an article that basically praised Linux and pretty much said that the previous articles were flamebait. I'm not sure why RCK likes playing such games but I won't be surprised one bit to later see a follow-up article praising SnowLeopard. And, for the record, I'm a Windows XP user and I really don't care what anyone else uses. If it works for you, great, if not, keep looking til you find what you're happy with.

Wait, now I get it - Steve Ballmer's pen name is Randall C. Kennedy... I'm a 25+ year PC/Windows user and a 1+ year Mac user and have worked extensively with the betas of both Win7 and Snow Leopard as my production machines. Mac OS X 10.6 is so far superior to Win7 that this entire blog post is useless blather. If you want to talk about something, talk about the work Apple has left to do in truly integrating OS X into an Active Directory-based "Enterprise". P.S. Thrown any chairs lately Steve, er, Randall? P.P.S. - this was written on my MacBook Pro "Enterprise Desktop" running OS X 10.6 (last Beta build); my Win7 (RTM code) notebook is sitting in the corner looking a little lonely at the moment.

I think you're on to something...

Randal- don't you know it's illegal to bait fanboy Mactards. If you want to get them together in one place for easy pickin's, go to your local pachuli oiled hemp store with free WiFi. They'll be only too eager to tell you how much better their brand of OS (good god, it's a freeking computer people) and, seemingly, their brand of politics is.

Stability and Reliability? I have a ~5 yr old G4 currently running 10.2.8 that has run continuously, 24x7 the whole time -- maybe 40,000 hours (except during occasional power failures) Unfortunately much of my work life is spent on PCs ... that usually have to be restarted every 7-10 days ... which is a vast improvement over the daily reboots from a just a few years back ...

Who is this guy Randall anyway? He sounds stupid and ignorant, and probably never worked with technology outside of his basement. He has no real-world experience, and his comments are ludicrous. He doesn't know anything about Windows 7 or Apple's Snow leopard, and is hardly qualified to be writing a serious journalistic piece like this. It's good for laughing at. I had to stop at him saying apple Xeroxed Windows 7 features, as this is ludicrous. Randall, get a clue or a life, which ever comes first, first of all Windows has ALWAYS copied off apple from Windows 3.1 onwards. If you've ever worked with technology on a daily basis you would know this. Apple doesn't need to copy anything from Microsoft because they've never invented anything original. Windows 7/Vista is a clear POS that was written ground up, and really shows how Microsoft programmers know how to write an OS. That's why every fortune 500 company is using Vista, right Mr. Randall. Like I said earlier, Get a life, and please get some clue about technology before writing any more articles, which the rest of us can laugh at and say this man is a complete ahole.

Why did Infoworld editors let this one out. This writer is so misinformed that it discredits the entire publication. Not long ago the review on the failure of Windows 7 to significantly resolve the Vista Problems was informative and factual. This presentation doesn't begin to offer factual information. Perhaps the title of the publication should be removed.

This is the most uneducated article I've ever read about either operating system.

There is nothing I hate worse than reading an article that is written by the likes of Rush Limbaugh or John Kerry. You know what's being spewed at you is completely one sided. There was not one thing positive about Apple computers/OS. It seems to me this is a ad for Windows and I'm sure they are a big advertiser with InfoWorld. Anyway. It's funny and annoying how close minded people are. How uneducated people are. I'm uneducated on computers. I know what I know. I built my first Windows machine this past year. It's nice but the things I have to go through to keep it clean of disease is ridiculous. I have a firewall, symantec and zone alarm and it works fine but I just choose my mac for the internet and such. And I know what you'll tell me, that's because there are more windows machines than macs. True. But that brings me back to the author saying Apple copied Windows. Isn't that how Windows got it's start? The Pirates of Silicone Valley anyone? Oh well. It reminds me of Road and Track down talking the Corvette in the early 90's when all the import companies were the major advertisers but Automobile magazine during the same era loved the Corvette but seemed to be more honest and if you noticed there weren't as many import ads. Good going InfoWorld. Keeping it real.

InfoWorld's biggest advertiser is Windows. Go figure. What's up with all the pop ups everytime I click on next page or post a comment? I feel like I'm on my windows machine and all those warning windows. I've never had to have a firewall until I built my windows machine. Do DOD contractors permit the use of Internet Explorer due to security reasons? Just curious. Maybe they use Firefox.

If you've read Randall I think you'll find this tongue in cheek, one of his windoid peers just chastised him in print for being so anti windows and challenged him to use his powers for good not evil, I think this is his response… anyone who knows anything about code is awed by the fact that Apple pulled out 7GB of kludge and churn and ADDED functionality to this system. Aw no real 64 bit yet? see how far ahead everyone else is with 64 bit… NOT. Non issue, real soon now

This is a comedy piece, right? Because nobody could be that ignorant about so many thing at once and actually hold a job in tech writing. Give Jason Snell a call Kennedy. He'll give you the Mac 101 so you won't look so foolish when you write more articles that touch on a subject in which you are obviously overwhelmed.

Hilarious ! People still arguing over Microsoft vs Apple, as if they are actually in competition anymore. Which OS you choose won't matter in a few years time anyway with OS-independent rich internet applications, cloud computing and when all of these IT department jobs have been out-sourced to data centers. The only people who really champion Microsoft software are people in IT because (a) Hardware is dirt cheap, and (2) It's bloated, buggy and unintuitive, so needs an IT team to just keep it running. The same IT people who are in demand by friends and relatives to fix their PCs too. You are comparing OSX from Apple - a hardware company, and Vista Service Pack 3, sorry ! "Windows 7" from Microsoft - a software company. Microsoft can't even get their operating system right ... Nobody actually "chooses" Windows - it's for people who don't have a choice.

The only thing this article was missing was this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIcx_rxTstc

Warning: offensive language. If Randall isn't Ballmer or Cringely, perhaps he's O'Reilly.

Incredible. Tit-for-tat Microsoft vs Apple I can accept, however this is just poor journalism; inaccurate, biased and written by a man who should by now be clearing his desk. It has taken Microsoft the best part of five years to integrate the best elements of OSX (and a few developments of its own) into its new OS. And when it comes to design even now PC users marvel at my iMac, asking: "Where is the box?" Mr Kennedy should do himself a favour - and get back in his. Mp

Hey RCK, Steve B. just called and said that you were back on "the team" and that he will personally get those marketing guys to ship your new "evaluation" laptop first thing in the morning! Great job!

Is Snow Leopard ... Windows 7 knockoff? Answer: No Question: Why was this article written? The article is riddled with fail. Facts are wrong, sneering hate is evident throughout, it has the stink of olde tyme anti-Mac myth mongering paid for by Microsoft and includes lots of troll worthy goading of Mac users. Is this really what InfoWorld wants to publish? Are articles like this why professionals avoid bothering with InfoWorld? This article certainly reminds me why I no longer read the magazine. This really is a shameful collection of wasted words. Watch reality play out after both operating systems are available to professional users, as opposed to just vacuous technology journalists publishing August filler flotsam worthy of Dvorak and Enderle.

This tripe is just a flame target, nothing more. Ignorant writing that somehow got past validation. Do 10 minutes worth of investigation, besides just reading the titles, and you'll see how wrong this article is. 64-bit - Did you even read the article you quoted? OS X has been running 64-bit apps even when the kernel runs 32-bit. Macs running Core 2 duos run 64-bit. The appropriate kernel is loaded at boot. With the removal of the PPC code Snow Leopard now runs 64-bit exclusively, with support for 32-bit apps. Expose - Author. Figure out the difference between the doc and the finder. Expanded PDF Preview - Preview is the name of the app that displays PDF files. Not a "preview". They expanded the application's functionality. You have never needed Adobe Reader to view PDFs in OS X. And XPS? Who actually uses that proprietary garbage? Quicktime Pro - Quicktime is not the "Movie Maker" application that comes with OS X. It's iMovie. I could go on. But, the author has done plenty enough to prove he doesn't deserve to write on subject matter he doesn't understand. I've BETA tested Windows 7. While it is a much better product than the POS known as Vista it, in no way, supplants OS X's usability or stability.

I wonder if it's possible that RCK writes stuff like that just to see the flood of disgust. Is it possible that he's not serious, that he's using satire? I wonder...

Am I the only one who LIKES operating system upgrades that are smaller, faster, and more reliable than the previous version? I think Apple did exactly the right thing with Snow Leopard.

It was a fine day, so InfoWorld’s Randall C. Kennedy decided to take a nice stroll through the tech neighborhood. I’d say the resulting piece is destined for the link bait Hall of Fame, but I know it’s just the beginning. The launch of new Operating Systems by Microsoft and Apple is too good an event to pass up. I think analysis of each OS is great, and that an inflammatory headline (“Is Snow Leopard just a cheap Windows 7 knockoff?“) in and of itself does not make for a bad article. However, when you read the thing, and see the outlandish and silly claims made, you know its true purpose. No matter the headline, I’d like thought and reasoning to back it up. The IW piece lacks that… InfoWorld’s Reasons For The Headline “Yippee,! Apple finally goes 64-bit — BFD! As a Windows user, I’ve been livin’ la vida 64-bit for more than three years. Vista was the first mainstream desktop OS to deliver a viable 64-bit experience” Oh please. You mean Microsoft should be rewarded for being unable to bring 64-bit in any manner other than a separate OS? One that requires you to purchase a new license, blow away your existing setup, and start over? This is why there’s a small percentage of people running 64-bit Windows. Microsoft’s 64-bit strategy is so overwhelmingly hostile and user unfriendly that no one bothers. As for Apple’s implementation not being “fully” 64-bit, spare me. I have an icon in 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate for a 32-bit Internet Explorer, and I run it because some sites don’t play with the 64-bit version. So what’s all this nonsense about a “full” 64-bit system? That Apple’s 64-bit strategy is vastly superior to Microsoft’s is obvious to anyone who bothers to think it through. The idea that separate OSs make more sense for this is ludicrous. “This one’s [Exposé in the Dock] a joke, right? Am I to understand that Apple is just getting around to adding this? Microsoft has been offering this type of functionality (aka thumbnail preview)” Nice of Kennedy to ask if this is a joke, because his argument certainly is. Exposé has been around for years, including the ability to see all of one app’s open windows. Snow Leopard simply adds yet another way to invoke it, in addition to the configurable keyboard, mouse, and gesture options already available. Options that Windows 7 lacks. Mac OS X also includes Spaces, a higher-level method of organizing windows. In short, Mac OS X Leopard, all by itself, blows Windows 7 away in this regard. Snow Leopard simply increases Apple’s lead. “So while I’m glad to see Apple finally getting on the ball with its PDF handling (I hear the updated viewer lets you basically do away with the piggish Adobe Reader for most common tasks), I’m still utterly stunned by the fact that this is even an issue.” Kennedy is bent out of shape about Apple’s Preview enhancements for PDFs. But Preview allowed most Mac users to “do away” with Acrobat the day it was first delivered, that ability is not new to Snow Leopard. In any case, Leopard allowed for previews of multiple pages in a PDF file (via Quick Look), and enhances that capability in Snow Leopard. Further, it allows for “smart” text selection that I’m looking forward to. Finally, it will be sped up considerably. Given that it already blows past Acrobat, the new speed will truly leave Adobe behind. “Can you believe the Apple folks used to charge for this thing [QuickTime Pro]? I guess they saw the writing on the wall, what with Microsoft releasing yet another excellent iteration of its free Movie Maker application.” Comparing QuickTime Pro to Windows Live Movie Maker is nothing more than proof of either ignorance or link baiting. The real comparison (and it’s no contest) is between Movie Maker and iMovie. The latter blows the former away. It’s not even close. InfoWorld’s Conclusion “I’ve often referred to Windows 7 as “Vista R2,” an incremental follow-up release that was mostly about righting the wrongs of its predecessor.” So have lots of people, which is why Microsoft began their campaign to say the same thing about Snow Leopard. Isn’t it odd they can’t think of a decent reason for Windows 7 except that “It’s better than Vista” (how could it be worse?) and “Apple does it, too” (wrong). “Viewed in these terms, Mac OS X Snow Leopard is more like a service pack: a collection of bug fixes and minor functional enhancements that, quite frankly, should have been in the original release. As such, Snow Leopard is nothing to get all excited about; it’s not worth even the modest “upgrade” price Apple is asking.” The “service pack” line is right out of Redmond’s talking points memo. I guess since many people think that’s what Windows 7 is, Microsoft put all their big brains together and came up with the “I know you are, but what am I” defense. Brilliant. My Conclusion Microsoft displays a certain disdain for what Apple accomplished with Snow Leopard. Their supporters have whined about it for months, and the heat is really on now. As if Microsoft wouldn’t love to refine Windows under the hood. As if Windows doesn’t need refinement under the hood! Get rid of the antiquated registry, get a handle on DLL issues we’ve had for years, remove the bloat, add better security, and don’t require separate versions for 32- and 64-bit. But they can’t. They don’t have the vision, they don’t have the priority, and they don’t have the desire to make things better for their user base. Finally, though Kennedy’s article is link bait, and doesn’t deserve one, here’s a link. Expect more like this as the Microsoft FUD machine rolls onward. In fact, Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows has a “Quick Take” on Snow Leopard that’s almost as bad as Kennedy’s. And then there’s Ed Bott’s cherry-picked data that uses the “service pack” meme from the Microsoft playbook. All these articles posted on the same day (8/25); these folks are well-schooled. Can Mary Jo Foley and the rest of Microsoft’s tech press friends be far behind? More of this is undoubtedly on the way; brace yourselves for some pretty foul stuff.

I can't resist a chuckle at all of this. Another poster referred to Randall as "...a Windows zealot in a seedy forum...". Perhaps they were half correct - Seedy may apply, but Randall is hardly a Windows zealot. He is an equal opportunity defamer.

It is interesting, though, how many folks he can draw in to his blogs. In my opinion he is either a wannabe IT satirist or is highly schizophrenic.

Kennedy is about as ill-informed and prejudiced as a Catholic trying to explain Mormon doctrine and practices. He’s done little research and is clearly unaware of Macintosh underpinnings and Apple history. This story is pretty much equivalent to my own explanation of how Windows is built on a DOS shell, which turns out to be outdated, mostly because I went to university at the beginning of the ’80s and have owned Macs since 1989 while having to painfully use Windows for years at the office against protest. For an insightful description of the 64-bit computing topic, see http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/09/02/inside_mac_os_x_snow_leopa... which should make Kennedy hide in shame. Kennedy also makes it sound as though PDF preview is new on Mac rather than the reality of it being enhanced and ignoring the fact that it is part of the original underpinnings of Mac OS X from the beginning. Most importantly, he ignores the fact that almost anything of any value in Windows has been blatantly copied from Apple while still usually being poorly implemented. Windows has never had an original bone in its body. Recent screenshots of Windows 7 reveal that it has again copied most of its new UI from Mac (especially Spotlight) while managing to look typically ugly as expected from Microsoft.

Nineteen years ago I went from mainframes (with a little MS-DOS on the side) to Mac. Having to learn Windows recently has been quite the shock: (1) how do I do a PDF (answer... you don't, unless you can convince your boss to ok a $400 piece of software for your personal use... I'm sure there's an app of add-on somewhere, but why do I have to go hunting for it?). The application freezing recovery drill was difficult to relearn. It was something I learned to forget in early Mac OS 9. (2) resize windows to see if that helps. (3) quit/restart application to see if that helps (4) reboot machine. No problem... I didn't have anything better to do for 5-10 minutes. It is going to be VERY interesting to see what happens with those 100,000,000s of XP desktops. Will they all go to Windows 7? Since a huge slice of what people do (surfing, email, MSOffice & not much more) is easy for Mac, will folks stand up & demand a more reliable platform? Remains to be seen.

Randall and InfoWorld, thanks for the HONEST column and for seeing the product for what it is. I didn't put on the propaganda hat that came along with the sticker on my apple products and mac people get very irate about that. Same as noted above. Dare not be critical about apple.

lol@this thread If there was ever any doubt that fanboys are nuts then here is proof. I like OS X just fine but it certainly isn't perfect any more than Windows or Linux. And this level of zealotry is just flat out insane.

I agree Hordako some of these posters must have a huge stake in Apple or Microsoft to warrant some of the childishly aggressive responses!! Come on people - MACS and PCS are only tools not a way of life!