MacOS 10.5 “Leopard” was the topic of much discussion during the recent WWDC 2007, where Steve Jobs (re)introduced what he described as the “top 10 of about 300″ new features that the new edition brings to the Mac. This morning I stumbled on a ZDNet blog comparing the upcoming Leopard with the now-in-stores Vista that absolutely stunned me: the intent of the article was to downplay a lot of the Leopard features as being derivative of Vista, and I honestly could not believe how ignorant the author was. (For additional amusement, check out the comments thread on digg.com, as well as the resulting ridicule from the tech blogosphere.)
Exempli gratia:
1. New Leopard Desktop: Not a whole lot different from Vista’s Aero and Sidebar. [...]
4. 64-bitness: Leopard is the first 64-bit only version of a desktop client. Vista comes in 32-bit and 64-bit varieties. And most expect Windows Seven will still be available in 32-bit flavors. Until 32-bit machines go away, it seems like a good idea to offer 32-bit operating systems. [...]
8. Dashboard with widgets. Isn’t this like the Vista Sidebar with gadgets?
Un-friggin-believable. Now, keep in mind, folks, that this is the work of a ZDNet writer with 20 years experience covering the tech industry. The first item alone is a laugh riot. She seems to be under the impression that the Leopard Desktop is something that, uh, hasn’t been around since 2001? All that was added was deeper shadowing and some funky translucency … in other words, purely cosmetic changes to a technology that’s about 6 or 7 years old.
Item #4 meanwhile is a total fiction, and leads one to believe that Leopard won’t work on a 64-bit machine. Kinda makes you wonder if she made any effort to double-check her facts at all. See the Engadget post clarifying the issue.
Item #8 is another laugh-riot. Dashboard was a 10.4 application (circa 2004). Leopard just added some new widgets and core functionality to it.
Granted, I am not an Apple user. So I’m sure I’m glossing over some subtleties regarding what’s new and cool in Leopard. But given how often I hear the “Redmond, Start Your Photocopiers” message, I was thinking that Leopard would be light years ahead of Vista.
The issue isn’t whether Leopard is light years ahead of Vista. It’s the fact that you’re light years behind MacOS X.
Two days later, after a massive deluge of email and comments, the ZDNET writer posts a followup defending her article as being “personal, biased opinion”. Nice comeback there, hoss.