Feature – We could not stop thinking about how well Windows 7 may stack up to Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Microsoft has shown Windows 7 for the first time earlier today and there is every indication that this (Vista) Maintenance release may turn into the Vista Microsoft should have offered to begin with. We haven’t seen Snow Leopard yet, but have a good idea how the operating system may offer. Apple will go in a slightly different direction and we wondered how the two will compare. Here is what we have come up with.
Like Vista, Apple’s Snow Leopard is also due in 2009 and may be released actually a bit earlier than Windows 7. Apple is also working on what could be described as a Maintenance release, albeit in a different context. Mac OS X is a generally praised operating system with fewer problems than Vista and features aren’t exactly on Apple’s mind with Snow Leopard. The firm said that it has "hit pause on innovations" and focuses on speed instead.
Time for a first comparison.
The new desktop
Windows 7 tweaks the desktop a bit with tray icons that can be moved, a wallpaper preview, customizable color settings and windows that snap to screen edges. The latter is a nice addition while the remaining new features simply play catch up with Apple. We have seen a stronger emphasis on tabs already in IE8 and in Windows 7 it seems that Microsoft is getting very creative with this approach. Tabbed applications and Jump Lists organize multiple active applications and accelerate access to them. Windows 7 still has a Start button, which is unlikely to go away anytime soon. The look of the desktop is really a matter of taste. In terms of functionality, Microsoft may be able to catch up with Apple.
The new taskbar vs. the old taskbar
The taskbar in Windows 7 is very reminiscent of the dock in OS X – and looks compelling: You can resize it and customize its contents; it shows window thumbnails when you hover over application icons. The taskbar can now house both active and inactive application icons and sports a context menu (Jump Lists) with useful options to access a list of open windows, most recently used documents for an application and more. After a first demonstration, it looks like a job well done. Less clutter is good news.
Although OS X's dock manages applications more efficiently and has an edge in terms of visuals (at least as long as we haven’t seen the animations in Windows 7 now possible with DirectX 2D acceleration), Apple should take a closer look at the window thumbnails in Windows 7 taskbar and the way it enables user to flip through open tabs within an application. As it stands now, OS X' window manager Expose looks a bit old when compared against to Windows 7. Advantage Microsoft.
Tray vs. status bar
Windows 7 beats OS X in two features: The ability to drag and drop tray icons to the desktop and the way how notification settings can be handled. A new notification center (“Action Center”) allows you to configure either global or individual settings for messages - and how they should appear. You can even suppress any messages and check all messages in the Action Center when you choose to. As far as we know, Snow Leopard will lack a system-wide notification feature for applications and we think it would be a good idea for Apple copy Microsoft on this one. Advantage Microsoft.
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