The most Awaited OS Face-Off: Windows 7 Vs. Mac OS Snow Leopard

Jonathan Lovelock | Oct 29, 2009 | View Comments

174603-1mva_overall_leopard_slide The debate over the best operating system never seems to end. The majority of Windows users swear by the customization and easy maintenance of the OS, whereas Mac owners consider the Mac OS nothing short of a cult. Over the last few years, Windows versions have made improvements by leaps and bounds but in the end Mac OS has nosed ahead. This year was particularly compelling for the die hard Windows lovers and Mac fans as both Apple and Microsoft released the latest versions of their operating systems.

last week Microsoft released Windows 7 after prolonged beta testing. Apple shipped the latest version of Mac OS code named as Snow Leopard barely two months back. Now that Macs run on Intel processors and with utilities like Boot camp Windows can be loaded on Mac machines, a comparison of these two rivals OSes seems more viable than before.

Microsoft and Apple developed their new OSes from completely different perspectives. Microsoft seriously needed to come up with a stable and faster OS after the bitter experience called Vista. On the contrary, Apple was faced with the task of improving an already popular and feature packed OS. Therefore, both the companies did not opt for significant change in the interface of the OSes.

For people buying a new computer or Macintosh there is no need to pay for the OS separately. But those who want an upgrade would be more concerned about the price. The Mac users who are upgrading from the previous version would be charged $29. In contrast , Windows 7 Ultimate has a whopping upgrade cost of $220. Besides, Windows users need to decide which version they want- Professional, Home premium or Ultimate. For Snow Leopard, there is no edition issue at all. Hence, upgrading to Snow Leopard is cheaper and less complicated from a user’s perspective.

As far as installation is concerned, Snow Leopard has an edge over Windows 7. The user just needs to insert the installation disc and follow the setup instruction. For Windows 7, the user needs to choose between an upgrade and clean install. Besides, the hardware configuration of the PC plays a role in selecting an edition of Windows 7. Snow Leopard has an advantage over Windows 7 in recognizing peripherals.

To manage and launch applications, both Microsoft and Apple has redesigned the interface of their OSes to an extent. The Dock in Snow Leopard now integrates with Expose while the task bar in Windows 7 has been seriously revamped. Both the features allow the user to see thumbnails of the applications running. The task bar in Windows 7 is slightly better than the dock in Mac. It shows full preview of the applications.

In system customization and preference section, Snow Leopard wins by a large margin as it offers simple ways to tweak around settings. Compared to this, the control panel in Windows 7 is complicated and can intimidate beginners . A department where Snow Leopard lags behind is software compatibility. Many third party software including Adobe CS3 still do not run on it. However, Windows 7 is compatible with software meant for Vista. It even offers a handy Windows XP mode.

It is not easy to say which OS is better as both have included great features and goodies for the users. However, Snow Leopard is more of a consumer oriented OS while Windows cater to many categories of users. The target users are likely to adopt both OSes as they offer the right blend of feature and performance.