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 When
Windows Vista ships in late 2006, Windows will mimic many features of
Apple's Tiger and go beyond it. But while Microsoft introduces the world
to Vista, Apple is keeping mum about its next version of Mac OS X, which
Steve Jobs has said will ship at about the same time as Vista.
It is the Intel-ready Leopard, not Tiger, that will be Apple's answer to
Windows Vista.
User Interface
With the first Vista beta, Microsoft seems to have taken many cues from
Mac OS X with the user interface and features, right down to some of the
terminology. Even some of Vista's icons are amazingly similar to those
in Tiger. For instance, there's the interface names, Apple's Aqua and
Microsoft's Aero. In Vista, "My Documents" and "My Computer" are now
"Computer" and "Documents," as they are in Mac OS X.
The search icon in the
Vista beta is almost identical to Tiger's Spotlight icon, except that
the magnifying glass turns the other way. Vista buttons and other
interface details have a shiny bulbous look similar to those in Mac OS
X.
The more-advanced Aero Glass option uses translucent window title bars,
a handy feature of Mac OS X that Apple dropped with Panther, but is
still used in the Dock. Vista does, however, have some nice touches that
Tiger doesn't. Vista places previews of documents right on file icons.
These are more sophisticated than the thumbnails that Photoshop creates,
as they update as the file is changed. Tiger can display previews of
graphic files, but not text-based files. Vista's folders display a
representation of the type of files inside. Dialog boxes for saving
files and other tasks use these thumbnails. Tiger does not have the
ability to automatically display thumbnails on folder icons.
The Vista icons and previews are scalable to different sizes and can
scale up to 128 by 128 pixels.
File Management and
Searching
Many of Vista's file management features will be familiar to Tiger
users, but Vista goes further in file management techniques.
Vista folder windows have
a search-as-you-type search field, a feature that Mac OS X has had since
Jaguar in 2002, but which became dramatically faster in Tiger with the
Spotlight search engine. Spotlight also added the searching of the
contents of various types of files and e-mail messages, as well as
searching on metadata. Vista's search engine can do all of this as well,
and lets you add metadata in Windows Explorer. You can add metadata in
Tiger, using the Spotlight field in the Get Info window, but Vista
offers multiple fields for keywords, rating, project and others.
Vista also borrows Tiger's Smart folders, calling them Virtual Folders.
This feature automatically creates shortcut files based on criteria set
by the user and places them in a folder. (Tiger's Smart Folder does this
with aliases.) Vista adds the idea of stacks, where files that use a
certain keyword are listed. When you add a file to the stack, the
keyword is automatically added to the stack. Vista will also have file
management features that neither Tiger nor Windows XP has. A new backup
system will record incremental changes to a file and copy them to a
protected area.
One of the useful features that Mac OS X has always had is that PDF is
built into its core. PDF is used for displaying and printing files, and
Mac OS X has the ability to turn any document created by any application
into a PDF file. With Windows Vista, Microsoft will attempt to do the
same, but not with PDF.
Vista will use a new universal format called Metro, based on XML, for
viewing and printing files. The aim is consistency of documents on
screen and in print. This is something that Mac OS has always been
superior to Windows, even before Mac OS X. It remains to be seen how
successful Metro will be.
Networking
Windows Vista will be superior to Tiger in terms of networking, mostly
because Windows is a better client for Microsoft servers. Part of this
is Microsoft's fault, such as the lack of support of the MAPI protocol
in Exchange Server. But Apple has been slow to include Microsoft
authentication protocols and support for Active Directory, which first
showed up in Panther and then Tiger. Even now, incompatibilities and
glitches persist, even with basic file sharing.
Vista has some new networking features, such as the ability to send
presentation to connect to a project on the network, which isn't found
in Tiger. Microsoft is also promising the ability to access applications
and desktops over the Internet without a virtual private network. Tiger
also doesn't have Vista's purported built-in support for "social
networking" technologies, which include Web logs, RSS, and Wikis.
Although Tiger's Safari Web browser supports RSS, Vista will have RSS
embedded in the core of the OS, so that any application could
potentially take advantage of it should a developer decide to do so. An
application could not only subscribe to RSS feeds, but could include RSS
browsing and searching, ordering and sorting—in short, a method of
managing data.
Like Panther and Tiger, Windows Vista will support (IPv6) Internet
Protocol Version 6.
Security
Certainly, Windows is a target of more malware than is Mac OS X, and
security in Vista is more sophisticated than in Tiger. Read more here
about Vista's security prospects from columnist Larry Seltzer. For
instance, Internet Explorer 7 will run in a Vista "containment area"
called Low-Rights mode that will attempt to keep worms and spyware out
of Windows. Malware simply won't have the privileges needed to write
files or change the Registry. There will also be anti-phishing
techniques employed.
Vista will support laptops with Trusted Platform Module chips, which
creates a secure boot that protects hardware and applications from being
run by unauthorized users or by malicious software. Both Vista and Tiger
have the ability to automatically encrypt all data on the hard disk.
Vista and the Outlook on Leopard
Apple's market share has jumped 37 percent in the past year to 4.5
percent of the PC market, still small by Microsoft standards, but
significant for Apple's bottom line. Hardware with the familiar Intel
inside is likely to entice more PC users than today's Power PC, and the
iPod effect could still be a factor. But to continue this kind of
growth, Apple's Leopard will need to be a compelling alternative to
Vista.
It would not be difficult for Apple to add some of Vista's user
interface features, such as thumbnails in document and folder icons.
Apple will need a further move away from the desktop and folder metaphor
with further development of Spotlight and possibly new file management
techniques. Increased use of RSS and Internet access within the OS would
be helpful.
Leopard will also need to continue Mac OS X's trend of increasingly
better compatibility with Windows networks. Users can expect continued
development in Apple's strengths, consumer accessible music, image
management and video editing. New multimedia features in iPod would also
be a welcome addition.
Source:
eWeek
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