Nice write-up, and I'm a widget fan too. Is the gadget panel customizable like Yahoo! widgets so I can leave some visible all the time or have them hide to a dashboard?

Is this the voice recognition you're reffering to?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y_Jp6PxsSQ&%20eurl=

I really like the idea of tabbing thru the windows instead of the whole application. A good OS from Microsoft can only help the Mac's OS, as Apple (or Jobs) won't let the Mac idle behind. This is what compition is all about. Although it did take Microsoft a looong time to get to this point.

I am glad you double checked the spelling of Nikola Tesla. The proper spelling is with a "k" ("Nikola"), not a "c". Maybe one needs to triple check under Vista.

Your article about Vista was sorta blindsighted by new features to Windows that are better on the Mac. I will give credit where it's due but you need to be more fair. Windows Media Center is far superior to Apple's Front Row but because it's been in existance for years. It was horrible in the beginning. Front Row is still new and of course Apple will make it better. The Rolodex feature in Vista that fans through several Windows is stupid. How can you even mention this feature that gets trumped big time from Apple's Expose. Expose shows all windows at full screen and allows you to view all content. Vista parlor trick hides the window you want to see until it's forefront.
The Sidebar is cool but Windows "gadgets" cover up precious screen real estate which is why Dashboard works. Lastly you article needs to be show fair comparisons between the OS's. Vista will actually be competing with Leopard and not Tiger. You say that Vista doesn't suck but what is acutally "NEW" that MS has done. Nothing!

Leopard's new and improved Voice recognition has already been shown. You never mentioned it. Leopard will allow widgets to be dragged to the desktop. You never mentioned it.
Leopard will allow the user to create their own widgets. You never mentioned that. We have only seen a 10th of what Leopard can do and it's already kicking Vista ass. Do up to date comparisons or don't write stupid articles.

"Windows Vista doesn't suck".

Yes, it does.

Ihnatko is usually too much the unthinking Apple fanboy. And now now he goes and rolls over for Microsoft when he shouldn't. Vista is a most serious backwards step for users in many ways. Just ask someone with the technical know-how to make a judgment worth reading:

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt

Andy, thanks for the write-up. I agree that it's good for everyone for Vista to actually have something going for it. Apple needs to be pushed sometimes to implement features wanted by users other than The Steve. I am a widget developer and I agree with MacUserByDay when s/he says that part of why widgets work is that they're out of your way until you want them. The fact they take way too long to load is partly the fault of widget developers and partly the fault of the overhead introduced by Dashboard. Most widgets have some function set to execute when the widget is shown. All of these running at once spikes your CPU in no time flat. I remember reading in the gadget developers documentation that gadgets can be a maximum of 150 pixels wide. Is that still true? It seems to put a weirdly arbitrary constraint on gadget developers.

"I really like the idea of tabbing thru the windows instead of the whole application. A good OS from Microsoft can only help the Mac's OS, as Apple (or Jobs) won't let the Mac idle behind. This is what compition is all about. Although it did take Microsoft a looong time to get to this point."

Actually.... you can easily zip through different windows of an open application.... instead of using Command-Tab (which, as you said Tabs through apps)... simply use Command-` .... this "Tabs" through all the open windows in an application.

Wow what a great tip I did not know about that way of tabbing thanks!!!!

*sob* I want built in voice recognition that works. I know Microsoft produces decent applications and their R&D and human factors budget is much higher proportional to Apple's.

I figure this - Microsoft will get it right one day. Apple just needs to get it right earlier. I will give Apple this - they are consistent. I have always had less gripes about my Mac, but I am no fan boy because I NEED to use a PC for work.

The one thing for Macs that Windows hasn't figured out yet is Drag and Drop installation. My father can't install a program if his life depended on it on his PC, but with a Mac he just needs to drag it to a folder. Easy as pie.

No Jeff, I think he was referring to this.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5549626370637807497&q=Vista+Speech

your comment about OS X's voice recognition feature being afterthoughts because of contracts clearly shows you haven't use it.

It's outdated (2 years now?), and not as accurate as Vista's, I'll give you that. Other than that, the only two missing feature is dictation, and the everything-on-screen speakable. Other than that OS X is completely capable of switching/ launching apps, and full control of menu items and any interface elements (buttons) just like in Vista. Plus you have the ability to make custom speakable items and tie them up with applescript.

Granted Vista's voice features are impressive, but give credit where credit is due.

Nicely written article. I've been using Vista for a while now and honestly I find myself wishing that the Windows-TAB functionality worked more like expose. Hopefully they will update it and make it a little more configurable. I'm also sorely dissapointed that they missed out on virtual desktops this time around. There was an XP powertoy that did this inadequately. X Windows (linux) and many 3rd party apps for MS windows have offered this for years and it is very valuable for extreme multitaskers.

As a dual-wielder myself (both OS X and Winders) I prefer my Mac for simple tasks like web browsing and mp3, but I prefer my Vista for heavy duty multitasking where I have 20+ windows open for work purposes.

But I'm not writing to comment on the article- really I'm commenting on the other comments. I'm highly amused at the fanboys (three I count so far, more to come as this gets dugg) that are trashing vista when a) you've never used it and b) you never will use it. I could understand pointing out that OS X (what's the version now, Tabby, Garfield? I can't keep up :) ) is coming with features to counter some of the nice parts about vista, but the abusive language (towards the author) and anger (towards Billy G) isn't really helpful for anyone. How about commenting instead what you prefer about platform X or Y's functionality?

To be fair, there are a few comments from fellow Mac users that are more along the lines of "I hope this pushes Apple to get even better" and "I might have to try Vista." I agree with Tony's earlier comment that competition only helps the consumer.

What we really need is for Linux to become a viable (for most users) alternative. There are some really slick interfaces coming into the mainstream but it isn't serious competition for either team yet.

When we have 3 different platforms competing for our attention, then we'll probably see some real innovation... and better prices!!

We like the kind of interface that we are used to, so it is quite hard to look at Vista objectively.

Either your readers lacks a sense of humour or can't read it when they see it.

Andy;

What of the registration process, the kill switch functions, the security issues, the hardware gotchas, etc.? I hope you do a follow-up and don't get food-poisoning from drinking the MS-flavored Kool-Aid. ;^)

Oh, and please let us know when you get your first malware instance in Vista, since it has already been compromised by the online bandits.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=84&tag=nl.e550

How well does Vista's Speech recognition do compared to iListen from MacSpeech?

http://www.maccompanion.com/archives/July2006/Software/iListen.htm

Fanboys need to stop commenting period! You can't compare Vista to something that's hasn't been released. Although I have read some of his articles and he seems either unimformed or at least his articles seem unfinished. I don't care how good the OS is, the best features have been cut (Winfs!). I do agree with most of the apple humpers though when they say Vista is just XP with visual upgrades Mac has had for years, Oh and don't forget the touted better security (supposedly, only time will tell). I think some big problems with the kernel handling are gonna pop up eventually. In closing i just wanna say the world would be a much better place without any damn fanboys. If you go into any thing with your mind made up, then you already made the wrong choice! Get the facts first. If you haven't used vista how can you say anything bad about it. Same goes for Macs and no one has had a full go with leopard yet, features aren't finalized & do get dropped. Drop the Apple Rox, because Fanboys=Pure Ignorance!

I don't argue about m$ products, since, for practical and ethical reasons that are just mine and I won't try to explain to (let alone to enforce upon) anyone else, my computing experience (which is a rather large part of my personal and professional life) is completely m$-free.
The fact that a firm like m$ might be able to crank out an os that can be compared favorably with Apple's one, at least on some issues, makes me think that the "change of paradigm" that revolutionized the human interface in the Mid-Eighties has brought us to a point where further evolution adds rather small advantages and the improvement rate tends asintotically to 0. Perhaps time is due for a new revolution, but I don't believe it very probable in a near future: the situation is quite different from that of 20 years ago and computers have become so ubiquitous that breaking real or self-proclaiming "standards" is much more difficult and "dangerous". A clear example may be found in the fact that Apple, during the transition to Mac OS X, sacrificed some superior ideas that had been in its OS from the start on the altar of "compatibility".

Sorry, but no. It should matter more than so much was taken from Mac OS X. It's absolutely not fair to Apple. MS gets practically all the market share, and it seems no one cares that they're still using Apple to implement features first and make them popular before they adapt them with little change.

Call me altruistic, call me an Apple fanboy, but it's wrong to reward this monolith.

Which monolith is getting rewarded?
I believe the emperor has no clothes and Jobs didn't learn from Worldcom.

Apple shares dropped 3.9% to $78.37 in early trading on the Nasdaq. Stock option accounting scandals have clouded hundreds of companies in recent months and led to the ousting of CEOs.

I think Mr E said it best, so I won't repeat what he said. However, keep making this an ethics or "who stole from who" debate and neither company wins. All this fanboi bickering takes away from the point of the article and I give praise to Andy for attempting for temporarily setting aside his admitted bias.

I must disagree regarding widgets. I only want the widgets there sometimes - when I want to use them. Otherwise, I don't want them taking up space on my screen. Maybe if I used widgets much more frequently, I would be more willing. But as it stands, I'd much rather move my finger about two inches over to hit F12 than have a tenth of my screen taken away.

"MS gets practically all the market share, and it seems no one cares that they're still using Apple to implement features first and make them popular before they adapt them with little change."

Actually, it seems the point of Andy's review was to point out several substantial features that Microsoft adapted with lots of change for the way better. This is something we're not used to from Redmond.

A few things you sucked at mentioning/knowing about in the first place:

1) As someone else mentioned, Vista isnt up against Tiger. It's up against Leopard. Just because you didn't get Leopard in the mail for free doesn't mean you can write an article made up of almost 100% poor comparison.

2) Apple has worked on this really neat feature in OS X over the past few years. It's called Exposé. You should try using it some time.

3) There's also these things called Hot Corners. They're neat too. You should try using them. Especially before writing an article boasting your own intelligence.

Man did this article make me lose absolutely all respect for you. I've never read any of your other article, because, honestly, the titles bored me enoug to move on. This one caught my eye and I read the entire thing. Having done that, I can honestly say that I probably won't read another one again. You just produced an extremely poor article that had no almost validity when looked at through eyes that aren't as ignorant as yours.

Dan-the man said:
"Man did this article make me lose absolutely all respect for you. I've never read any of your other article, because, honestly, the titles bored me enough to move on. This one caught my eye and I read the entire thing. Having done that, I can honestly say that I probably won't read another one again."

I won't argue about your opinion of the present article, but I'd suggest you to read something more by Andy before taking your decision.
For what concerns me, I believe Andy should apply at least to a complete 5-year course on "Apple-trollism" by prof. Dvorak before he could write anything that might divert me from his articles!

It's quite impressive the way peoples get unrational when the current topic is mac os versus windows vista.
Does any of the mac fan boys tried vista or the other way around. As a software ingeneer, i've tried linux, unix, mac os, vista and i believe that vista is quite a challenge for mac os and i'm waiting for apple's answer :P.
I liked a lot the lovely constructive post of Dan--the man : "you suck cause you said microsoft is not just the evil and produce just c...".
Can't anyone be less emotional, it's just software, where're not speaking about religious belief, at least i hope so :).

In reading this whole article, it sounds more like Andy was payed by Microsoft to write this article than it was a proper comparison between Vista and Apple's upcoming OS. Maybe he was just too busy wetting himself when he got the copy in the mail to do an unbiased review.

You can call me a fanboy if you wish but that doesn't change the fact that I use Windows everyday and my preference is still for Mac OS X. You'd have to be ignorant to not realise that a lot of the features that Microsoft incorporates into it's OSes are stolen from Apple's OS to begin with.

Believe what you want, but Apple will always be ahead in innovation and always a step ahead of Microsoft in the OS game.

-guigui,
It's not people getting irrational over the topic, it's people who realise how one-sided the whole comparison is and saying something about it. Don't be a retard.

Anyhow, it would help in the future to write proper, researched articles instead of doing biased write-ups and making one's self look like an idiot.

Just curious, as regards of speed comparison - which OS is faster? Maybe you can do some benchmarking by installing Vista (as dual boot, I believe BootCamp allows this) on an Intel based MacBook so you can time certain apps / operations on identical hardware?

@imperiex :
I don't perceive this article as so biased. Just someone saying that he found some features useful on vista. Of course it's kind of subjective, it's an opinion.
Is it completly unbelievable ???
Thinking that some vista's features look nice doesn't imply that mac os isn't a good os.

For me, the big thing is that vista is the first os from microsoft that can compete with mac os for an average user, including from the point of view of the gui where's microsoft is catching up.

The point isn't what microsoft took from mac os, of course they took all the good ideas they could. They did inovate nevertheless. But, all the os tend to do this.
I'm not a fan of microsoft commercial politic, i'm just saying that vista is the first os where microsoft can begin to venture into mac os lands. And i think it's a good thing for windows and mac users.

If thinking so make me a retard, then i will learn to live with it ;P.

microsoft sucks!

Dan the man,

With respect, Andy Ihnatko has not only written numerous books about the Mac, but he's forgotten more than you'll ever know about Mac OS X. Disagree with his article if you like, but accusing him of being ignorant makes you look dumb, not him.

Well I've tested vista and i've used tiger (not leopard) and to my point of view they are almost the same. And it is true that the speech recognition is better in vista.. let's see what leopard will come up with.

anyways i just wanted you apple fanboys to think about one thing:

did you know that windows was the ONLY operating system that isn't based on UNIX ?

And M$ft is the one that's copying ?

Get your facts straight!

Wow... Some of the comments come from those who seemingly lack a few key concepts in their approach. Business and individuality.

It's a good article. Just because you don't agree with it and you somehow take your operating system choice personal, doesn't mean this isn't a witty, honest article.

It's so amusing to me that Mac users can't handle the truth even when it comes from their own. :)

Either way you can't change that microsoft is the leading OS done so stfu moaning about windows being shit..

Wow, I am just amazed at the comments here. This is just really turning me off from ever buying a mac. Sure they look pretty, but they are still spendy. That and I was a bit disappointed when the OS didn't seem to run as smoothly as I had imagined it.

And whats with all of this shit about looks? Function > Form.

That and microsoft is the company that can basically do whatever they want. If they wanted to make a super easy to use all inclusive setup that relatively few users used, they would. They are a company that could realistically enter any market that they wanted to or shift a market to be where they want it. Just accept it, ok?

The tabbing feature was avaible for linux along ago, with compiz wm.
Also included in beryl.

I skimmed the posts here and didn't see anyone mention Exposé. If turned on in control panel it's possible to set up hot corners to show you all your windows at once (much like Vista's 3D tabbed file system), quickly access the desktop, or pull up your Dashboard widgets in a matter of seconds. I'm a designer and I use this feature constantly to quickly flip between different graphic files while working. And when you hit the all windows hot corner or key command all the windows keep functioning as in video keeps playing and anything moving keeps moving. I'm just surprised noone has compared this to the new feature of Vista.

hey, man. screw whatever you read here.

i for one am glad to see a tongue-in-cheek style "unbiased" review of vista from a mac user. it's hell'a refreshing, really.

i like how you contrasted the two dishing praise and fair licks where necessary/appropriate, even though the comparison is a bit one-sided as vista is still being compared to tiger (which is on its way out) where we should really be comparing it to leopard. but apple being apple seems to have made that a bit difficult to pull off.

keep it up... i hope to see an update once leopard ships. yours will probably be the only review/comparison i'm looking forward to reading, as you've proven yourself to be moderately open minded enough to make a fair comparison... albiet cheeky.

The fact he spells Nikola wrong while boasting how easy it was to look up the spelling on Vista is absolutely PRICELESS!!!

I just did a right click on his spelling in Safari and in less than 10 seconds it showed me it was wrong.

It seems that Apple technologies are often so simply well thought out and intuitive that they appear almost unremarkable.

Funny that it takes a new release by Microsoft, which haplessly apes all that technology to really appreciate Apple's brilliance.

In the end it really will not matter who stole what from whom, but Mac users will know and so will Microsoft...

Hey, Andy...are you EVER going to write another online article here??? It's been more than 6 weeks!

Try VirtualDimension (Freeware /Opensource) and you will have a nice virtuak desk software for Vista.

0.94 on original site

http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/

0.95 Beta here

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=74581