Windows 7 and Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard Compete - but not on price
Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system and Apple's new Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6) will compete head to head this Fall for school children's dormroom/classroom "purchasing power".Due to the timing of the release parents' pocketbooks and kids' piggy banks will be asked to pony up the cost of upgrading the Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.5 operating systems to the latest version.
In a shocker to Windows and Mac users alike, Microsoft is asking Windows users to pay almost seven times more, have a really tricky upgrade path, and - oh, yeah - wait.
By contrast, Apple today shipped the boxed Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6) upgrade for Leopard (10.5) users and they are selling it for only $29.99. That is right, $29.99. I read that in an article last night, thought it a misprint, and verified it at lunchtime today by checking on Apple's web site. That is the price.
Windows 7 has a tentative price but is not shipping Microsoft product yet. The company has released a prospective master image of the OS to manufacturing and it is expected to find its way to willing consumers' hands this fall.
Windows 7 Pro, the normal version of Windows will sell for $199. In the old days, not so much. Today, however, there is a recession going on, IT budget and consumer belts have been tightened and - oh, look - Apple is selling its OS upgrade for $29.
Windows 7 Home is to be not much cheaper than the so-called Pro version. Windows 7 Home will cost $119 which is %60 percent of the real version. It is a discount but in the past networking features that home users needed had been whittled out of the Home version and support was cut within a few years after introduction. Pretty bad, if you are a home user and need to connect your computer to the Internet and have vendor support. One could argue that Windows users who connect up to the Internet need vendor support more than anyone. So, I guess that means that Windows Pro is the only viable choice for them.
Windows 7 Starter is kind of a joke compared to the normal operating systems that have been around for over two decades. It will only allow running three programs at once. That means even a grade school child might have difficulty using it as they researched on the web for a composition that they were writing. One can just imagine the plaintive juvenile "notifications" to parents: "Mom, my operating system can only run THREE programs - I need an UPGRADE".
It is probably a viable option for people who cannot stand multi-tasking and do not care if vendor support gets chopped off almost right away.
In fact, it might be a really good option for them. Or they might want to weight against other possible choices like a Linux Live CD, a copy of MS-DOS from their attic, or a low-cost Mac Mini system that is energy efficient and comes with Snow Leopard ($29 Mac OS) free.
Also, they could chose not to upgrade, wait until next year, and buy a liquidated or second-hand Windows 7 PC at fire sale prices. While that is not so attractive to business users who want their computers as identical as possible, home users typically just buy one or two at a time and so the computers hardly need to have much in common with each other.
Windows 7 is coming but it looks like it is going to be a really expensive, difficult upgrade by today's standards. Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Panther) is here now and looks like an inexpensive, easy upgrade.
Apple users will get to do their upgrading at the beginning of this semester and Windows users will get to do their upgrade at the end of this semester. Long before Christmas shopping season, everyone will know which have been most pleased by their upgrades.
Labels: apple, macintosh, macosx, microsoft, mswin, win7
posted by John Collins @ 12:57 PM
