Waiting to be “wowed”
You’ve seen the ads. The moment Microsoft announced it’s new operating system, Vista, you keep hearing and seeing the slogan: “The “Wow” starts now.”
Sorry, to burst your bubble Bill Gates, but you didn’t create a new product for your faithful Microsoft users. Mac OS X has already done it.
While Vista is indeed a major update to Windows, a lot of it is just making up for lost time. The last time Microsoft released a product was in 2001 with Windows XP, and since then a single interim update in Service Pack 2. Mac OS X has been steadily releasing updates.
This means Mac OS X has been evolving and Microsoft needed to catch up.
Microsoft is introducing a number of new features:
A live, 3D desktop that lets you browse through open program windows and picking the one you want, instead of opening up everything from the taskbar.
Speaking of the taskbar, that too is now animated. Scroll over each application and a thumbnail preview comes up so you don’t have to open the file.
Mac OS X has done both. The popular feature of seeing a preview of all open documents is going to be even better with Mac OS X Leopard spaces feature. And the magnifying of the taskbar applications is called the dock.
Vista will also offer a tool called Find located at the Start menu. Instead of searching for files and guessing where you might have saved it, simply start typing in the file name and it shall be found.
Mac OS X has done that. Spotlight allows you to search and find everything.
In Vista, the contents in folders show up live in a preview window, so you don’t have to click on them guessing if that’s what you need.
Mac OS X has done this too. I must admit, this is one of my favourite features on a Mac and just for that, I will not go back to Windows.
Finally, gadgets in sidebar that allows you to customize downloadable gadgets such as the weather or games.
Again, Mac OS X has done that. It’s located on the dashboard and instead of gadgets, their called widgets and I particularly enjoy the Sudoku widget.
One question remains: Where’s the "wow" factor?
I’m waiting to be wowed.
My professor sent me a link to an amusing comic found on The Joy of Tech.
Sorry, to burst your bubble Bill Gates, but you didn’t create a new product for your faithful Microsoft users. Mac OS X has already done it.
While Vista is indeed a major update to Windows, a lot of it is just making up for lost time. The last time Microsoft released a product was in 2001 with Windows XP, and since then a single interim update in Service Pack 2. Mac OS X has been steadily releasing updates.
This means Mac OS X has been evolving and Microsoft needed to catch up.
Microsoft is introducing a number of new features:
A live, 3D desktop that lets you browse through open program windows and picking the one you want, instead of opening up everything from the taskbar.
Speaking of the taskbar, that too is now animated. Scroll over each application and a thumbnail preview comes up so you don’t have to open the file.
Mac OS X has done both. The popular feature of seeing a preview of all open documents is going to be even better with Mac OS X Leopard spaces feature. And the magnifying of the taskbar applications is called the dock.
Vista will also offer a tool called Find located at the Start menu. Instead of searching for files and guessing where you might have saved it, simply start typing in the file name and it shall be found.
Mac OS X has done that. Spotlight allows you to search and find everything.
In Vista, the contents in folders show up live in a preview window, so you don’t have to click on them guessing if that’s what you need.
Mac OS X has done this too. I must admit, this is one of my favourite features on a Mac and just for that, I will not go back to Windows.
Finally, gadgets in sidebar that allows you to customize downloadable gadgets such as the weather or games.
Again, Mac OS X has done that. It’s located on the dashboard and instead of gadgets, their called widgets and I particularly enjoy the Sudoku widget.
One question remains: Where’s the "wow" factor?
I’m waiting to be wowed.
My professor sent me a link to an amusing comic found on The Joy of Tech.
posted by Anna Kat at 2:28 AM
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yawn
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