The Associated Press is on Acid
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Mac Os X Steps Ahead of Windows, written by MATTHEW FORDAHL, begins with:
Tired of waiting while your PC slowly scours its hard drive for a document you stashed somewhere six months ago? Sick of having to change how you work to conform with the computer's rigid way of organizing files? Bored with the flat look of the desktop's graphics?
Uh, I can work around all three of these shortcomings… Copernic Desktop Search takes care of the first two issues, and the third is easily fixed with either Konfabulator (which sucks CPU cycles and memory like they're going out of style) or DesktopX (which suffers from an utter lack of worthwhile, well-designed widgets).
No argument: Tiger made it out the door a lot sooner than Longhorn - and with a lot more polish than Windows XP. Should Tiger be free? No more than XP should have been free for everybody who suffered through Windows Millenium Edition! The article continues:
It's less prone to malicious attacks.
That's because it's not the tallest nail. That's like saying FireFox is more secure than IE, when (in fact) it's just not getting attacked as much because the installed user base is nowhere near that of IE. Trust me, if the market share tables were turned, folks would be saying “IE is more secure than FireFox.” Ah, but we finally get to the reason why the article has an extreme bias in the Mac direction:
I've been trying out Tiger on a borrowed an iMac G5 and my own dual-processor Power Mac G4.
No wonder. MATTHEW FORDAHL is writing like a biased zealot because MATTHEW FORDAHL is a biased zealot.
Topping the list of 200 or so improvements in Tiger is a built-in search tool that goes a long way toward relieving one of the biggest headaches that's plagued computers.
1. 200 improvements - our 14 real improvements and 186 bug fixes?
2. There are plenty of Desktop Search Tools that Windows users have been enjoying for many months now… Google has one, MSN has one, Yahoo! is using X1's code, and I've already mentioned my favorite (Copernic).
Spotlight's speed, even on my older Power Mac, is impressive. Results were on target, too.
Copernic's speed, even on my fiancee's slightly older system, is impressive. Results are on target, too.
Indexing with Windows add-ons is a more computer-intensive process. Most are smart enough to do their work only when you're not working on something, but that means new information isn't always available. I have also found their range of files to be limited.
WTF?!
Well, at least he's giving props to the Windows platform. But what does it mean when he writes “computer-intensive process.” Aren't all computations on a computer “computer-intensive?” You probably don't use a Desktop Search app to look for something you just did - it's when you're trying to find something you did days, weeks, months ago! He may have also found their range of files to be limited because he didn't look far enough into the Options panel (at least, with Copernic - which wasn't even mentioned in this friggin' POS AP release).
Spotlight only searches for files on the local computer, not networked hard drives or remote shared folders.
Awwwwww… MSN does. Oddly enough, when I searched MSN for “desktop search,” the #1 hit was Google's. At least you know MSN is not skewing results o'er there.
But Tiger is about a lot more than look and feel. It's also about looking at more people than ever on your video screen live.
Nobody's saying that OS X isn't slicker looking than Windows - I'll be the first to admit that. But… there's been plenty of software on the Windows platform that will let you do the same thing. PalTalk (with PalPlus6), for one.
Of course, it's impossible to judge how Tiger will compare with the next-generation of Windows since Longhorn isn't available.
Well, Microsoft gets in trouble with the law if they bundle too much with their OS. I'm not against it, mind you, but… you can't have it both ways.
As more details come out, additional complaints of Microsoft copying Mac OS X will surely be heard.
ROTFLMAO! Sounds to me like a classic case of “vice versa.” Methinks Apple's been copying stuff that's already available for (not necessarily with) Windows.
The onus is now on Bill Gates & Co. to see if it can one-up Steve Jobs' shop.
If anybody one-upped anyone here, it was Jobs. And ya know what? He made it look 100x better. I cry foul - Matthew may have been paid to write this article.
12 Comments
Anonymous
April 28th, 2005
at 11:35am
If you want widgets for your desktop hit us up on aqua-soft/aero-soft:
Ave-Desk, Kapsules, Konfabulator or DesktopX are all widely used. We do not discriminate against Mac, Linux or Windows platforms, all are welcome, come in and take a look.
Here are the links to the latest screen shot threads.
Aqua Soft Screnshots
Aero Soft Screenshots
Anonymous
April 28th, 2005
at 1:02pm
You don't think MSN skews it's results? Ivor Hewitt found that MSN favors pages served from IIS, Increasing your odds of a higher listing by several percent
http://www.ivor.it/goog/orig/
Anonymous
April 28th, 2005
at 3:26pm
I'd argue that Spotlight/Longhorn search (where's the pithy name MS?) are better solutions than Copernic simply because of the integration both have with the OS filesystem. Indexing *is* a costly process and neither Copernic or Google DS always choose an appropriate time to start. A lot of times I am trying to search emails or source files that I just created. In those cases, having the metadata import tied directly to the OS would be beneficial.
Re:Konfabulator & performance/sucky widgets. Have you looked at Kapsules? (kapsules.shellscape.org/). I tried it out a while back and didn't find them too offensive. I ultimately removed them because they were on my development machine and I wanted ALL of my CPU cycles going toward debugging instead of other things. I usually shut down Outlook and Trillian when I'm debugging.
Anonymous
April 28th, 2005
at 4:58pm
Chris, you say that windows you can do all of the same things, i agree but all of thoses products are 3rd party OS X has it all ready in the OS. Just wanted to point it out
Anonymous
April 28th, 2005
at 6:03pm
I don't understand your position. One minute you harp on MS Outlook and the next you are a Microsoft groupie, please explain. If anyone is biased, I think it is the redmond groupies that have turned you into the all knowing, longhorn loving, ms groupie… I miss the old days when you were unbiased and just a computer geek. Seems like lately you change you position depending on which way the wind blows…
Anonymous
April 28th, 2005
at 7:59pm
Sheesh Pirillo…. Enough with the overkill. We get what you are saying…. YOU LIKE WINDOWS. This is a rare time that you even dare mention Apple on this blog. All of your harping about bias… well look in the mirror… I see more bias from you as a Windows apologist than that guy you attempt to tear a new one. Seems to me if Apple were creating an inferior product why bother give it the time of day with the long winded whining?
Anonymous
April 28th, 2005
at 9:50pm
“Sheesh Pirillo…. Enough with the overkill. We get what you are saying…. YOU LIKE WINDOWS. This is a rare time that you even dare mention Apple on this blog. All of your harping about bias… well look in the mirror… I see more bias from you as a Windows apologist than that guy you attempt to tear a new one. Seems to me if Apple were creating an inferior product why bother give it the time of day with the long winded whining?”
I guess you could say that about mac fans as well, For all their apparent confidence in OS X, they go overboard
trying to tell windows fans how bad their OS is, and how stupid they are .
Anonymous
April 29th, 2005
at 2:09am
Windows is rather intrusive in may ways. You don't own the program, you are leasing it. They extort companies to get a driver to work with peripheral equipment. With Linux you can make your computer jump up and rollover by telling it to. With windows you need one or two extra approved programs.
Anonymous
April 29th, 2005
at 7:29am
Since when does the act of owning a Mac make someone a zealot?
Although, on the other hand, I'd bet the percentage of Mac owners that are “zealots” is higher than the percentage of Windows owners that are Windows “zealots”.
There's a lot of opinion involved in these things. But there's also a fact: Mac OS X offers a huge playground for people who used to be Windows zealots to explore.
And many people who take the dive are amazed and excited by what they find. The past four years have been a lot more exciting for Mac zealots than for Windows zealots, and until Microsoft gets its act together and can ship a truly exciting upgrade to Windows, it's going to continue to underwhelm the Windows enthusiast community.
Anonymous
April 29th, 2005
at 1:19pm
I agree, this guy is really scraping the barrel for reasons why Mac OS X is so much better than Windows. But then again, these are the pathetic reasons why Longhorn is supposed to be so much better than previous Windows versions!
Although I agree that this guy is desperate, I disagree with some of your comebacks…
Suggesting that Windows is attacked more _successfully_ because it's the 'tallest nail' is unfounded. You can only find holes if they exist; just because more people are looking for them doesn't mean that they'll find more. Besides, if Open Source is supposed to be less secure because crackers can see the raw code, surely Firefox would even now be so much more vulnerable compared to IE, the code of which people can't see? Also, concerning Firefox, how many flaws within Firefox affect just Windows, because of weaknesses within Windows itself?
Microsoft said a couple of years back that Windows was not designed with security in mind. Even just this week we've seen Microsoft bashing XP, suggesting that it's not up to scratch.
I believe Microsoft. I believe that Windows was not designed securely, and networking is its greatest weakness. Microsoft claims that it can't even offer full TCP/IP capabilities because of the vulnerability this would create. Mac OS X and Linux fully support TCP/IP.
Concerning Apple having copied from Microsoft, this isn't really an issue. The whole reason that most people tut at Microsoft for copying is because Microsoft claimed that it was the greatest innovator, and that others had copied it. Statements pointing out how Microsoft has copied usually come in retaliation to this pompous outburst from the beast. Anyway, if others have copied, and have a working product out before the competitors original, doesn't this reflect badly on Microsofts performance?
And no, I'm a Linux Zealot, not a Mac Zealot!
Anonymous
April 30th, 2005
at 4:55am
Yeah Microsoft has done nothing original with Windows the last
few years, I guess windows media center and tablet PC are not concidered upgrades to windows.
Anonymous
May 1st, 2005
at 5:28am
This blog entry from you simply reduced my view of your credibility as an ultimate geek. :( One thing that struck me is concept of not being the tallest nail — this reasoning has been around for ages and has been debunked as well. If market share is the culprit, then how come Apache does not exhibit the same problems as IIS?
Oh well - I agree with the others. We like you when you were not biased towards a particular platform.
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May 17th, 2007
at 3:58am
Please provide any additional feedback here: How about trying to make it work with Windows Vista / Outlook 2007? desktop search Related Content:Desktop SearchDesktop Search ToolsGooglefasting: Day 10Fast FAX FactsThe Associated Press is on AcidFeedback on FeedbackMSN Desktop SearchNew MSN Search Beta URLsMSN Toolbar HacksLookout for Outlook - Look out! [IMG]