It’s been five years since Apple introduced Mac OS X (pronounced “oh-ess-ten”). In that time, Apple has continually upgraded and refined the operating system, with five major revisions, the last being 10.4, called “Tiger”. Tiger has been prowling Macs for sixteen months now, and is the most successful Mac operating system ever. Tiger has also received critical acclaim. Walt Mossberg, technology pundit for the Wall Street Journal, calls Tiger “the most advanced personal computer operating system on the market… it leaves Windows XP in the dust”. A sixth major revision of OS X converted the system to run on Intel processors.

During this same five-year period, Microsoft has produced two Service Packs for Windows XP, while trying to get their own next-generation operating system out the door. Initially code-named “Longhorn”, the new system became bogged down in Microsoft’s design-by-committee, be-everything-for-everyone culture. It was supposed to be available in 2004, then 2005, then 2006, and was supposed to contain revolutionary new features. Delays and dropped features caused many to rename it “Longwait” and “Shorthorn”. The Longhorn name became such a liability that Microsoft had to mount a marketing campaign to change the name to “Vista”.

When Apple introduced Tiger at their Worldwide Developers Conference in 2004, they hung banners in the exhibition hall saying “Redmond, Start Your Photocopiers”. Little did they know (or did they?) that Microsoft would take their advice. Vista (scheduled to hit consumer PCs in the spring, if it’s not delayed again) contains some features (like desktop search and advanced graphics) that have been in Tiger for sixteen months. Some features are just catching up to those found in Mac OS 10.3 “Panther”.

This week Apple convened their Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), aimed at giving software developers a “Sneak Preview” of Mac OS 10.5, called “Leopard”. Sure enough, “the banners were hung in the exhibition hall with care, in hopes that the media soon would be there”. Banners describing Leopard as “Vista 2.0”, and proclaiming “Hasta la vista, Vista”. Some may find this pretty heady stuff, but Apple obviously believes that, after years of “dancing around” the differences between the Mac and Windows operating systems, its time to take the gloves off.

Apparently, Apple’s recent hardware changes (switching to Intel processors), and perhaps “Windows Waiting Woes” have sparked increased interest in the “computer for the rest of us”. Opening the WWDC keynote address, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that last quarter 17 million people visited the 157 Apple Retail stores, and that 50% of new Mac purchases were by users new to the Mac platform. While the rest of the PC industry growth rate was around 7%, Mac sales grew by around 17%. Since the introduction of the MacBook consumer laptop, Apple’s laptop market share has doubled to around 12%.

Jobs then announced the final Mac to receive Intel processors – the “Mac Pro” (see accompanying column), as well as new Intel-based Xserve servers.

It was then time to bring out the star of the show – Leopard. Jobs began by pointing out that there are many “Top Secret” features that won’t be revealed until closer to the system’s shipping date, which will be sometime in the spring. Apple is famous for its secrecy, but it is also possible that some of the more glamorous Leopard spots are not quite ready for prime time. Microsoft recently tried to demonstrate Vista’s coming voice recognition capabilities in front of a large audience, with disastrous results.

Oops. The word counter at the bottom of my Word document says its time to go for this week. More on the Leopard “Sneak Preview” next time.

© 2006 Peter F. Zimowski