I’m a Mac user primarily, but I haven’t always been so. I grew up on Windows from version 3.1 and finally moved to Mac when they bought out OS X 10.2 (Jaguar). I do still use Windows on a daily basis (mostly for Internet Explorer testing), and have both XP and Vista installed on my MacBook Pro. Due to all the media hype, I have been naturally interested in what Vista has to offer. I subscribe to the Microsoft Action Pack so I get all the software at Beta stage and on final release in full version. Vista was no exception.

The Vista Beta was awful. Sluggish, unresponsive, no driver support. We installed it on a powerful machine in the office and were astounded at the miserable performance. Suffice to say, we re-installed XP. I’m not going to criticise a Beta release though.

Final release did not have the performance issues and more drivers were available. The system seemed stable and Vista looks nice. That’s great. However, after using it for a little while, I concluded that the new security features weren’t really that secure (a password authentication for system changes would be better, after all, most people just press “accept/ok” whenever a dialog box pops up – kids especially). More disappointing though is the fact that Vista offers nothing new apart from eye candy.

The current version of OS X offers true plug ‘n’ play, rock solid stability, no crashes, no viruses, no malware, and real security. It also offers real time-saving devices in Expose and Spotlight. For those that haven’t used OS X, I’ll explain each quickly.

Expose operates with a single button press and instantly shrinks all your open windows so they all fit on the screen at the same time, then you just choose the one you want. Vista’s window flicking system is just not as intuitive. In fact, I would argue that offers little more than the ALT+TAB key combination (which, incidently, also exists in OS X as Command+TAB, and works better in that you can also click your mouse on the program selector that appears).

Spotlight is the OS X search tool and it is lightyears ahead of Vista. You start typing and the system immediately brings back results and categorises them. It even searches your emails. This is the feature I miss most whenever I’m using Windows.

So, OS X is still better than Windows. Now, Apple are about to launch OS X 10.5 (Leopard). The launch has been pushed back slightly to allow Apple to launch iPhone, and Leopard will now hit the stores in October. Unlike Vista it won’t cost the earth, and it will run on the significant majority of existing machines, without any hardware upgrades.

I’m not going to start describing all the new features here, instead I encourage you to have a look at the introduction on the Apple Website – pay particular attention to stacks, time machine, spaces and the phenomenal improvements to finder – all of which are innovative features that will actually improve workflow, rather than just being extra eye candy. There is a bit more eye candy too of course – check out the reflective dock!

I’m sorry Windows users, but you have an inferior system.