What Vista can learn from Leopard

Apple Computer let developers know this week that its next Mac OS X version, Leopard, should spring onto store shelves next spring. It also lifted the veil a bit for planned operating-system features, but it held back some details.

Part of the secrecy was to prevent Microsoft from copying Apple's ideas, CEO Steve Jobs suggested. "We don't want our friends to start their photocopiers any sooner than they have to," he said.

It's a reminder of the operating-system rivalry between the two companies. Apple has touted itself as the innovator in such software; it has suggested that all the new additions in Windows Vista already exist in the most recent Mac OS X, Tiger. Microsoft might take issue with that, but there's no denying it has struggled somewhat with Vista, which has had features cut and seen a series of delays.

To find out what people on the street make of it, we asked our Vista Views panel, made up of ordinary readers, this question: Which feature in Leopard would you like to see in Vista?

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David Dawson

How about some hype? Leopard's got it. Apple delivers promises and great products--it already has a next-gen graphics engine, indexed searching, smart folders, smarter navigation and promises that more remain to be revealed of Leopard's features. On the other hand, Vista's really pushing people's patience--it's delayed repeatedly, loses features as it gets closer to shipping, is bloated and possibly will harass the user at every action.

David Dawson is the team leader for research and development at Community IT Innovators (CITI), an organization providing technology support to socially responsible organizations in the Washington, DC area.

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Robert McLaws

I'm still trying to figure out how Apple can call Microsoft "copycats" in one breath (who steals source code by photocopying it, anyways?) and then, in the next, introduce Time Machine (which is a rip-off of Windows' Previous Versions"feature that has been around since Windows Server 2003). And doesn't calling it "Vista 2.0" mean that they're copying Vista 1.0?

But it doesn't surprise me that they couldn't get their joke right; they couldn't even copy the Windows logo properly in the keynote.

From what I can tell, there isn't anything in the new OS X that I can't get in Vista, and then some. I can have a Tablet and a Media Center in one computer. I can hook up my Xbox 360 to that same machine (which Mac can't do) and watch TV recorded off my digital cable tuner (which Mac won't have). And you won't need to have Office anymore to get some basic features like spam protection and calendaring. So I get all the features and more, without the smug self-righteousness of the pseudo-intellectual Mac zealotry.

What more could you ask for in an OS?
Robert McLaws is an IT consultant, community leader and Vista enthusiast. He has been running Vista enthusiast site Longhornblogs.com since 2002.

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Wallace Wang

Vista doesn't need to include (copy) any features of Mac OS X Leopard. What Vista needs to do is match or exceed the way Mac OS X implements its features.

From a technical point of view, Window's System Restore feature is actually superior to Mac OS X's Time Machine, since System Restore can work on a single hard disk, while Time Machine requires a second hard disk. The big difference is the way Microsoft and Apple implemented this same feature.

Under Windows, you click through a series of dialog boxes, radio buttons and calendars to find a restore point to return to. Not visually exciting or intuitive, but practical and efficient. Under Time Machine, you can see a series of your previous window contents extending off into the distance, and click or search for the window you want to restore from the past.

From a technical point of view, Window's System Restore is superior but from a user's point of view, Mac OS X's Time Machine is far superior. Given the choice between using a great program with a mediocre interface (Windows System Restore) or a mediocre program with a dazzling interface (Time Machine), guess which one is going to generate the most excitement?

Apple isn't necessarily great at innovating, but they are far superior when it comes to implementing their ideas in ways that the average user can understand immediately, and that's where the Mac OS X shines over anything Microsoft Windows could ever offer.

The best way for Vista to compete with Mac OS X? Have Microsoft dump Vista, and license Mac OS X to run on ordinary PCs. Otherwise, given Mac OS X and a copy of Parallels with Windows running in a virtual machine, Vista has no chance to compete, no matter what features it might add.

Wallace Wang is a freelance computer journalist and author whose books include "Microsoft Office for Dummies" and "Steal This Computer Book."

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Brian Lambert

I would like to see something like Spaces, or virtual desktops, in Windows Vista. (Editor's note: Click here for video of Spaces.)

I think it's time to shift the paradigm of the way desktops should look and operate. It would be interesting to be able to have more than one desktop that you could easily access, and put applications aside. There's a lot of potential for this that Vista could explore, especially with the new graphical interface. Hopefully, we'll be wowed away by some of Vista's features when it arrives.

Brian Lambert is a law student at Southern Illinois University.

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Kevin Faaborg

I'm about as worried as I was before with XP.

I would really like to see Time Machine implemented in some way into Vista. It's better than System Restore, because this is talking about your own personal files and not just system files. Plus, (if) you just want to get a file instead of having to do a full restore, you can do that too.

Kevin Faaborg works in basic hardware and software guidance for a large financial corporation, but he has experience in more computer sales-based jobs.

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Joe Rud

The one feature I'd like to see from Vista that I know will be there with Leopard is it being sent to production.
Joe Rud is a computer industry professional from from St. Louis Park, Minn.

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David Price

Answer you expect: Spaces, because it will help keep the computer best organized.

Long-term answer, which I have been saying for YEARS: Bill, take some of your billions, buy the best and brightest programmers in the world, and make a brand-spanking-new OS absolutely positively from scratch. No DOS, no Windows, no xNIX, no backwards compatibility; start completely over and do it right. Kids, can you say "21st century?"
David Price is a senior accident analyst at one of the U.S.'s top research and development national laboratories and an award-winning nature photographer.

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Callum Jones

I think nothing should be copied--it just gives Apple fans another thing to point and laugh about. With MS doing that, we would be flooded with too many forum threads about Leopard vs. Vista. MS should sit down and focus on what they need to create, not re-create.
Callum Jones is a student in Perth, Australia.

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Chris Hacking

Virtual Desktops ("Spaces") are a feature of almost every Linux desktop manager. They allow great numbers of windows to be open at once, without needing to bring some forward and let other fall into the background. They allow users to view whole sets of windows.

Say I have one desktop devoted to instant messengers, with contact lists and conversation/video windows. On another desktop, I am reading and writing e-mail, another has a full-screen Web browser with 15 tabs open. And finally, I leave one desktop blank (perhaps except for Sidebar set to "always on top" for just this one window), so I can see all my desktop icons without needing to minimize (and then restore) all my open windows.

Vista probably could very easily implement virtual desktops, since all UI elements, including the desktop itself, are 3D objects. Just make a few more of the Desktop objects and tag each window with the desktop(s) it is visible on. Make it easy to change which desktop(s) a window is on, and add some flashy graphics affects to chew GPU cycles. Use a hotkey combo, like Ctrl-WinKey+Tab, to switch.

Windows, you are the last major OS on the train here.
Chris Hacking is a computer engineering student at the University of Washington, Seattle who has worked in Web development and freelance software development.

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Shruti Shah

I'd like to see the Spaces feature. For years, I've waited for the ability to rearrange items in the taskbar on Windows, and having different "spaces" just takes it one step further.
Shruti Shah, from Long Island, N.Y., is a senior in college.

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Jason Klomps

I would have to say, the built-in video-conferencing feature. Pretty much all Macs come with a video camera these days. It would be nice to have this be available in Vista without downloading a separate program.

Jason Klomps of Tucson, Ariz., works in IT support for a call center.

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John Kneeland

I'd like Vista to do Boot Camp. In reverse.

John Kneeland is an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is majoring in international relations and East Asian studies.