AlbertPacino
Skilled
After years of relative quiet, both Microsoft and Apple are frenetically working on major new upgrades to the base software that run the personal computers of tens of millions of business and consumer users.
Microsoft is using the code name Longhorn to refer to its next upgrade to the Windows operating system. Apple, keeping the theme of naming its operating system software after big and fast cats, calls its next release Tiger.
We'll see Tiger in stores this year -- perhaps within a few weeks. Longhorn, as is typical of Microsoft, has been delayed a couple of times and is now not expected until mid-2006.
Longhorn will be the first major Microsoft upgrade since Windows XP hit computer hard drives in 2001. That's light-years in the world of personal computers, and much has changed in that time: Wireless Bluetooth connections for printers and keyboards are now common, floppy drives have disappeared, Wi-Fi is now widespread and dozens of new security challenges and issues like spyware and Trojans have surfaced.
Thus Longhorn will be the biggest upgrade since Windows 95. It may also prove to be a big sell for Microsoft. For all its early security faults, Windows XP has been greatly improved through patches and fixes and is now fairly stable and comfortable to consumers and corporate users, if not exciting and new.
Getting users to switch to Longhorn is going to require some mighty convincing reasons. And so far, Microsoft has been uncharacteristically quiet, speaking only in generalities. The company says Longhorn will make for easier and faster data sharing between applications, less power consumption for laptops, a more efficient navigation system, a more appealing desktop look and more secure wireless and networking capabilities.
The first concrete look at the new operating system is expected to come at the end of next month, when Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates is to give a preview to developers at the Windows Hardware and Engineering Conference in Seattle.
By June, Microsoft has promised to release the first full version of Longhorn for beta testing by software developers who need experience with the new environment before designing new programs that will work on it. That's when the first major hype should start.
But Longhorn will be competing with Apple's new Tiger operating system -- and Tiger is about ready to pounce.
Apple won't confirm reports that Tiger is now pretty much complete. But its worldwide developers conference June 1-10 in San Francisco is expected to focus almost entirely on Tiger. And with Chairman Steve Jobs doing the keynote speech, speculation is strong that he will announce its public release at that time.
Analysts are predicting a halo effect for Tiger, with the system basking in the stunning popularity of the iPod and the slew of new products Apple has been releasing, like its $499 Mac mini.
Unlike Microsoft, Apple is talking up Tiger's more than 100 new features big-time. The new operating system will come with something called Spotlight, which will allow any file or document on the hard drive to be instantly found, much as a user does a Web search.
Tiger has speed improvements, networking enhancements and new video display and editing features, too.
With around 5 percent of the personal computer marketplace, Apple has nowhere to go but up, and Tiger -- capitalizing on the company's new hip status -- is going to generate a lot of buzz.
Longhorn, meanwhile, will hit a marketplace already dominated by Windows. Microsoft is going to have to dig into its very deep pockets to convince people that it's worth the hassle.
To do so, it needs to start telling us some specifics and get a new name. The name Longhorn just doesn't get people very excited -- unless they live in Texas.
Source
Microsoft is using the code name Longhorn to refer to its next upgrade to the Windows operating system. Apple, keeping the theme of naming its operating system software after big and fast cats, calls its next release Tiger.
We'll see Tiger in stores this year -- perhaps within a few weeks. Longhorn, as is typical of Microsoft, has been delayed a couple of times and is now not expected until mid-2006.
Longhorn will be the first major Microsoft upgrade since Windows XP hit computer hard drives in 2001. That's light-years in the world of personal computers, and much has changed in that time: Wireless Bluetooth connections for printers and keyboards are now common, floppy drives have disappeared, Wi-Fi is now widespread and dozens of new security challenges and issues like spyware and Trojans have surfaced.
Thus Longhorn will be the biggest upgrade since Windows 95. It may also prove to be a big sell for Microsoft. For all its early security faults, Windows XP has been greatly improved through patches and fixes and is now fairly stable and comfortable to consumers and corporate users, if not exciting and new.
Getting users to switch to Longhorn is going to require some mighty convincing reasons. And so far, Microsoft has been uncharacteristically quiet, speaking only in generalities. The company says Longhorn will make for easier and faster data sharing between applications, less power consumption for laptops, a more efficient navigation system, a more appealing desktop look and more secure wireless and networking capabilities.
The first concrete look at the new operating system is expected to come at the end of next month, when Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates is to give a preview to developers at the Windows Hardware and Engineering Conference in Seattle.
By June, Microsoft has promised to release the first full version of Longhorn for beta testing by software developers who need experience with the new environment before designing new programs that will work on it. That's when the first major hype should start.
But Longhorn will be competing with Apple's new Tiger operating system -- and Tiger is about ready to pounce.
Apple won't confirm reports that Tiger is now pretty much complete. But its worldwide developers conference June 1-10 in San Francisco is expected to focus almost entirely on Tiger. And with Chairman Steve Jobs doing the keynote speech, speculation is strong that he will announce its public release at that time.
Analysts are predicting a halo effect for Tiger, with the system basking in the stunning popularity of the iPod and the slew of new products Apple has been releasing, like its $499 Mac mini.
Unlike Microsoft, Apple is talking up Tiger's more than 100 new features big-time. The new operating system will come with something called Spotlight, which will allow any file or document on the hard drive to be instantly found, much as a user does a Web search.
Tiger has speed improvements, networking enhancements and new video display and editing features, too.
With around 5 percent of the personal computer marketplace, Apple has nowhere to go but up, and Tiger -- capitalizing on the company's new hip status -- is going to generate a lot of buzz.
Longhorn, meanwhile, will hit a marketplace already dominated by Windows. Microsoft is going to have to dig into its very deep pockets to convince people that it's worth the hassle.
To do so, it needs to start telling us some specifics and get a new name. The name Longhorn just doesn't get people very excited -- unless they live in Texas.
Source