Despite the user interface differences, there are similarities between the latest Mac OS, and the soon-to-be latest Windows OS. Dwight Silverman:
Both are pretty good, and for similar reasons. Neither are complete rewrites, but rather they focus on refining and tweaking existing products. The result is that devotees of either platform are going to be pleased with the changes.
In a word, refinement.
- Both are leaner. Both Apple and Microsoft have worked hard to make their respective OSes leaner and more nimble. Snow Leopard has removed the PowerPC code in Mac OS X, while Microsoft has trimmed the fat that was in Windows Vista.
- Useful interface tweaks. Snow Leopard and Windows 7 aren’t dramatic reworkings of the user interface, but each contain changes that actually provide some benefit. The reworked Stacks in Snow Leopard (which are scrollable and allow Stack views in subfolders) make it much easier to find what you’re looking for.
- Mainstream 64-bit computing. In the Windows world, 64-bit computing really began a march to the mainstream with Windows Vista. More and more hardware makers are offering the 64-bit version of the OS on their PCs. Apple advertises Snow Leopard as 64-bit “top to bottom”, though that’s not exactly correct.
- More secure. Snow Leopard is the first version of the Mac OS X to include an antimalware component. If you try to install one of a handful of Trojans that target Mac users, you’re prevented from doing so by a warning popup. Microsoft includes Windows Defender, a basic antispyware application, in Windows 7 as it did in Vista, and there are more under-the-hood changes that make the operating system more secure.
- Simpler, faster setup. Both operating systems have made the process of installing them simpler and faster. Upgrading Leopard to Snow Leopard takes just a couple of clicks and about 45 minutes. Windows 7’s upgrade can take longer.
A clean install of Windows 7 can be faster than a clean install of Snow Leopard.