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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=719
Jaguar: The better value
By ron carlson, Insanely Great Mac
July 26th 2002
Upcoming M$ and Apple system updates highlight the companies'' differing philosophies
regarding innovation and your rights
NewsFactor''s Jennifer LeClaire has written an interesting piece of the differences
between M$ and Apple. Whereas M$ promises long lists of supposedly hot, new features
that rarely work until the second or third versions (and sometimes not at all), Apple
has a long history of delivering the goods and making them eminently usable.
"And while the timing is more coincidental than competitive, analysts [say] Apple
users will have more to cheer about when the new releases hit the street," according
to LeClaire.
Jaguar -- a.k.a. OS X 10.2 -- is set to hit store shelves on August 24 and packs a
long list of improved and new features, including long-time Classic favorites like
spring-loaded folders.
For its part, Redmond is readying Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), primarily a bug fix
with a few new features.
One mean cat
Although both releases are updates to existing, i.e. not new, operating systems, the
similarities between them ends there.
Apple boasts that the consumer-version of Jaguar ($129) includes 150 new features,
such as improved Web services support for SOAP, XML and Java VM. Likewise, the server
version ($499) is expected to hit the street packing over 50 new features, some
specific to the company''s first-ever rack-mount server, Xserve.
Granted, some of these "new" features, like the aforementioned spring-loaded folders,
are carry overs from Classic. Also, Jaguar brings "faster than molasses" 2D
performance, which can hardly be referred to as a feature.
Such hubris aside, X still packs quite a wallop with spiffy functionality -- iCal,
iSync, etc. -- as well as dozens of under-the-hood improvements targeted at sys admins
(remember today is SysAdminDay) and developers.
A trojan horse by any other name...
M$ has set neither pricing nor an official date for SP1, but insiders say it will
arrive before the end of the Summer, which on Redmond''s calendar is likely September
32nd.
"Much like previous service packs, SP1 will provide the latest updates to the Windows
XP operating system," M$ spokesperson Stacy Cail told NewsFactor. "These updates
include security, compatibility and reliability, as well as new hardware support for
original equipment manufacturers."
However, one of the items on XP''s new feature list represents neither an advance or
bug fix -- the company''s new licensing scheme to which there is no realistic opt out
-- either you accept M$''s terms or you "agree" not to be eligible for additional
updates/fixes.
The enforcement mechanism comes in the form of Redmond''s new "product activation
system," which will be introduced in SP1.
According to The Register, "Microsoft will be blocking installation of SP1 and further
access to Windows Update for installations using any of three leaked keys [even if you
acquired them legally], and there still seems to be some doubt as to how far beyond
this the company will go. It is still possible that users of these keys will find
themselves locked out of their machines, but this would be a significant escalation,
particularly as earlier this year Microsoft said users with leaked keys would be able
to carry on using their machine, they just wouldn''t be able to update it."
Although M$ certainly is entitled to protect its property from theft, it''s still
quite uncertain whether the means it uses to clamp down on hackers and pirates is
moral let alone legal. Seriously, under the terms of Redmond''s latest end-user
license agreement (EULA), they can shut you out of your computer without notification.
Lastly, it''s also far from certain that it is M$'' property -- despite laws and court
decisions in support of that premise -- after you pay for it. That XP or X for that
matter -- revolutionary as they are in comparison to where we''ve come from -- require
an equally revolutionary change in property rights and how they are administered.
You get what you pay for
There has been much righteous whinging on the part of Mac users vis-a-vis the lack of
"reasonable" upgrade pricing for Jaguar. However, a comparison between the respective
X and XP updates reveals that Apple''s offering provides not only honestly new
functionality (that functions), but it also comes to market without egregious
licensing terms that seek to not only usurp individual liberties but also make you pay
for the privilege.
Apple continues to deliver the best "bang-for-the-buck" value of any shrink-wrapped OS
available. What''s your take?
Post your comments at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=719
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Copyright (c) 2002 Insanely Great Mac. All rights reserved. This article
may not be republished in part or whole without explicit written
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