Re: Chris Pirillo: Vista vs Mac OS X Leopard.

In article <13dik0pd9pmv2ef@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Daniel Johnson" <danieljohnson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snip]

6. Apple's Gentle Transitions

Chris is just wrong about the Intel transition; it was harsh and
painful.

Frankly, you're just completely out of touch with reality on this one. I
know you like the Microsoft approach to transitions, where everyone has
to suffer through five years of compromised products, but Apple's
approach simply works better.

With Apple's quick transitions, one has the option of either jumping
early, and getting the latest and greatest at the price of a bit of
transitional pain, or of simply waiting a little while for things to
mature a bit, for apps to get released, etc. -- which happens
considerably faster because of all the *other* people who have already
made the jump and are putting pressure on developers.

And, of course, I suspect that what you really mean relates precisely to
that last point. The transition *was* rather abrupt for developers,
particularly those who hadn't bothered to follow Apple's
recommendations. But this has always been a major difference between the
way Apple and Microsoft run their platforms. Microsoft coddles
developers, even when it requires holding the platform back. Apple
builds the best platform it can, and if developers aren't interested in
trying to keep up, they can find another platform to develop for.

As far as how smooth the transition can be for users... I just picked up
my first Intel Mac (a MacBook Pro) a month or so ago. I wasn't actually
trying to avoid the early transitional period; that's just how my buying
cycle lined up. I installed all the same stuff I would have installed on
a PPC machine, and all of it worked fine. All of the apps I use
regularly are Universal now. Regardless of the chip in this machine,
it's not some weird new thing; it's just a Mac, you know?

Apple's transition to 64-bit may be different, but it is too soon to
say; they've only just got started. Leopard will still not have
64-bit Carbon, or a 64-bit kernel.

Windows offers both superior backwards compatibility and complete
64-bit support. It's clearly in the lead on this one.

Microsoft doesn't have a unified 32/64-bit product, and the 64-bit
product doesn't work with 32-bit drivers. Apple doesn't have either of
these problems, and fixing the one significant 64-bit limitation in
Leopard (no 64-bit Carbon) wouldn't introduce either of these problems.

[snip]

--
"That's George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing
about him is that I read three--three or four books about him last year. Isn't
that interesting?"
- George W. Bush to reporter Kai Diekmann, May 5, 2006
.

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