Review: Can Leopard Take On Vista?

Applications and Driver Support: Early Vista adopters had to deal with missing drivers and software applications that weren't Vista-compliant. Leopard users are encountering similar problems, on a smaller scale. There hasn't been much talk about hardware issues with Leopard -- in fact, the HP DeskJet printer that required a separate Vista driver installed perfectly fine under Leopard. However, many of the software packages are not quite ready for Leopard. For example, automation did not work properly in Adobe CS3 under Leopard and Framemaker had some issues. Many of the driver support issues are launch-date issues affecting only early-adopters. Third-party manufacturers will eventually catch up and release proper fixes.

It was nice to see hardware products continue to work under Leopard without needing any new drivers, though.

Boot Camp now comes integrated with Leopard. Users can install Windows XP or Vista on to the Mac and have a dual-OS system fairly easily. While there have been some hacks, as a general rule, Mac OS X will not run on non-Apple hardware.

Leopard also comes with some built-in virtualization tools that are beyond what Vista has out of the box. While there are plenty of third-party virtualization tools for Windows, there's nothing inside Vista that can handle multiple virtual desktops. Leopard's Spaces feature reminded users of the multiple desktops available to Linux users on GNOME. Having different applications on different desktops can reduce clutter and make multi-tasking easier.

Advantage: Leopard.

Security: Apple has improved a lot of security features in Leopard. For years, OS X users have benefited from the fact that the Windows operating system and its applications have been the target of most malicious attacks. However, Apple has come under increased scrutiny about whether its products can withstand an attack if it happens.

Leopard has introduced a sandbox feature which keeps certain applications and files in a restricted environment separate from the rest of the system.

Users are also prompted with a dialog box the first time they try to run a program they've downloaded from the Internet. The dialog box will have information about when the file was downloaded and which application was used to download it. The security messages are easy to understand, which is a plus on the usability side.

Finally, parental controls more prominent. These controls make it easy to set up content filters, define usage time limits and log all Internet activity. There's no equivalent control in Vista, although there are plenty of third-party applications.

However, Test Center engineers were shocked that Leopard does not have the firewall turned on by default, while Vista does. It seems like a basic enough option that Apple should have enabled out of the box, considering the likelihood that the Mac would be on the Internet. Vista's security features can be a little hard to take, especially its repeated promptings to confirm on opening files or running processes, but there's a sense of actual security protection in place.

Advantage: Draw. The firewall hurt Leopard.

Conclusion: Mac OS X has attracted users all along with its easy to use interface and lack of security problems. Leopard enhances what was already a stellar operating system with several improvements making it that much harder for Windows users to ignore.

That said, Test Center wonders how much of the business community will move off Windows to adopt Leopard. Along with hardware considerations, there is a vibrant and robust development community for Windows applications. While many business software will not work on Mac OS X, with so many management tools moving to the Web browser, that may no longer deter business users. Perhaps the channel should stick with Windows XP for a little while longer.