It's surprising when you consider that Apple has released two new versions of its operating system versions in the time since Microsoft let the world know that Windows 8 was baking. The Redmond software giant first announced plans for its upcoming desktop and tablet operating system in January 2011 at CES. Meanwhile, Apple released Lion, a major update, in July of that same year, and then Mountain Lion, a more incremental update, this past July.
In some ways, however, it's not so surprising: Windows 8 is a drastic re-imagining of the operating system, combining a touch-centric tablet OS with the traditional Windows desktop environment. Apple's strategy has been to more cautiously insert features from its mobile operating system, iOS, into the Mac's. It's also added multitouch gesture input support that assumes a touchpad for laptops or desktops. The result is ever-closer integration, with a minimum of dislocation to users???but no evolutionary leaps, either.
Microsoft has taken a far more drastic approach. It's designed Windows 8 to actually run on mobile tablets. Apple's wildly popular iPad by contrast runs its own version of iOS. While many old-timers have railed against the emphasis on touch input, it's easy to see why Microsoft took this approach: The company wants to leverage its massive 80 percent market share in desktop operating systems, while simultaneously familiarizing people with the new tile-based interface (formerly known as "Metro") first used in Windows Phone. But desktop users get benefits from Windows 8, too, including much faster startup and better boot security.
While Lion and Mountain Lion have been at large in the wild for months, we've also gotten a pretty good look at Windows 8, thanks to three pre-release publicly available versions: Developer Preview, Consumer Preview, and Release Preview. There's little mystery at this point about Windows 8's final shape when it's finally released on October 26, and developers and journalists have even already reviewed the RTM???release to manufacturing???version. So how do these two new operating systems' stack up? I'll take a look in some key areas. If there are important contrasts you'd like to point out, please do so in the comments; this list is by no means exhaustive!
Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386700,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05079TX1K0000993
ford recalls robert kardashian chicago weather forecast narcolepsy narcolepsy weather st louis faceoff
No comments:
Post a Comment