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| Windows 7 v.s. Snow Leopard/ Virtualization: an In-Depth Overview | August 2009 / issue 12 | |
OS deathmatch: Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7 by Preston Gralla, Computerworld.com It's the best of times if you're a lover of operating systems, with the nearly simultaneous release of Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" (available right now) and Microsoft's Windows 7 (available Oct. 22). This leads to the inevitable debate: Which is the better operating system, Windows 7 or Snow Leopard? To help determine that, I've put both operating systems through their paces, selected categories for a head-to-head competition, and then chosen a winner in each category. And at the end, I summarize the scorecard. For testing Windows 7, I did a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition RTM on a Dell Inspiron E1505 notebook with 1GB of RAM and a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor. To test Snow Leopard, I did an upgrade from Mac OS X Leopard on my MacBook Air, which is loaded with a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of RAM. OverviewThe two companies took diametrically opposed approaches to their newest operating system upgrades. Microsoft, burned by the compatibility issues that bedeviled Vista, strove to make compatibility with Vista-level hardware and software a centerpiece of Windows 7, and so didn't dramatically change the under-the-hood plumbing in Windows 7. However, significant interface changes and features were added. The taskbar got a thorough reworking, making it much more Mac OS X Dock-like -- in fact, even better than the Dock. Similarly, the addition of HomeGroups was an attempt to make networking simpler for home users. Apple, on the other hand, focused its efforts largely on internal plumbing, and many of those efforts won't pay off immediately for users. OpenCL and Grand Central Dispatch are new technologies designed to better take advantage of multi-core CPUs and to offload more graphics and animation processing to graphics cards. In the long run, this should make for significantly juiced-up performance. But in order for people to reap much of the benefits, developers will need to rewrite their programs. The new Apple technologies are designed to make that easier, but until those new applications are written, the effects most likely won't be extremely noticeable. Apple also tweaked the operating system interface, refining the Finder and integrating the Dock with Exposé. But those changes are not nearly as significant as the ones Microsoft made to Windows 7. With all that as a background, let's get on to the smackdown. Come along for the great debate -- and weigh in with your own comments. SNOW LEOPARD
With Snow Leopard, Apple focused mostly on under-the-hood changes.
Click to view larger image WINDOWS 7
By contrast, Windows 7 introduces significant interface changes and features.
Click to view larger image Operating system nameOK, let's get this issue out of the way quickly. Which operating system would you rather run: one with the cool name Snow Leopard, or one with the unimaginative moniker Windows 7? Enough said. The Winner: Snow Leopard. Wild animals are inherently more exciting than panes of glass. PriceFor anyone buying a new computer, a price comparison between the two operating systems is meaningless, because the operating system will come pre-installed on whatever hardware they buy. But for upgraders, it can be a very big deal. Apple upgraders will certainly be happier than those who make the move to Windows 7 from earlier versions. Snow Leopard is a $29 upgrade (unless you're still using Tiger, in which case you have to buy the Mac Box Set -- which includes iLife '09 and iWork '09 -- for $169). The Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade costs a whopping $220 on Amazon, Windows 7 Professional goes for $200, and Windows 7 Home Premium weighs in at $120. Windows users also have to face the confusing decision about which of the versions of Windows 7 to purchase -- given the price points, are you better off with Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Home Premium? With Snow Leopard, there's no confusion; there's only one version of the operating system. The Winner: Snow Leopard. At $29, it's practically an impulse buy InstallationHere's what you need to do in order to install Snow Leopard: Insert the installation disc and then go through a simple setup routine. You won't have to decide between a clean install and an upgrade. You won't have to mull over which version of Snow Leopard is best for you. You won't have to type in a lengthy registration code. In Windows, you'll have to choose between a clean install and an upgrade. In addition, depending on your hardware configuration and version of Windows, it may take you some time to figure out which version of Windows 7 you can upgrade to. Once you do all that, though, there are no real major differences between installing the operating systems. Snow Leopard took a little less time to install on my system, but apart from that, the installation process itself was quite similar. Snow Leopard did do a better job of recognizing the hardware -- it did it without a hitch. Windows 7 at first didn't recognize my video card and so I had problems with screen resolution. However, Windows 7 quickly resolved the problem without any intervention on my part via Windows Update. The Winner: Snow Leopard. It wins by a hair because of Windows 7's slight glitch with my hardware and the configuration choices you need to make. Aside from that, though, installation wasn't significantly different. Launching applicationsWhat do you do all day with an operating system? You primarily launch programs, and then switch among running programs and windows. To a certain extent, everything else is just window dressing. So it's probably no surprise that some of the biggest changes to both Snow Leopard and Windows 7 have to do with the way you launch applications and switch among them. Snow Leopard's Dock was tweaked by integrating it with Exposé (a window-management feature); while Windows 7's taskbar was significantly reworked. The Dock and the taskbar both do double-duty as application launchers and task switchers. The Dock is more aesthetically pleasing, with its application icons cut out in profile and highlighted against the Mac desktop, while the taskbar runs like a flat ribbon across the bottom of the Windows 7 screen. Both added a nearly identical feature -- the ability to see thumbnails of all the windows open in an application. In Windows 7, when an application has multiple windows open, you'll see a stack of icons in the taskbar that match the number of windows open. Hover your mouse over the application's icon, and you'll see thumbnails of them all, spread out across the bottom of the screen. Similarly, in Snow Leopard, when you click on an application's icon in the Dock and hold it, you see thumbnails as well. Click here to finish reading article |
Virtualization: an In-Depth Overview In the last year or two we have seen virtualization go from a poorly understood concept to a much-hyped industry buzzword being bantered about constantly in every conversation involving technology. There is no doubt that virtualization is playing an important role in today's IT landscape, but the question is whether virtualization applies to the small and medium business markets at this time. The quick answer to this question is: absolutely. Unlike many technologies that provide a great degree of technological risk and expense and may not be appropriate for a small business, virtualization is a mature technology (IBM CP/CMS circa 1968) that is well understood. In short, it provides a layer of hardware abstraction that can benefit an IT organization of any size. It may possibly apply even more to small business IT departments than to the enterprise space.
Virtualization: Seriously, What is It?Before looking at how virtualization can benefit the SMB market I would like to provide some definitions. In today's IT landscape it has become popular to re-label many common technologies as "virtualization" for marketing reasons, unnecessarily complicating the issue. True virtualization refers to the virtualizing of entire operating systems. Wikipedia uses the term platform virtualization and I will as well. Technically we could refer to this as "System Virtualization" or "Operating System Virtualization" to distinguish it from loosely-related technologies. The basic concept of platform virtualization involves running an abstraction layer on a computer that emulates the hardware itself. Through the combination of abstraction and emulation we get what is known as a virtual machine. This virtual machine is a completely working "computer" onto which we can install an operating system just as if we were installing onto the bare metal of a dedicated machine. Instead of being limited to only installing one operating system image per computer we can now – with platform virtualization – install many copies of the same or disparate operating systems onto the same piece of hardware. A powerful concept indeed. Why Has it Taken So Long? The obviousness of the utility of this technology begs the obvious question: "If platform virtualization has been available since 1968, why is it only becoming popular and important recently?" This is an excellent question. The answer is actually quite simple. Traditional platform virtualization technologies require a lot of support within the computer hardware itself. IBM has been building this type of support into its mainframe systems for decades. Large UNIX vendors like Sun have been providing this in their high-end UNIX servers for years as well. These systems are highly specialized and typically run their own custom operating system(s). Generally only large IT shops could afford servers of this magnitude. Small shops did not have ready access to these technologies. For those IT professionals who have worked with this type of equipment in the past the idea of virtualization was often so ingrained into the platform that it was often discussed very little. It was seen as simply an aspect of these high-end server systems and not necessarily a concept in its own right. What has changed recently is the move to bring platform virtualization to the commodity hardware space occupied by the AMD and Intel (x86_64). The first move was to use software alone to make this possible on the x86 processor family. The early players in this space were VMWare and Microsoft, with products like VMWare Workstation, Virtual PC, VMWare GSX and MS Virtual Server. These products showed that no special hardware was needed to effectively virtualize whole operating systems. Companies of all sizes began to experiment with the concept of virtualizing their existing commodity platforms. This form of virtualization is known as "host-based virtualization" as it requires a host operating system on which the virtualization environment will run. Click here to read the rest of the story
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Save the Date The Entrepreneurship Institute (TEI) presents The Presidents Forum Develop the personal contacts and new ideas that support your Houston, Texas November 5, 2009 7:00 am - 5:00 pm
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Helpful IT tips 2) Implementing proactive IT management versus reactive management can help catch and eliminate various threats before they have a chance to implicate your IT environment 3) KNOW your IT provider; Many companies imply that their services are top of line with a helpdesk in your area and paint a picture perfect portrait and in the end, you the customer is the one who loses. Check out your provider, visit their facility and meet their helpdesk. You will be surprised as to how many actually are telling the truth. 4) Frequently backup your data; At a minimum it should be done daily 5) If it sounds too good to be true, it might just be. You may be getting a great price initially, but what are you really getting into? Check your IT provider’s references to make sure you make the best decision for your business' future, not just your pocket book |
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2009 marks the 5th year anniversary of Techcess Group being in business.
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