Network snow leopard and windows 7

Not sure which version of Windows you should get? Microsoft released a convoluted upgrade chart to help you decide. Good luck; it's not very helpful, given the various combinations of upgrade options. Snow Leopard, which requires an Intel-based Mac, comes preinstalled on all new Macs, and it will run applications in or bit mode automatically, depending on your hardware. Windows 7 can be installed over Vista without your having to reinstall your apps or files.

If you're still using XP, the installation is more convoluted. You have to save your files and apps, do a clean install of Windows 7 and then copy all the old data back. For Mac users, it doesn't matter whether you're upgrading from Leopard or even Tiger. There's no demand for installation codes or awkward activation hoop-jumping, and Apple streamlined the upgrade process to make it easier and quicker than before. I did a clean install for both operating systems. Frankly, that's the optimal solution, and it's what I recommend to Windows users.

The time needed to back up your data, format and clean-install Windows 7, and then reinstall your programs is worth it -- even if you're just moving up from Vista. The good news for Windows users is that the install process is now pretty straightforward.

The interface is thoughtfully laid out and even allows several hard-drive formatting options right in the main installation window. When choosing which hard drive or partition to use, all of the available hard drives are displayed, along with information such as Total Size, Free Space, and Type.

There are options allowing you to load other drivers; to delete, format or create new partitions; and to expand a non-system disk partition. The drive formatting options in Snow Leopard are part of Apple's Disk Utility application, which is separate from the main install window and might be confusing for new users too shy to click around and find it. Overall, Windows 7 took less than a half hour -- and several restarts -- to install.

Then Windows asked for a few settings: a username and password, time zone and time information, wireless network access info, the digit activation code, and what kind of network configuration I wanted home or office, for instance. The Snow Leopard installation was just as straightforward, although Apple's approach is a little different. It took about a half-hour to install the basic OS and set up my user account. Installing and then updating iLife '09 and iWork '09 Apple's media-creation and productivity suites, respectively took another 15 minutes.

During those installs and updates, MobileMe Apple's cloud service synced, adding all of my application and operating system preferences, bookmarks, calendars, e-mail settings and rules, Dashboard widgets, Dock items, keychains all of my passwords and notes.

In the span of 50 minutes, my new Mac setup was just like my old one, only I was now running Snow Leopard. Although the generic drivers that come with Windows 7 offer decent support and performance, to make Microsoft's finest really shine on this particular hardware, I installed used Apple's Boot Camp 3. The Boot Camp installation took a few minutes, and once done, the drivers activated my MacBook Pro's iSight camera, brightness, media, volume and eject buttons; it also enabled scrolling support using gestures.

Whether in Mac OS X or in Windows 7, the keyboard backlight automatically turns on, depending on light conditions, as does screen dimming. But the Windows versions are so bare-bones that I wonder whether Microsoft expects most users to work with them to any great degree or opt instead for more full-featured third-party apps. The basics are here, but Apple's software is best of breed. It's unfortunate that Microsoft didn't put more effort into beefing up these apps.

Not only does Snow Leopard come with a decent e-mail program, Mail, but that app now offers easy configuration for Exchange servers with Exchange support out of the box. Coupled with Active Directory support, it gives Mac users a business-friendly OS that integrates within existing network infrastructures. In contrast, Microsoft doesn't offer a way to configure its e-mail client for Exchange servers -- an odd omission. Windows 7, on the other hand, still supports Active Directory, as it should.

At first glance, Windows 7 looks more like a variant of KDE than a version of Windows, given some of the design choices Microsoft made. The new Aero themes and many of the new Windows desktop pictures are gorgeous. 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. What 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.

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. The taskbar's implementation is superior to the Dock's. The taskbar displays the number of windows open in an application because it shows a stack of icons -- the Dock has no visual clues like that.

In addition, when you scroll through each thumbnail in Windows 7, you see a full preview of the window on your desktop, making it easier to determine which window you want to switch to. The Dock doesn't do this. The Dock's implementation of thumbnails is also incomplete. In Snow Leopard, if you run a browser such as Safari or Firefox and then hold down its icon in the Dock, you won't be able to see all open tabs as separate thumbnails; instead you see only a single tab, and have no idea what other tabs are open.

In Windows 7, each tab gets its own thumbnail, so you know exactly what's open in your browser. When you right-click an application's icon in the taskbar in Windows 7, you get a menu offering various actions and tasks associated with that application. The list varies according to the application -- so when you right-click Microsoft Word, for example, you see a list of recently opened files, but when you click Internet Explorer, you see a list of your most frequently visited sites.

Here it's more of a toss-up over which is superior. And the Spaces feature lets you create multiple virtual desktops, each with its own look and application organization. The Winner: Windows 7. The taskbar has more features such as Jump Lists and has more fully featured thumbnails. The Dock may be more elegant-looking, but in this case function is more important than form.

If you're like most people, you're not satisfied with the out-of-box experience offered by your operating system. You want to customize it and tweak it. For doing this, it's hard to beat the straight-ahead simplicity and organization of Snow Leopard's System Preferences. Click an icon, and you'll be presented with a straightforward menu for changing the way that feature works.

It's as simple as customization gets. Windows 7's Control Panel is far more complex. It has seven major categories and many subcategories, using a very confusing hierarchy. 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. OK, 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? For 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. 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.

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