“Apple and its supporters will tell you that Apple spent the past five years churning out major new Mac OS X versions while Microsoft fumbled around trying to finish Windows Vista. This is completely untrue. Though I use and respect Mac OS X, virtually every version Apple has shipped since 2001 has been a minor update, akin to a Windows 98 SE or Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). Meanwhile, Microsoft has pushed an amazing variety of Windows versions out the door since 2001. Some highlights include Windows XP Embedded, Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE), Windows XP MCE 2004, Windows XP MCE 2005, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition (TPC), Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. It has also shipped major updates to its digital media software, including three major updates to Windows Media Player, a major IE release–IE 7–major new client-based security applications and services, including Windows Defender and Windows Live OneCare. And this is just a partial list. The point here is simple: Microsoft hasn’t sat still, contrary to the FUD you read online.”

I run both a Mac and Windows machine at home and love them both, but I have no idea why you would say that the update to leapard is anywhere near as big as the jump from xp to vista. I would say it’s by far closer to windows xp to service pack 2.

I also am really sick of the Vista bashing that goes on from people who have never even touched the operating system or think they know something about it. I’ve been using it on a machine that was actually built for it and it’s been running great for me since installed. Most people who have been having issues with it really don’t know what they are doing and try to stick it on a machine not built for it. Not any different than what happened when Windows XP was released and people tried to install it on Windows 98 machines.

I will say that Microsoft is better at releasing zero-day security fixes than Apple. But, Microsoft is NOT better at releasing updates that make a difference in the usability of the machines it runs on.

And for the record. Apple has released only ONE major OS, they haven’t increased the version number. They are still at version 10, like the upgrade from 2000 to XP was regarded as a minor update (from version 5.0 to 5.1).

Amount of money users have spent on an operating system between major upgrades:

MS: whatever their first purchase of XP cost (if they upgraded separately): $150-250 or $300

Apple: at least $500-600, not to mention expensive hardware.

I don’t consider the update from tiger to leopard a major update like XP to Vista. It’s more of a facelift like the other OS X releases (yes, it’s 64bit, but there was a 64bit XP pro as well).

Remember, I’m not a MS fan… this is just what I see.

http://security.itworld.com/4940/microsoft-patches-faster-than-apple-080327/page_1.html

Keep in mind MS is constantly releasing “small” updates via Windows Update instead of waiting to distribute a bunch at once like Apple does.