Apple's Leopard Strikes on Friday

By Doug Barney

On October 26, Apple Computer, Inc. of (Cupertino, CA) will release Leopard, the latest version of Mac OS X. The newrevision has a host of features aimed at home users, artists, and true computeraficionados.

Top items include TimeMachine, a new backup tool that keepsup to date images on an external drive, a desktop that stacks commonly usedicons along the right side of the screen, a better Finder, and a beefed upBootCamp with more Windows drivers and the ability to run Windows at full speed(having a dual core Intel processor doesn’t hurt here!).

My concern isthat Apple is missing a golden opportunity to go after business customers,enterprises, and engineers. Let’s face it. Vista is now officially a dud. But noone, not desktop Linux and not Mac, are trying to fill the void. Instead ofbuying Vista, you know what most buyers are getting? XP! Microsoft just can’tlose.

Apple could be aiming the Mac at users frustrated with their PCs.Apple machines are stable (thanks largely to the Mach kernel fromCarnegie-Mellon that Apple switched to when it built Mac OS X) and secure (maybebecause hackers like Macs, or aren’t interested in attacking machines withminiscule market share). Instead of going after business, Apple is spendingmillions advertising on television to teens and pre-teens.

No one, itseems, really wants to compete with Microsoft on the desktop. Tell me where I’mwrong by writing to barneymailto:[email protected].

I’m personally interested in whatApple does with hardware. Apple laptops, while pretty sweet, are still roughlydouble the price of comparable Windows models (trust me, I’ve bought a few ofboth), leaving iBooks and MacBooks mostly in the hands of the Volvos, Merlot, andbrie set. I’ll get excited when I see some Chevy, Budweiser, and Velveeta Applepricing.

Here’s all you need to know about Leopard:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/