Windows7How

Windows7 vs Snow Leopard Part(4) – Pricing, Features & The Winner

September 24, 2009

We end this series of articles by discussing few more relevant things. While some of the impressions we are to mention clearly depend on your personal taste and preference, one thing may help you decide which of the two operating systems to purchase – The price.

And when it comes to the sum of money you need to set aside, Snow Leopard is without a doubt the winner. The worst case scenario for Apple’s OS, in case you are using one of the older versions (such as Tiger), is to set aside 169$ in order to purchase the Box version. This version consists of the system and all of the additional software applications. Alternatively, you might end up spending just 29$, which is far less than expected. The situation with Windows 7 is completely different. First of all, you have half a dozen editions. Even if you decide to by one of the middle range editions, you would need 100$ or at least twice that sum if you are eager to have the most powerful Ultimate edition. That is why Apple is unquestionably victorious in this round.

Moving on to the rest of our impressions, it is safe to say that Microsoft’s operating system visually evolves from one to the other version. It is a well known fact that they have become fancier with the passage of time. Also, thanks to their user friendly interface, users easily work with the plentiful applications. Yes, Windows 7 is prettiest of them all but when compared with the operating systems from Apple, especially the newer ones it is slightly above the average. While Microsoft tries to offer an operating system that is more compatible and offers many features (such as the case with Windows 2000), Apple has always paid special attention on the way operating systems look. Though this is a question of taste, hence a very subjective topic, we end it by saying that Microsoft should definitely work a bit more on the visual themes.

People have always wanted things that are free. Or things that are somehow included into the full price they are paying. Apple may be aware of this, but Microsoft needs a bit of reminding once in a while. We are talking about all those extra features that you get when you pay for the operating system. Wanting to save on space, improve the stability and speed of the system, the developers from Microsoft have decided to release Windows 7 with just a handful of applications from the previous versions. A lot of the applications we had before are now improved both visually and functionally and are available only through the Live Essentials suit. Though the suit is free, you still need to go through the effort of downloading and installing it. Apple, on the other hand, offers the latest versions of iLife and GrageBand in the newest Snow Leopard. You will also rip the benefits from using iWeb and many other fun-to-have applications. Understandably, it is also possible that many users would prefer better system stability than the numerous multimedia tools they may never use.

When everything is said and done, do we really need to make a decision? Do we really have to pick one of these two systems? Why install one when we can install both? In order to do this you would need separate partitions or, what is better, two separate hard drives. Nowadays, hard drives are cheap, available and do not require high-end machines for their installation.

Apple’s boot manager is easy to work with and it can help you install Windows 7 and Snow Leopard on one machine in the easiest way possible. It also lets you browse the documents and files from the two operating systems. At first glance this may seem unsafe and expensive but it is an excellent way to test and decide which operating system suits you best. We can try and persuade you to use one or the other by writing many reviews, but only you can decide what is best for you; from your own personal experience.

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Tags: apple's, boot manager, dual-boot, features, hard drive, ilife, iweb, live essentials, partitions, pricing, snowleopard, ultimate edition, windows 7, windows 7 price