Snow Leopord: Boring Box

Snow Leopard is cool; at least that's what they say. However, package isn't really that cool. I mean unless you consider a picture of a cat cool. I haven't really gotten a chance to use the OS yet so I will reserve my criticism of the actual software till I get a chance to use it and get it installed on my laptop. Of course the price for it couldn't be much less, which in these trying economic times will definitely help get everyone moved over to the operating system. I'm not exactly sure what Apple stands to benefit from practically giving away the Operating System, though I guess if you look at it from the perspective that there really aren't that many more features in this upgrade then that could be the reason. Of course Apple does seem to be moving further and further away from the software dollar model as their hardware products are almost always the focus. But how will this look from a Microsoft perspective when Windows Vista averages around $250.00 for a single user license? Of course when Google comes out with their Chrome OS next year, that will definitely put a new spin on the market too. Google doesn't seem to charge for any software product, instead creating their products in a way that they can gather much information about the individual and then "organize" that information as is their mission. But I digress; my main reason for writing this was the boring (if not ugly) box that Apple has chosen to ship their software in. Maybe this doesn't bother most people, but as a creative type, I would expect that Apple could do better. But again, when does Apple ever live up to expectations?

Hail Windows 7

Windows 7 has been Released to Manufacturing (RTM'd) today. According to the Windows Blog here's what that means:

As I mentioned previously, RTM officially happens only after sign-off occurs. What happens is a build gets designated as a RTM contender after going through significant testing and meeting our quality bar for RTM. Then, it goes though all the validation checks required for RTM including having all languages of that build completed. If all the validation checks have passed – sign-off for RTM can occur. Today after all the validation checks were met, we signed off and declared build 7600 as RTM.

It looks like we'll be seeing Windows 7 appear on stage shortly. How will Windows 7 benefit you and your work flow? I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to use it since I'm on OS X and have no intention of switching to Wondows, but I would certainly like to see what it's all about sometime. For those of you that will be using it, I'd be happy to hear what benefits you think you'll get from using it and how it'll make your work-flow or fun-flow (for those gamers out there) more productive.