TAG | Mac
Great change in Wall Street, ruin of Dubai Myth…–an economic crisis in 2009 had a big impact on all industries and “boost consumption” became the words most talked about in coping with the economic downturn. The IT industry had to lay off employees to cope with the depressed market. Meanwhile, the operating system manufacturers were busy with their products to create new features in a new look to fight in the fatigued market. Thus we saw Windows 7 and Google Chrome OS come into the market with lofty tone and mobile system of 3G age reform and so on. All of these brought numerous aftertastes and questions to us at the end of 2009.
Windows 7 – A Life Saving-Straw of Microsoft
In October 2009, Windows 7 was officially sold all over the world which meant the reclusion of its predecessor Windows Vista which was undoubtedly a failure like the earlier Windows Me system. Microsoft obviously doesn’t want to be entangled with Vista that was doomed to be a hurried passer, so it spared no effort to promote Windows 7 in the hope of retrieving the declining tendency.
Compared with Windows Vista, Windows 7 was made with great improvements in system compatibility, lowering requirement for hardware configuration and so on to redeem the faults of Vista. What’s more, Microsoft has strengthened the marketing promotion so we could even see Win 7 in home appliances chain stores. In fact, after experiencing the failure of Vista, Microsoft found a good way. Windows 7 has drawn on the excellences of XP and other operating systems and deleted some verbose procedures in Vista.
However, facing the ceaseless new challenges from its competitors like Google Chrome OS, will Windows 7 be the life saving-straw of Microsoft in 2010? Now we can learn the satisfactory sale volume of Win 7 and the wide acceptance by users. Obviously, we can be optimistic with the performance of Windows 7 in home use, but whether it will be successful in enterprise use market remains in doubt.
“Butterfly Effect” Performed by Google Chrome OS
Google officially revealed long rumored Chrome OS and released the source code of Chrome OS in November 2009. For a long time, IT news was around Chrome OS, which indicated Google had a new arm to fight with Microsoft. From previous online office apps to current Chrome OS, Google shows its ambition everywhere.
Based on Linux and Being Open Source, Chrome OS has three developing points that are (performance) speed, (operation) simplicity and (system) security with all programs network-based. As a whole, Chrome OS is the concept of “cloud” operating system with just a browser to run. We can see Chrome OS be intended to avoid the traditional desktop PC field of Windows operating system and then win a share in the operating system of netbooks and smart phones in the future.
Will Google Chrome OS which is based on Linux be the next one of Linux to have tepid fate? Facing the yet wispy “cloud” application of desktop system, how much cordial feeling will users have with Chrome OS? Maybe we shouldn’t ask like this. It seems to be a generally acknowledged truth that Google is the one of most excellent network companies with best searching engine. Anything this company does centers around advertisement business. It spent great efforts to develop the same type products or innovated products, all of which was to ensure it wouldn’t be pushed out from any market so as to firm its core search and advertisement business. Therefore, it’s easy for us to find the products of Google such as Chrome OS and Google Docs are intended to convert users to network. Will Google Chrome OS play a good butterfly effect? We wait for the answer in 2010.
High Speed – Highlight of Mac OS X 10.6
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was launched in August 2009, earlier than Windows 7 and Google Chrome OS. Although this system has artistic and gorgeous appearance, it actually doesn’t have numerous new features to attract us to upgrade to it, while it indeed has a feature appreciated by all: high speed.
Without special new features, what Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard brought are many small improvements, including built-in support for Microsoft Exchange, turning to Intel CPU from PowerPC CPU and the greatest highlight: high speed. Someone calls Mac OS X 10.6 as the copy of Windows 7 since both systems spent much in interfaces and details. But the strategy of Mac OS X 10.6 was successful with well known artistic and gorgeous interface. What’s more, the home edition of Mac OS X 10.6 costs only $49 and it has many similar features to Windows 7, which turn a part of the users’ attention to low-cost Snow Leopard from Windows 7.
With equal elegant desktop design and many similar features to Windows 7, it was the best strategy for Mac OS X 10.6 to highlight the speed with its many new improvements drawn from Windows Vista. The running speed of system was improved based on meeting users’ habit, which made Mac OS X 10.6 get more public praise. Besides, for users who are used to Mac OS, Snow Leopard at least let them see Apple striving for better user experience. Of course, price is the important charm of Snow Leopard.
A Habitat for Linux in Netbook
Netbook, a word created by Intel in Spring IDF Exhibition of 2008, was fashionable in the PC market of 2009 after a short market demonstration. The IT industry compared the netbook to “retrogressive innovation”. It was this little world built up by an Aton CPU and a small screen that aroused users’ consideration of balance between “want” and “need” and finally they chose “need”. Thus, it initiated a market battle among operating systems in netbook systems.
Early this year before Windows 7 was officially released, it was shown by an investigation that more than 85% netbooks run Windows XP. While what we may really need is not an all-round operating system like Windows but an operating system that is more suitable for mobile terminal and brings more excellent surfing experience as the gradual upgrade of netbook application and in view of the “second notebook” location of netbook. Therefore the netbook provides a big market space for Linux.
In fact, the industry has pushed out innumerable operating systems for netbooks. From Ubuntu Linux to Intel Moblin, all of the systems can let us daily surf online and do word processing work. The application tendency of Non-Windows systems in netbooks is self-evident with legerity design to finish starting up or shutting down in a few seconds. By virtue of Live CD feature of Linux, we can even run this system through USB flash drive or SD card without installing it. Although Linux system is not popular in ordinary users and Windows 7 is infiltrating into netbooks, the features of ingenuity and open source of Linux was bound to find a habitat in netbooks in 2009.
Bustling Mobile Operating Systems in 3G Age
The development and change of smart phones are very fast. No one would know Apple’s iPhone could become so popular today; no one would think of being so convenient with 3G today. The colorful network application of 3G age needs such carriers as smart phones and netbooks to come true. In 2009, the 3G mobile operating system field was already swarmed with old brand systems such as Microsoft’s WindowsMobile, Apple’s Mac, Nokia’s Symbian, but there were still emerging Google’s Android and China Mobile’s OMS, which made the mobile operating system market out of recognition.
Apple’s iPhone was such a hot seller and so was Blackcherry in 2009. However, the relatively close condition for hardware and software of iPhone and Blackcherry caused their exclusive operating systems appealed to just a small crowd. What we saw mainly was the contest between Linux-based Google Android and Microsoft WindowsMobile, the common feature of which was to contend for markets through vast mobile manufacturers adopting their operating systems. Eventually, in mobile operating system field of 2009, we saw Windows prevail in the contest.
It’s easy to understand this result. The essential of mobile operating system application is to extend various internetwork applications to the smart phone. For example, the key point of Google Android certainly is mobile search, while Windows system is better in implanting the PC terminal applications such as MSN, search, email, and chat in the mobile. Currently, what do we do most with mobile network application? The answers are chat, search and collecting & sending email. Considering the current most frequent applications of mobile network, we can find the advantage of the series of Windows operating systems. By contrast, Google can only popularize its search service through Android and thus the application scope of Android is not broad.
What Will We Use in 2010?
It is an indisputable fact that demand induces development and the development of operating system is also the development of computers in a sense. As a standard suit of package software, the operating system must meet the demand of multiple users as far as possible, so the operating system constantly dilates, its features constantly increase, the application environment constantly extends and grow up a platform environment from developing tools to system tools to application software. This is well embodied in Linux system.
In 2010, on which operating systems will we see development and change? 3G network and cloud concept that are two catalysts will presumably be more apparently embodied in operating system in the future after they experienced healthy development in 2009. It is believed that the well-known operating systems such as Windows, Mac and Linux will roll out more branch versions of which Google Chrome OS is a good example.
Certainly, some curious imaginations might occur to us at the end of 2009. Will Windows 7 completely replace Windows XP in 2010? Will Linux engage more attention with the help of 3G wave? Will Mac OS X become the new land for hacker attack? We look forward to the answers in 2010…
