Upgrade Battle: Vista versus Leopard
November 5th, 2007
Let’s get ready to rumble in this upgrade battle. XP to Vista versus Tiger to Leopard.
The weekend that Leopard was released I decided to upgrade both my systems at once. I upgraded my MBP from Tiger to Leopard at the same time that I upgraded my windows desktop from XP to Vista.
Purpose–
My wife wants to upgrade to Leopard. My father wants to upgrade to Vista. The purpose of this experiment was to see if I should recommend these upgrades to my family and the tech-recipes audience.
Background–
In the OS X corner, I have my Apple laptop that is used for most of my day to day work–browsing, photo editing, blogging, programming, and such. It already has Vista installed on it in Parallels. It was running tight without obvious problems prior to the upgrade. In the XP corner, I have my trusty desktop system that is used mainly for audio/video editing, gaming, and Office. It too was running well prior to the upgrade. The XP box did contain an elderly ds2416 audio mixing card that can be flakey. I removed it completely prior to the upgrade because I have not researched drivers for it yet.
Both systems received adequate back-up before the upgrade. Despite my personal preference for wipes and fresh installs, I purposefully decided to do straight upgrades on both systems for this battle.
I enjoy using both windows and OS X systems and frequently write tutorials regarding both. (I got no agenda/prejudice.)
Leopard Install–
I started the installation disk, answered a few questions, and let it fly. Like in Tiger, .Mac is thrown in your face. I did not time the process but it seemed to be about an hour. The system requested an update of the OS over the internet soon after the install completed. The update process took just a few minutes. No error messages or difficulties during the install.
The transparent menu bar, 3-D dock, and the new folder styles are immediately noticeable. However, clicking around yields no real surprises. For the most part, the basic functionality is consistent from Tiger.
Vista Install–
I started the installation disk and was asked to pick the flavor of Vista that I had purchased. I used the traditional x86 version (as everybody probably should be doing.) The deferral of the serial number and activation process was a nice change from XP’s installation. The install process updates itself over the internet prior to the actual act of installation which is really smart. Unfortunately it did not prevent a IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Stop BSOD error. I tried to do a repair install as suggested by the installation wizard without success. Eventually, google helped me find the issue, and the installation proceeded successfully after I pulled out a couple of sticks of memory to get below the 3 gig limit.
After installation, the new windows eye-candy interface Aero was not enabled for some reason. Aero was manually enabled without difficulty. Trying to go to the control panel caused explorer to die probably from an incompatible .cpl file. I updated Vista through Windows update. The downloading and installing of those updates actually look longer than the entire Leopard install did. Some of the updates did not install correctly. My Microsoft bluetooth mouse and keyboard would not work.
Most programs worked as expected; however, explorer and other windows processes would die unexpectedly. Here is my favorite error message out of several: Microsoft Windows Operating System has stopped working. Nice.
Many core aspects of navigation within Vista has changed from XP. Aero is certainly a beautiful and striking change from XP. The Start Menu changes are powerful but will be confusing to the average upgrading user. Navigation through Explorer with breadcrumbs is more radical than Leopard’s Breadcrumb navigation option.
Post-Installation Problems–
My Leopard install does not browse my network. I cannot see shares. iTunes does not see my AppleTV. My wife’s Tiger box browses it without difficulty, and I can directly connect without problems. Firefox, Cyberduck, and Adium are less stable or have annoying superficial changes after the upgrade. The fact that the Documents and Download folder icons are indistinguishable is annoying to me; however, that’s a OS X style issue more than a problem.
I feel no speed difference between Tiger and Leopard. I am currently using the Leopard upgraded box as my main laptop and see no reason to do a clean or archive type of upgrade at this time.
My Vista box continued to be very unstable with random crashes. I made a rough estimation that it would take me longer to debug the crashes than to restore my data from a clean installation. My clean installation of Vista worked much better. Even after the clean installation, the new Aero interface caused a slight, but detectable, drag on my system. A moderate upgrade of the video card helped make the system more brisk but not quite to XP levels. Copying and moving files is obviously slower. Running some programs required ‘Run as Administrator’ type of work-arounds.
Conclusion–
My Leopard installation went smoothly. Having never done an OS X upgrade before, I was expecting absolute perfection. Q always tells me that “OS X just works.” Things were not perfect, but the issues were minor.
My Vista upgrade was a disaster. Even if you ignore the show-stopping BSOD during installation, the upgraded product was ultimately unusable. The complete fresh install of Vista is not perfect either, but most of the eye candy and advancements are impressive. The Vista to XP jump is a much more ambitious step for Microsoft than the safer Tiger to Leopard jump for Apple.
My goal for this project was not to recommend one OS over the other. I use them both regularly, and the zealot fanboy arguments between the camps are silly. I wanted to contrast the upgrade experience between Leopard and Vista. This little experiment certainly answers many questions for me.
Once a patch is released to fix Leopard’s network issues, I will recommend that my wife upgrades her MBP. I will plead that my father not upgrade to Vista. The installation issues and the change in the user interface would challenge his (and thus my) sanity. As a lifelong windows user, I was appalled at the disaster that was the Vista upgrade process. For people purchasing top class windows hardware, I would be willing to recommend a Vista clean install. I do not believe that a clean install on older hardware is probably worth it.
My Personal Leopard Grades:
- Installation Process: A. Perfect.
- New Features: B. Time Machine, Stacks. (Techrx Tutorials)
- New Bugs: C. Network browsing.
- Consistent/Familiar User Interface: B.
- Eye-Candy Improvements: C. Changes can not be easily enabled/disabled.
My Personal Vista Grades:
- Installation Process: F. BSOD. Unusable upgraded product.
- New Features: B. Sidebar. DirectX10. Better security. (Techrx Tutorials)
- New Bugs: C. Slower copying.
- Consistent/Familiar User Interface: C.
- Eye-Candy Improvements: B. Up to OS X quality but customizable. Slows system.
November 6th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
nice upgrade battle log!
yea, Vista is ONE UGLY install, especially when upgraded from XP.
i always recommend doing a clean install of Vista and of course backing up all data prior to the install.
OSX installs for me have been pretty easy and smooth, even the OSX86 installs on my PC. so props to Apple for that for sure but then again, when you only have a very limited number of components to account for in an OS upgrade it makes any upgrade much easier.
good stuff indeed!
November 6th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
I bet you haven’t noticed the new email feature of Leopard yet - receive a time and date in an email message - move your cursor ove them and a drop down box will appear near the text with the offer to add it to the iCal. Sweet!
November 7th, 2007 at 12:26 am
indeed vista has not lived up to its hype, i am runnin it on a hp nx9420 and i wish i could go back to xp. everything stalls at any given time.. if you run more that one program the response time for opening new programs is of flintstones age..and av got good specs.
my outlook 2007 crashes more times than i blink in a day..it looks like the GUI team was never in tandem with the guys who did the API and kernel..the new look and feel is a fresh breath from traditional windows look but this OS just doesnt deliver speed and resilience as i would have expected.
ofcourse i cant impress it more than others have already done on my frustrations in not getting drivers for most peripherals..
thanks for the analysis..nice.
November 7th, 2007 at 5:20 am
Very nice and helpful battle..indeed
I once had my OS upgraded to Vista and went back to XP. I liked the new Interface from Vista but the OS is so unstable. Not only that most drivers didn’t have any upgrades available the best thing it crashes on me several times till nothing worked at all anymore. I decided to go back to XP and got me some free 3rd party programs that makes my XP Interface look like Vista. I’ll stick with my XP because I haven’t any problem with it!!
November 7th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Thanks, Davak, for an interesting article. One week after Vista was released I moved from XP to Vista. Not a smart move. Vista has finally settled down and is OK. Both the wife and I have PCs and Macs. The Macs have Tiger OS, and I’m going to wait awhile before upgrading to Leopard—but I eventually will. I’m reading the forums—and articles such as yours— on the various problems some are having with the Leopard upgrade. In a couple of months I’ll make the upgrade. But first, I’ve got to purchase a couple of hard drives to support Time Machine. Thanks again for your article….Slim Jim
November 7th, 2007 at 10:44 am
For Vista, turn off User Account Control. I couldn’t even get Office 2007 to run properly while it was on. Turn it off and it’s a different OS — more like XP with an updated GUI.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
@Jeni
Cool. I haven’t seen that yet. Sounds like a future recipe to me.
@jayc
You should should save your data, wipe your hard drive, and try a fresh vista install. It was certainly much more stable on my system that way.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
@Jurgen
A lot of people agree with you. That is why our transform XP to Vista tutorial is so popular:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1089/make_xp_look_like_vista_longhorn_free
November 7th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
@Jim
Today I was at a web designers conference (mac-heavy population) and many people were chatting about various Leopard bugs. I figure I am few weeks from upgrading my wife’s box. Just an update or two away…
@DaveJ
Many people do decided to do that. Those directions are here:
http://poly.tech-recipes.com/rx/1358/vista_uap_disable_enable_user_access_protection
Turning off UAC disables a large part of the security that was added in Vista however.
November 7th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
I did fresh install of vista Ultimate x64 and have hade no problems. Just don,t use any typr of registry cleaners in vista and you will be ok
November 8th, 2007 at 11:35 am
is there any shared link for free downloading Leopard. I’m so interested in to set up an OS X on my PC and I haven’t found anything except Rapidshare links and official Mac website.
November 8th, 2007 at 11:58 am
I had a reverse experiance, my Leopard instalation bricked my box while my Vista install took 1 hour with no problems.
Depends on the user I guess.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
in before double post (sorry)
Vista’s sidebar and Quickfetch are good only for slowing down a machine. I disabled them and it runs smother than any other OS I have used before. Also, I did some deeeeeeeeep editing of my Vista and have a preset list of programs that are allowed to bypass UAC and compaiblitiy issues.
I also have an issue with Mac assuming I am like every other Mac user who has no idea how a computer works and bought it for ease of use. I have yet to make any usefull changes to help it boot or run faster.
November 9th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Somehow either seems easier than upgrading (migrating) from Win’98 to OS X Tiger……still moving in.
November 16th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
As a long time windows user (all the way back to windows 3.1 and MS DOS 4) I too was sorely disappointed by Vista. My old laptop died in may so I went out and bought a new Vista equipped laptop. I keep it patched with all the latest driver updates from the manufacturer and Microsoft. Even still it is pretty slow and unreliable. I finally got fed up and went out and bought a MacBook Pro with Tiger. I upgraded to Leopard without a hitch - except for the networking issue with my other windows machines. That problem has been fixed in the latest update (10.5.1)
If you want to see a really seamless upgrade, look at the upgrade from Ubuntu 7.06 to 7.10.
November 23rd, 2007 at 2:44 pm
My Experience: Using Vista on a new PC is fun. At least most oft the time. Using it on older hardware will cause many problems. Also using badly written software (everytime you have to run it as an administrator) causes errors.
The new user interface of vista: if you demand on new features and easier usage, you should take some time to make yourself familiar with how to use the software.
Take a look at Office ‘07. It is much more fun to work with, but if you really know how to use the older versions of office, you’ll have problems getting your work done the first few days although it is easier to use.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:16 am
my vista ultimate is so unstable it is effectively unusuable ; back to xp.
November 30th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Wait, this is actually a topic? Seriously?
Vista is going to bring Microsoft down. Leopard will prevail, as Apple always does.
Vista is a load of crap if you ask me, I will never upgrade to it.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
[…] less ambitious than Vista has played well for Leopard. However, the new OS X is still causing growing pains for a lot of […]
February 7th, 2008 at 7:15 am
i would like to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
I have one question.the question is:- who i can change from vista in to old window xp ? because the “amharic”{this is only ethiopian words} font not working.and i will try to change myself bt it was difficult.please help me how to back my old xp.
thank you very much!
sincerely yours,
Ashenafi{Ethiopa}
February 7th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Vista is just a poor copy of tiger. What has Microsoft been doing for the last several years? Playing with Macs I think.
February 7th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
The only real reason to buy a Windows PC is if you are a gamer. Even then your better off buying a different Microsoft product .. X BOX.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:08 am
I don’t understand what all the upset with Vista is about. I’m not that computer savvy but I did switch both of my computers from XP to Vista. I had to do some upgrades before switching. That was almost a year ago. And everything is running great. And yes, do a clean download. And no, do not use an old computer. Test your computer first to see if it is Vista ready. You can do this on the Windows site. If it isn’t ready, make the necessary adjustments. I find Vista to be very refreshing.