PCWorld.com discusses 5 lessons Apple has learned in the last year:
“Overall, Leopard is a pretty stable operating system at this point, but the interesting thing is that it really wasn’t so when it shipped,” says Michael Silver, VP of research for Gartner.
Apple’s ability to quickly identify the problems and release fixes successfully turned what could have been a major black mark for Apple into a minor blemish. Microsoft has had less success dodging a problematic reputation for its flagship operating system, Windows Vista. It’s not necessarily an apples-to-Apple comparison: Windows Vista is a major rewrite of Microsoft’s operating system, while Apple’s Leopard is a minor revision. Still, Microsoft’s failure to quickly fix the problems left the company with public relations damage, Silver says.
“Certainly it was a rocky road to start with Leopard, but Apple was able to make changes much quicker, and it was able to avoid that reputation that Vista has been stuck with,” Silver says.