The long-awaited second part of my comparison of Windows Vista beta and Mac OS X "Tiger" continues with an examination of the security, networking, and power management features in each system. In part one of my comparison of Windows Vista Beta 1 and Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger," I looked at three key aspects of each system: Look and feel, desktop search, and data visualization and organization. For the most part, OS X came out well ahead of Windows Vista, as you'd expect, since it's a polished finished product. Vista, meanwhile, is all knees and elbows, an awkward teenager on its way to maturity. Microsoft will iron out the details, I'm sure, but the end result will likely not change much. Specifically, OS X will always be elegant, and Windows will almost certainly lag behind in the fit and finish department. The only questions are how much Vista will improve when compared to previous Windows versions, and whether it will be enough to keep customers from moving to OS X.

In this second part of the comparison, we'll look a little deeper, and examine security, networking, and power management. Whereas the features in the first part of the comparison where largely related to user interface issues, this time we're dealing more with the nitty-gritty of safety, connectivity, and productivity. Let's jump right in.

Paul Thurrott Windows SuperSite