Most people seeing what’s going on are noting, quite correctly, I think, that Windows 7 is essentially a “bug fix” for Windows Vista. Perhaps even more accurately, Vista was the beta version, and Windows 7 is currently in the pre-release phase.

Some unpleasant comparisons to Mac OS X have been made, but they are pretty weak. A lot of Windows supporters point out that Mac OS X was pretty weak until 10.2, or maybe even 10.3. True, but there is a vital difference: Mac OS X was a completely new OS, based on a completely new kernel; Vista is simply the next version after XP. For Microsoft to take ten years to get a regular upgrade perfected as opposed to Apple ironing out the kinks in a made-from-scratch OS in three or four years is nothing to crow about.

The writer of the article posted above actually compared Windows 7 to Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6), claiming that Snow Leopard is focused more on “stability,” as if it too were a bug fix. That’s a rather gross mischaracterization; 10.6 is a major revamp of under-the-hood technologies, making OS X faster and more efficient. A “bug fix” corrects an error, something that causes trouble, and makes the software difficult to run. Unlike Vista, however, 10.5 Leopard runs just fine, thank you. Snow Leopard is no more a “bug fix” than souping up your car to be a hot rod is “repairing a broken engine.” 10.6 doesn’t focus on stability, it focuses on optimization, speed, and efficiency. It completes the move to 64-bit, takes full advantage of multicore processors (and allows any program to use GPUs for any purpose as well), and drastically reduces the footprint of the OS to increase speed and available disk space. 10.6 also is geared towards making it possible to add many more new features in the future than were previously possible.

But Windows 7 does present a threat to OS X, not because it’s better in any way, but rather because it doesn’t suck nearly as much as Vista does. Reports are that “7” is essentially a stable, working version of Vista–and without a disaster of an OS driving people away from Windows, Apple may find it harder to make people switch.

Of course, we have to remember that it took Microsoft ten years to make the move from the introduction of XP to the release of their next stable OS. Apple does the same thing–usually with more and better features each time–every few years. You can see where that is going. It’ll be interesting to see where Apple’s numbers go after Windows 7 hits mainstream release–will Apple continue its current climb, will it be stopped, or will Windows regain any ground?