Does Snow Leopard have what it takes?

We’ve all heard the hype about Microsoft’s new flagship operating system, Windows 7 which has been touted and enterprise-tested as Microsoft’s most advanced and stable operating system to date.

But you may not know that Apple has also released what it is calling its most-advanced OS to date -- Snow Leopard.

So how do these systems compare? And are they playing on the same field?

Apple released the Snow Leopard version of OS X last month to high praise from the Macintosh community. Apple OS has been a fan favorite for niche-type crowds, but has yet to become an enterprise favorite – for what turns out to be good reason.

Snow Leopard offers a dazzling array of technical features, like 64bit architecture, Grand Central Dispatch, and Open CL, each of which seems to be paving the way for faster computing in the future. It also includes improved backups, automatic updates, native Exchange support and a new browser.

But while all of these new features meet Apple’s usual cool quotient, do they help a business user? With the exception of native Exchange support, and the potential for faster computing down the line, I really couldn’t find any added value for the enterprise.

Snow Leopard and the other OSX operating systems continue to have integration issues with other enterprise products. While it’s technically possible to interconnect, the difficulties still seem to outweigh potential benefits.

Windows 7, on the other hand, is ready for the enterprise.

The new release sports features such as BitLocker, Anywhere Access, and Federated Search, all of which were developed for enterprise needs.

Microsoft has also taken pains to make deployment cheaper and easier, with both free and for-fee applications to streamline desktop and application deployment, something Apple does not offer. Interoperability is also key with
Windows 7 -- it’s built to interact with enterprise servers and applications.

So is Apple’s new Snow Leopard ready to muscle its way into the enterprise market? In my opinion, no -- Microsoft clearly has the win for the enterprise.

Apple has a wonderful product for the educational, niche or home-user. But enterprise should stick with Win 7 for the near future.