Mossberg in our mailbag: "I will likely do a more comparative piece" on Vista vs OS X

PAUL BOUTIN — Wall Street Journal uber-reviewer Walt Mossberg replied at length to Valleywag's email inquiry yesterday, in which I asked why he mentions Apple's Mac OS X so many times in his review of Microsoft Windows Vista. He obviously thinks the Mac still whups Vista, yet doesn't tell his loyal readers to consider a Mac instead of the pricey new PC most will need to buy to run Vista's best features. Are they holding a gun to his head there, or what? The Sage of Potomac replied instantly, but his email got stuck in the tubes for most of a day. Walt's full response after the jump. See also: David Pogue calls Vista "a truck"

From: mossberg@wsj.com
Subject: Re: Valleywag press query
Date: January 22, 2007 2:37:18 PM PST
To: Paul Boutin

Hi, Paul.

This was a review of Vista, an operating system piece, not a piece recommending which system to buy. That kind of column involves hardware comparisons that would go well beyond the scope of this particular review. I am certainly not afraid to very clearly make such comparisons. For instance, I am on record saying that the best consumer desktop computer on the market is the iMac. But this was the wrong column for that sort of comparison.

I did feel it was essential to describe Vista in the context of its only real competitor for the consumers for whom I write, if only so devoted Windows users could see how many of its major features really aren't new. Still, I devoted only about 100 words out of more than 1700 to the Apple context.

Another factor was that Vista computers must really be compared with Macs running the equivalent generation of OS X, which, as you know, is Leopard, due out in a few months. But I am not prepared to review Leopard head-to-head with Vista yet. Apple has only revealed some of Leopard's features, and Jobs has specifically said important new elements of it remain secret. I do not review products based on teasers and demos. (That's why I refused to print a full review of the iPhone, and told readers so.)

After Leopard ships, I will likely do a more comparative piece, and, as the hardware evolves in both camps to complement the new operating systems, I assure you I won't hesitate to keep making recommendations about which to buy, an area in which I have generally been more decisive than most other reviewers.


Walt
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Walt Mossberg
Personal Technology Columnist
The Wall Street Journal
mossberg@wsj.com
http://ptech.wsj.com

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