OS wars hot up

We’ve had Browser wars from Apple and Microsoft now we have OS (Operating System) wars.

In an increasing attempt to capture the youth market Apple released its much covered OS Snow Leopard at the end of August. The most appealing thing about this OS has to be its price. For just $29 you can upgrade you existing Leopard X system to the latest version; a price that makes it highly competitive when budgeting.

So where do Microsoft come in to this. Surprisingly or not the latest offering from Microsoft Windows 7 will be offered to students at the announced price of $29. This is approximately one third of the cost everyone else will pay.

It seems that academically the OS from Apple is favored in higher education, maybe the old argument of MAC’s are better than PC strengthens this. However away from Universities is seems Windows rules the roost with nearly all the clients I deal with use XP; only a few specialist organisations insisting on using MAC’s.

Could this OS war benefit the consumer, at first glance this seems only to pamper to the pockets of the student but could this be the beginning of the end for paying for our OS systems?