I have upgraded two MacBooks (Lion 10.7.5) and a T60 (XP SP2) to the newest operating systems, MountainLion 10.8.2 and Windows 8, respectively. Here are my experiences during the upgrade process:
Mountain Lion
- Price €17,99 family license
- iTunes makes for an easy purchase and payment process
- 64bit is standard since Lion
- Download size 4,5Gb in about an hour
- Burning a DVD is relatively easy
- Installation is straight forward and fast
- No license key
- Migration is fully automatic and migrates all software, data and settings
- Fully HW compatible from 2008 systems onwards
- Good responsiveness even with late 2008 MacBooks
- Good battery life as of 10.8.2
Windows 8
- Price €29,99 single computer
- Purchasing and payment in Germany is through Arvato, CC data go to a third party
- 32bit or 64bit depending on previous OS word size (no choice)
- Download size 2Gb in about 4 hours + some time for Installation Assistant
- Burning a DVD is experimental
- Installation is good for a Windows OS, but takes longer than MacOS
- License key necessary, with a usual retyping procedure due to a necessary restart
- Migration is rudimentary, taking only user data from XP
- Good compatibility even with a Thinkpad T60 2007 (no visible conflicts), however specific drivers need to be installed separately
- Performance is good, especially compared to Vista
- Battery life unchanged to XP
While the overall process is an easy win for Apple in every aspect, it is remarkable how Microsoft improved Windows in this aspect.
