It has been in the news for some time now that new operating systems are to be launched by Apple and Microsoft, with both companies claiming that their operating system is the best.

Apples Snow Leopard is due for release in September and they hope to appeal to the growing number of Apple converts; over 10 million Apple Macs were sold last year – the highest ever figure to date.

Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 7 looks still to be a major contender if the pre-ordering figures are anything to go by. Although it is not available in the shops until October 22, so many people tried to pre order this the official website  crashed, in the UK alone pre-order copies sold out in under 9 hours! However, is this a reflection of demand due to desirability or more to do with how massively unpopular Vista proved to be?

There is no doubt that both of the operating systems in contention have some nice and  impressive features. Windows 7 is all about faster performance, secure web browsing and interestingly doesn’t require as much processing power as its predecessor, plus there is support for touch screen interfaces.

Snow Leopard, which is a follow up to Leopard, has further tweaked many of the features found in Leopard and also boasts much faster performance, the desktop is very streamlined with the ability to share files even in sleep mode and can boot up and shut down in less than half the time as a Apple Mac using Leopard.

The real tester of course will be when both products are available in the open market, but it should certainly be interesting to see which operating systems grabs the crown! Will you be upgrading your operating system? Which one would YOU choose?