iLife '11 or Windows Live Essentials, Which is Better?

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://lifehacker.com/5673681/' target='_blank'>http://lifehacker.com/5673681/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"High-powered hardware and slick looks are nice, but computers should actually make things. Apple and Microsoft both offer software to organize photos, make movies, and enjoy your computer. We compared iLife and Windows Live Essentials head-to-head from a first-time home user's perspective."</em></p><p><span><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1288179897.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></span></p><p><span>Both Microsoft and Apple want you to go digital, and that is the goal of these two packages. iLife '11 comes with every new Mac (or you can upgrade for $49.00 USD), while Microsoft has chosen to make their Live Essentials a free download, mainly to streamline Windows 7 and make it "leaner and meaner." You can also get pieces of Live Essentials versus iLife '11, which comes as an entire package. You can't make a full comparison of these two offerings, since they only have two areas (photo and video handling) in which they compete, but this is a nice article showing exactly what you get with each software suite and the unique programs each has that you can't get anywhere else. The big thing for Microsoft, according to the author, is making it known to it's users that Live Essentials is out there, and it's free. Anyone that uses a Mac has heard of iLife '11 but Windows users may or may not know about what Microsoft is offering them.</span></p>

[Jason Dunn]

I usually like Lifehacker articles, but I thought this one was pretty weak - it's like the author has only really used iPhoto and iMovie, and basically nothing from the Windows Live suite. :(

[ptyork]

Yeah, this was a very poor article. As was their recent one discussing the relative merits of Office 2011 vs. Google Docs. It's as though vehemently pro-Apple (also known as anti-Microsoft) folks can't compare Apples with anything but oranges (lest their Apple turn out to be the bad one).

His complaints about the interface show only that he isn't familiar with Win 7 or with Microsoft's latest interface metaphors. "Hit or miss" basically means "I don't understand it...it isn't the Apple way...thus it sucks." If he wanted to complain about hit or miss support for the EXIF rotation flag from Canon SLRs, then I'd be more impressed--why Microsoft can't get this working is beyond me. This by itself is enough to keep me in Lightroom/Picasa land.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Ahahaha, Office vs Google Docs? Truly another apples and oranges comparison. When you need to use Office, you need to use Office; nothing can replace it.

[Jason Dunn]

Yeah, this was a very poor article. As was their recent one discussing the relative merits of Office 2011 vs. Google Docs. It's as though vehemently pro-Apple (also known as anti-Microsoft) folks can't compare Apples with anything but oranges (lest their Apple turn out to be the bad one).

Yeah that was a bad one as well - "If you need Office, then buy Office, but if you don't need Office, then don't buy Office". I think Lifehacker works the basis of the writers having to crank out "X" posts per day, and as a result some of them are just weak.