When it comes down to the actual design of the box, Microsoft’s Windows Vista is hands down the winner. The unique box however has as main practical purpose the company’s need to differentiate genuine Windows Vista copies from pirated versions, sold as legitimate software. While the packaging is not impossible to counterfeit, Microsoft has come to the conclusion that bootleggers did not even try, and instead sold Vista as pirated. By comparison, the boxes for Ubuntu and Tiger are not spectacular. Not for their shape, but what about style? Vista gets second place in my list. It is obvious that Microsoft’s user experience team has done a great job with the design of the overall style of Windows Vista. It is Aero from one end to the other, and the boxes are clear illustrations.

Windows Vista’s packing’s suffer from impersonality; well, the Tiger box says nothing to me. The designers that have looked endlessly for the best CRT monitor, just to enjoy the largest gamut possible in Photoshop know what I am talking about. Tiger’s box is too simple and primitive for my taste, and in this sense it is just the antonym of Ubuntu’s design. Position 3 to Mac OS X.