Microsoft is really taking the gloves off this time. ZDNet is reporting that it will spend $500 million to make a powerful statement to its hundreds of millions of customers,” Saul Hansell reports for The New York Times. “I imagine the statement would have to go something like this:”
Windows Vista isn’t really as bad as they say. Honest. Please don’t be mad at us. We promise our next operating system will be better. Pinky swear.
Hansell writes, “Those aren’t exactly the words they use, but it is certainly the tone of the ad that Microsoft has started running on its site… It shows a painting of a tall ship with the headline ‘At one point everyone thought the Earth was flat. Get the facts about Windows Vista.'”
Hansell writes, “[What] a dreadful place for Microsoft to be. It is fighting Google on one side and Apple on the other… Even if you are a big fan of Microsoft, consider which you would rather read about first: a something new from Google, Apple or Microsoft?”
“After spending $500 million, Microsoft might be able to convince people that Windows Vista is not awful,” Hansell writes. “But just because you can show the earth is not flat, doesn’t mean you will rule the new world.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Davis Machead” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Windows. It is your father’s OS.
I often wonder why people put up with Windows. It is, by all acounts, a pile of shit.
Life’s too short. Get a Mac.
I think more like an evil step-mothers OS.
Maybe MS should spend their money on fixing the damn thing. But, then, marketing has always been their greatest strength. It’s good to see their efforts failing on every front.
I heard it was $300 million. Now it is $500? Wow………WOW
Microsoft Vista
Quality. We’ll help you see it.
‘Microsoft attempts to polish Vista turd’
I am sooooo glad these operating systems are not available as a scratch ‘n’ sniff.
Good luck. I have a comment on the imagined scenario though. M$ has made it clear that Windows 7 will use most of the same code as Vista, so “swearing” the next version will be better is a stretch. It looks like XP is as “good” as Doze will ever get.
At one point everyone thought the Earth was flat. Get the facts about Windows Vista.
Most people abandoned that myth LONG before Columbus sailed. But like Columbus Microsoft will get half way and declare success. Don’t believe me? Ask the “Indians”.
Just give the five million vista sufferers a hundred dollars each and forget the whole thing. !
My father would never have used Windows!
ericdano writes, “I heard it was $300 million. Now it is $500? Wow………WOW”
Just as the price of Windows went up from XP to Vista, so too does the price of justifying Vista. Were Microsoft a “normal” company without the billions in illicit profits to defend each product line, it would have failed long ago.
I hope my company gets to feed at the Vista advertising trough. Again.
$500 million flushed down the toilet …
… still a toilet product.
I’m more likely to believe the world is flat than Vista doesn’t suck.
After seeming to give up on Vista, Microsoft must have realized that “Windows 7” is a long ways off. Better get some people to willingly buy Vista.
An old Nazi said it best ….
” Tell a lie often enough and people will believe it “.
The truth is MS spent 5 years developing this “revolutionary ” OS
and it’s a turd. TURD.
Why will the next version be any better ? Why would anyone have any confidence in their ability to develop a good OS?
Actually, I have another problem with the whole tone of the article. The article is saying that Vista is not as bad as people say, and that Apple has a lot of problems too, and implies Vista is just as good, but people aren’t seeing the “real” Vista.
It never says Apple is better or even better by comparison; it seems to imply that Apple has fooled people, (if you read the article as a cynic) into believing its products are better.
As their right, this is a very pro-Doze piece, and gives no credit whatsoever to Apple’s technical excellence.
More Gloves!!!! More Gloves!!!! Microsoft is spewing Vista!!! God Man More Gloves!!!!
Runs 98 of the top 100 consumer software programs, including Apple iTunes, Adobe Photoshop, Intuit QuickBooks and more. In total, more than 2,700 applications are now certified to work on Windows Vista—and more join the list each day.
THIS is funny. Notice the first example of a program that runs is an Apple program. At one point, it used to be Apple that had to prove that Microsoft stuff ran.
😀 😀
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Why didn’t they just spend the 500 million to create a great product rather than to convince people to love a crappy one? People can defend it all they want but it’s just bad.
My father’s windows? Hell, I had to clean them every spring. When that was done, I got to play with my trusty Apple IIE!
Yeah, don’t denigrate my Father either.
He became a Mac-Head with Mac Plus when he was over 50 years old and never looked back. PageMaker changed his life.
Windows. It is your father’s OS.
Unfortunately true. Try spending your evening dealing with a corrupt Windows registry preventing the system from booting. Grr.
Comment posted by Jamie: “I often wonder why people put up with Windows. It is, by all accounts, a pile of shit.”
Reply: Many people buy PCs running Windows strictly because of price, even though they may understand that the Mac OS is a superior operating system. Similarly, many people buy a Chevy because they cannot afford a Mercedes, even though they understand the Chevy is not the same quality.
Perhaps Apple will update the Mac Mini, which has a poor value proposition right now. Then people like myself, who cannot afford a more expensive iMac, and who may have a nice LCD monitor, can finally afford to switch over to Mac OS.
Sometimes longer usable life, lower operating costs, more productive hours, etc. are not enough to make the jump when you simply cannot afford the machine to begin with.
Well this 20 year MacHead is about to purchase his first Windows laptop.
Why do you ask?
Because I have had perfect computing for so long I think I need to be abused some.
Kind of like going to Las Vegas, you go there to lose, all the time thinking your going to win, but need to do the experience anyway. Like sticking your hand in the fire to prove it hurts.
After all I would be a bias SOB if I at least didn’t give Vista a try right?
Think of all the money I can make fixing idiot Windows computers…
Lets face it Mac friends, most of the world doesn’t have the ability to compare quality and thus will be stuck with Windows… so I might as well make a buck off these fools.
Naturally I’ll keep my MacBook Pro, to treat myself once in awhile, like a good steak and beer after eating bagged lunch all week.
Mmmmm Outback…
BTW, speaking of “me too.” Did anyone notice the new Verizon ad where the music playing on the new touch screen iPhone wannabe was “Apples In Stereo?” For a few frames, viewers see the word “Apples” in large letters. Shades of “The Hidden Persuaders” by Vance Packard. Slick, but kind of pathetic.