I was reading Gizmodo today…okay, no I wasn’t; I was pretending to read it so I could tell Dan I was “researching” post topics. I just open a bunch of sites every day to say that I have.
So I was visiting Gizmodo today when I noticed a conspicuous black ad in the top right corner that identified itself as “The ‘Mojave’ Experiment.” It was a Microsoft ad—a precursor to their new massive “Don’t Get a Mac” campaign that’s aimed at gaining some ground from Apple in the OS mindshare wars.
But this one made me laugh: It started by saying it got a bunch of people together and told them they were going to demo a new Microsoft operating system called “Mojave.” Ready for the hook? It wasn’t “Mojave,” which I don’t think actually exists…it was—prepare for it—Windows Vista.
It links to Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment website, which hosts a bunch of video clip interviews of people subjected to the slimy deception—with most of them pleasantly surprised at how Vista performed vs. their initial assumptions based on secondhand accounts.
Microsoft provides some numbers:
Ina Fried at CNET jabs at that last part:
Now, as I and others have pointed out, there is a huge difference between seeing what amounts to a short demo of an operating system and actually having to install new software, work with existing devices, and do the kinds of everyday computing tasks we all do. In addition, the videos are edited, so one has to believe Microsoft when it says it wasn’t cherry-picking the clips it included.
No kidding.
It’s funny to see Microsoft’s products’ reputations about on par with Pizza Hut’s—well, sorta. The Mojave Experiment would be like Pizza Hut’s pasta campaign if Pizza Hut got a bunch of people together, ate the pasta in front of them, them told them how good it tasted. Then told them it was from Pizza Hut.
Of course, it’s not all that surprising that Microsoft didn’t want them to use Vista—and that alone says more about the operating system than anything anyone says in those videos.
Just two little questions: Why do you care and why do we have to fight? There is really not much in criticizing Vista. For some it may be perfect, for some it may not and there is no reason to fight about that or to claim that one knows better than the other.
Let the companies have their pissing contests, consumers really shouldn't have to care. They should be able to have honest discussions (with each other) about the merits of different operating systems in different scenarios. There is no one correct solution. For me Mac OS X is almost perfect – but for others it may not be.
Let them try that with OSX and Vista in a blind operating system test.
this is so funny (the bloggers post), at least they're (MS) making an effort to move the ball forward. I love Apple's stuff, but they, sooner or later, will suffer the same wrath that MS has, no corporation has remained clean and loved forever.. Apple makes some great products, but so does MS, I use both OS's everyday, Vista and OSX, they both have positive and negative aspects.
I'm pretty much in agreement with funkright on this one.
However, Microsoft have dropped the ball big-time with Vista. It remains to be seen if they will be able to recover what has been lost.
Wil Shipley posted a great commentary on this with the basic postulation that the "Mojave Experiement" is simply marketing disguised as science:
http://wilshipley.com/blog/2008/07/mojave-experiment-bad-science-bad.html
I don't know who Microsoft thinks they are kidding with this sort of thing. If the experiment had been made by a neutral 3rd party, such as a university, then this would have much more credence but as it is it is blatantly an ad and therefore about as trustworthy as their "Get The Facts" campaign against Linux.
That's interesting! It suggests the right move for m$: re-deploy "vista" with another name pretending it is a new OS!
...........
or, even better, re-deploy XP!!!
When people complained about OS X 10.0, Apple made 10.1 available for free. When people complained about Spotlight in Tiger, it made Spotlight better in Leopard. When people bitched that Web apps are not a sufficient API for the iPhone, Apple released a real API. When people complained about Word 6(?) on the Mac, Microsoft made version 5.1 available again. When people complained about Vista, Microsoft got a bunch of people together to watch Mircosoft Engineers demo the OS on new 100% compatible hardware and told the users they were wrong--Vista is awesome.
No one--especially not Apple--likes to admit their product has flaws, but this is bull.
I'm in complete agreement about what Wil Shipley said about the bad science.
Where did they manage to find people who didn't even know what Vista's interface looked like?