You may have heard by now about Microsoft's Mojave experiment. In a marketing campaign designed to show users that you cannot always believe the negative press you read. Microsoft invited 120 XP users to experience their newest Operating System codenamed Mojave .
After showing off some of the great new features and getting some favorable reactions. They then told them they were actually previewing Windows Vista. Of course, many of the former skeptics were surprised by the fact that the OS they just enjoyed so much was Windows Vista.
There you go point proven; you can't judge a book by its cover.
Putting people on the spot and making them feel small is a great way to turn around the public's perception of Windows Vista… NOT!!!
I have been a Vista user since the early Beta version in 2005. I have defended this OS to the hills and I think it is a great OS. However, this was not the way to show that Vista does not deserve the bad reputation it has received. If anything, I think it only solidifies the criticism Microsoft has received thus far.
We need to get users to embrace Vista and let go of Windows XP. We also want them to make that change before 2010 (when Windows 7 is scheduled to arrive). Trickery and deception are not good marketing practices. They are…well trickery and deception.
Look I know that Vista is being unfairly slammed in all sectors and I stand by Microsoft wanting to stand up and defend it, this was just the wrong way to do that.
A feature on Network Worlds sister site InfoWorld, reported recently about the tide changing for Vista. The number of Vista users is growing.
Partly because of hardware is catching up and partly because after a year plus, as usual Microsoft has worked out some of the bugs in the OS. That is how you change the public's view by fixing the issues not by fixing a marketing campaign.
Hopefully when the dust settles on the Mojave experiment it will turn out I was incensed over nothing. What I really hope is that Microsoft sticks to good marketing and leave the mirages to the desert.
What do you think of The Mojave Experiment, Vista or Microsoft in general, let me know.
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Ron Barrett is president of RARE-TECH, an IT Training and consulting company. He has been a technology professional for over a decade, working for several major financial firms and dotcoms. Barrett is a specialist in network infrastructure, security and IT management.
He is a co-author of The Administrator's Guide to Microsoft Office 2007 Servers, How to Cheat at Administering Office Communications Server 2007, and the Real MCTS/MCITP Exam 620 Preparation Kit and has been a contributor to Windows 2000 Enterprise Storage Solutions and Exam Cram �70-244-Supporting & Maintaining NT Server 4.
He has also contributed to several industry magazines and was featured in the book Tricks of the Windows Vista Masters. He has worked for Microsoft writing research and analysis documents for Windows Server 2008, Windows HPC, and PerformancePoint Server 2007. He has also created screencasts on Windows Server 2008 Administration for Linux Admins.
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Drink the Kool Aid
Kind of hard to avoid Vista when it comes pre-loaded on everything and MS is trying to EOL XP as fast as possible. I will actively avoid Vista due to WGA and DRM issues. Microsoft peaked with Windows 2000, now they need to take a fundamentally different approach. They are on the "we get $100+ from every new PC made" needle, and they don't want to go cold turkey.
There are plenty of players that want to kill MS's cash cow, and at some point I think Linux (or some other FOSS project) will force MS to give away Windows. They essentially forced VMWare to give away their hypervisor by pricing Hyper-V at $28. Turnabout is fair play.
seems "mojave" experiment is not meant for the IT pros
I don't think that MS is intentionally trying to embarass anyone. They selected a number of people that appear to be end-users, not corporate professionals or IT people.
I'm actually still surprised to be able to find any number of PC's available with Windows XP, and I think this is what MS is trying to correct - having the average person going into a retailer and saying "why doesn't this have Vista".
I've been using XP for years, and have recently gotten a PC with Vista on it and love it. There hardly ever seems to be any crashes (except when my wife tried to run a graphics intensive game on a laptop that lists a generic video card instead of one listed on the spec's).
I love both the interface and the new features in Vista, and it seems to crash LESS than XP does.
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