Windows Vista: The OS About Nothing

R

RadioPatrol

Guest
:coffee:

From my InFo Weel Newsletter .........

Windows Vista: The OS About Nothing

Microsoft's new Windows ad, featuring Jerry Seinfeld, is outdated and not very funny--but it's highly revealing of all that's wrong out there in Redmond.

The background: Windows is losing market share to Apple's Mac OS and even Linux. And Vista, the latest version, has been a big fat dud. Businesses have shunned it outright, and many consumers find it unintuitive and difficult to use.

So, Microsoft hired "award winning" agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky--at a reported cost of $300 million--to give Vista, and the Windows franchise in general, an image makeover. The Seinfeld ad debuted Thursday and it's the first piece of an integrated marketing campaign covering TV, the Web and point-of-sale outlets.

It's not going to work.

The ad shows Seinfeld helping Microsoft chairman Bill Gates buy shoes at a discount store. Gates opts for a pair called The Conquistador. "They run very tight," Seinfeld warns. It does not get any funnier than that.

But it's a remarkable, 90-second second encapsulation of why Microsoft is going to have a tough time thriving in the Web 2.0 world, where consumers--not agencies and marketers--decide what's in.

For starters, what does the decision to use a 54-year-old, white, multimillionaire comedian, whose show went off the air ten years ago, as the centerpiece of a campaign that's supposed to give Windows a hip new image and help Microsoft reconnect with younger buyers, tell us about the company?

Mostly that it's dominated by middle aged white guys who made their own millions more than a decade ago and who are woefully out of touch with America's changing demographics and any generation that doesn't go by the initials BB.

These guys probably still think the Fonz is cool.

The ad is also a good metaphor for Windows Vista itself. Despite the hype surrounding its launch (Dan Lyons, aka "Fake Steve", thinks Microsoft deliberately leaked Seinfeld's involvement to generate some buzz), the first spot is being greeted with a resounding, "Huh?"

It doesn't even mention Windows. Sure, it's not always necessary to drill a product's name directly into consumers' skulls by mentioning it 60 times in 60 seconds, but even Microsoft appears to be conceding that the connection is too obscure. It's already put out a press release explaining it.

Read the rest of my analysis of Microsoft's $300 million big honking brand campaign here.

Paul McDougall
paulmcd@techweb.com
InformationWeek | Business Technology News, Reviews and Blogs
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:killingme
 
Vince

Vince

......
So, Microsoft hired "award winning" agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky--at a reported cost of $300 million--to give Vista, and the Windows franchise in general, an image makeover. The
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Going to take more than high priced commercials and actors to make me want to buy Vista. :lmao: Why doesn't Microsoft, with it's billions, fix the effing problem with Vista and make Vista over.
 
R

RadioPatrol

Guest
Vince said:
Going to take more than high priced commercials and actors to make me want to buy Vista. :lmao: Why doesn't Microsoft, with it's billions, fix the effing problem with Vista and make Vista over.
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you have to admit you have a problem 1st ..... Balmer and crew have been entrenched so long ....

IMHO

they need to dump and do a compete re write .... providing an emulation for old applications .... like Apple did when they switched to OS X .... you could get "classic" which was an emulator ....
 
M

Mousebaby

Guest
God I wish I could switch back to XP, but I am too chicken that my touchscreen won't work and I will have a shiat load of driver problems. On top of that, I have NEVER owned an HP before so this thing is freaking alien to me.

:bawl: I want my XP back :bawl:
 
ylexot

ylexot

Super Genius
A few years ago, I went to the Sugar Bowl with some friends and met one of their friends...who worked for MS on Longhorn (Vista). I told her that they need to ditch all the fancy stuff and just make it work right. She didn't like that too much, but I guess I was right.
 
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Gwydion

New Member
OS 7 is due out in a a few years....they aren't going to do much more with vista. And honestly, After finally being forced to get vista for DX 10 support, it really aint all that bad. Just turn off all the stupid wastes of memory and get rid of Aero and your set.

Still <3 RH though
 
W

Warron

Member
Vista isn't bad if you have a good computer with lots of Ram. But that is the problem. It offers absolutely nothing over xp but alot of fluff and requires anyone with an old or cheap computer to upgrade or buy a new one to run it.

I always thought that windows xp was a huge resource hog, but at least it offered a couple nice things like easier network setup. Vista seems to have ruined that. It took me a half hour to connect my laptop to my parents wireless modem. I found the network easily, but it kept asking me for a user id and password instead of the wep key that was required. After searching for awhile I finally found a manual configuration panel, but getting to it was anything but obvious. It's weird though, because on my home network, the wep key entry field comes right up when I click connect.

As for that commercial, I found it to be stupid and didn't see how it was promoting vista or anyting else. Unless they were tying to sell shoes?
 
LordStanley

LordStanley

I know nothing
Warron said:
Vista isn't bad if you have a good computer with lots of Ram. But that is the problem. It offers absolutely nothing over xp but alot of fluff and requires anyone with an old or cheap computer to upgrade or buy a new one to run it.

I always thought that windows xp was a huge resource hog, but at least it offered a couple nice things like easier network setup. Vista seems to have ruined that. It took me a half hour to connect my laptop to my parents wireless modem. I found the network easily, but it kept asking me for a user id and password instead of the wep key that was required. After searching for awhile I finally found a manual configuration panel, but getting to it was anything but obvious. It's weird though, because on my home network, the wep key entry field comes right up when I click connect.

As for that commercial, I found it to be stupid and didn't see how it was promoting vista or anyting else. Unless they were tying to sell shoes?
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That’s the point. Today’s market is driven by the manufacture, not the consumer. It’s not what we want, but what these companies can forcefully push down our throats.
 
Vince

Vince

......
Gwydion said:
OS 7 is due out in a a few years....they aren't going to do much more with vista. And honestly, After finally being forced to get vista for DX 10 support, it really aint all that bad. Just turn off all the stupid wastes of memory and get rid of Aero and your set.

Still <3 RH though
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What are the wastes of memory in Vista? How much RAM is needed to effectively run it?
 
G

Gwydion

New Member
Vince said:
What are the wastes of memory in Vista? How much RAM is needed to effectively run it?
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Aero, Sidebar, visual effects, that idiotic nanny filter, along with all the other processes that plague all the other systems.

Define "Effectively run". I triple boot my main computer with Vista/XP/Linux. As that is my "main" computer I have 8gb (4x2), and as would be expected, it runs flawlessly.

On my secondary desktop (that I use to test software prior to installing/patching it to my main desktop) I have 4gb. It runs perfectly fine.

My laptop which dual boots vista/xp has 2gb and it is slow. Granted, the whole computer is slow, but even if it had the stats of my desktops it would still be noticeable. In my opinion, for a desktop, max out your RAM. 8gb costs ~ $150 now.

For -most- users, 2-4gbs will suffice. If your not trying to mess with multiple games, programs, etc. running.

Either way, I highly recommend getting over the "Ooo pretty background" complex that vista tries to force onto you. Aero is completely useless (although the hover over pop-up tabs and atl-tabbing was nice) and putting anything except "Adjust for best performance" as your UI options is just silly.

Admittedly I keep the sidebar operational on my secondary machine, as I keep in close contact with people internationally and enjoy the multiple clocks that I can use to see what time it is in Scotland, Italy, New Zealand and Japan.

warren said:
It offers absolutely nothing over xp
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It offers DX 10...the only legal OS that has it. And if you're into graphics (or bought a video card in the past year) then its almost a necessity to have vista.
 
Xaquin44

Xaquin44

New Member
I think the problem MS is having with Vista, is that there is just no reason to upgrade. All it does is cost money and all it gives you is .... a smaller bank account.

just what everyone wants!
 
sparkyaclown

sparkyaclown

Active Member
Gwydion said:
For -most- users, 2-4gbs will suffice. If your not trying to mess with multiple games, programs, etc. running
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Just as an FYI if you only are running the standard 32 bit version of Vista it can't utilize anything beyond 4GB but even then it will never use the whole 4GB and may use alot less depending on your system.

A quote from an article on the 32 bit version of Vista:

"If your video adapter has 512MB of RAM, your maximum memory is going to at most be 3.5GB, because Vista has to use 512MB of the 4GB maximum address space it can utilize to address your video memory. It’ll actually be lower than the 3.5GB because there are other hardware resources that need address space, too."

In other words anything over 4GB is a waste unless you run the 64 bit version of Vista.
 
G

Gwydion

New Member
sparkyaclown said:
Just as an FYI if you only are running the standard 32 bit version of Vista it can't utilize anything beyond 4GB but even then it will never use the whole 4GB and may use alot less depending on your system.

A quote from an article on the 32 bit version of Vista:

"If your video adapter has 512MB of RAM, your maximum memory is going to at most be 3.5GB, because Vista has to use 512MB of the 4GB maximum address space it can utilize to address your video memory. It’ll actually be lower than the 3.5GB because there are other hardware resources that need address space, too."

In other words anything over 4GB is a waste unless you run the 64 bit version of Vista.
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Yup yup. 64 bit here. :)
 
clevalley

clevalley

...
I have upgraded my laptop to VISTA and right now it is running faster than XP... it is a Dell XPS1710 with 4GB, but even at 2GB it is just as quick. I did the upgrade to get my head into VISTA more as that will be the next O/S wave coming through here. I did keep my XP disk just incase I could not operate something with VISTA, but so far, so good.

I have noticed before SP1 this thing was a dog with VISTA, now with SP1 it is really quick.

8GB might be a stretch unless you are doing graphic manipulation. For the average user, 2GB would be fine to check e-mail, browse the web and write some letters... 4GB would be optimal in a new computer.

Memory is cheap right now, so why not put more in if you can.
 
Kyle

Kyle

Beloved Misanthrope
PREMO Member
Get a MAC!

Might only work with 2.3% of the software on the market but for an extra two grand you can get a little Apple emblem that lights up!

:jet:
 
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