Okay, it's up to me, I'll do it....
Posted on 08/13/2008 12:35:25 AM PDT by Schnucki
WERE advertisements rather than sales the yardstick, Apple would have dominated the computer industry for decades. First there was the legendary spot “1984”, in that same year, which is often considered the best ad in history. Directed by Ridley Scott, then basking in “Blade Runner” fame, and produced by Chiat/Day, Apple’s advertising agency to this day, it depicted Apple as the individualist and cool brand, in contrast to oppressive conformity, then understood to mean IBM.
Ever since then, the same man, Lee Clow, at what is now TBWA\Chiat\Day, part of Omnicom, a giant marketing group, has been socking it to Apple’s bigger rival, Microsoft. His deadliest work yet is the current “Get a Mac” campaign—better known by its opening lines: “Hello, I’m a Mac—and I’m a PC.” In the American version of the ad, a suave Mac, played by Justin Long, an actor, contrasts with a lovable but decidedly uncool PC, played by John Hodgman, a comedian who has been catapulted to celebrity as a result. The upshot, as ever: Apple’s Mac types are elegantly effective; Microsoft’s PC folks are bumbling plodders.
All this puts Microsoft in the awkward position of having its brand image defined by a rival—despite its own vast advertising budget, which towers above Apple’s. But Microsoft has also made Apple’s task a lot easier. It has made software that, by comparison with Apple’s, is buggy and clunky. Most notoriously, Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows Vista, was first delayed for years, then launched to dreadful reviews and is now selling more slowly than expected, even after big price cuts.
So Microsoft is fighting back. A preliminary salvo, fired last month, was the so-called “Mojave Experiment”—a focus group in San Francisco of 140 volunteers who had not actually tried Vista but professed that they had heard awful things about it. They were then treated to ten-minute demos by a trained expert of a “new” operating system, allegedly called Mojave. They liked what they saw, and when told that this product was in fact Vista, they gasped in shock and delight. The climactic moments, naturally, are available for viewing at www.mojaveexperiment.com.
You could be forgiven for wondering whether Apple had commissioned the advertisement. It was Microsoft at its worst. The “experiment” addressed none of the problems with Vista—the trouble starts when ordinary consumers, not experts, try to use it with their existing hardware—and it felt as authentic as “reality” television.
But Microsoft is also preparing a much bigger attack. Earlier this year the firm caused a stir when it passed over its previous advertising agencies and chose Crispin Porter + Bogusky, arguably the hottest agency today, to put together a campaign rumoured to be costing $300m. Crispin’s brief is to come up with an answer to Apple’s campaign that does not feel reactive, and somehow makes Microsoft look cool.
By reputation, Crispin, based in Miami and Boulder, Colorado, might be the one agency that could pull off such a miracle. Its creative star is Alex Bogusky, though he has now risen to management level. In recent years, Crispin has revived, among other brands, Burger King, while coming up with admired campaigns for the Mini and Volkswagen. That said, there have also been flops, such as the baffling “Algorithm” campaign for Ask.com, which seemed to promote its larger rival Google.
Making Microsoft sexy is certain to be Crispin’s biggest challenge yet, as its creative types are surely aware—since they, in line with the rest of their industry, overwhelmingly own and use Macs. But it may be possible. Apple’s campaign has left itself vulnerable in at least one unforeseen way. Although everyone watching its spots agrees that Macs are cooler, most people also adore Mr Hodgman’s PC. By contrast, Mr Long’s Mac comes across as mildly but increasingly smug and irritating.
There's a great video on Youtube about "Microsoft - The company that taught you to shut down a computer with the start button". Worth the three minutes.
Some people use Parallels for PC programs on a Mac.I use VMware Fusion to run an XP system under OS X.
It is seamless and very robust.
You can suspend the VM at any time.
VM will also let you checkpoint the XP system.
Or you can reboot the XP in the VM while continuing with OS X.
You can cut and paste across VMs.
Or share files, the network and printers.
If your machines are on a network,
you can with a utility
move the entire Windows machine into the VM.You can if you want, move all 8 PCs into eight VMs on one Mac under OS X
Hmm. Unfortunate. It does sound like it is the computer dropping the connection or incompatibility between Vista and the router/modem. Googling around a bit I see references to Vista and issues with IPV6 (probably on by default in Vista) and possible issues with older router/modems. Did you try calling Roadrunner and asking for help? Can they provide you with a later model router/modem with which Vista might play better?
It’s the tight integration between (limited variations of) hardware and software that makes Apple computers work better. Microsoft is hamstrung trying to make its stuff work on computers from Korea to Calcutta.
http://apcmag.com/xp_still_killing_vista_in_sales_volume_hp.htm
“Microsoft counts a sale for Windows Vista even though the computer manufacturer actually sold Windows XP. It’s kind of ironic when you realize how desperate Microsoft has become to gain public acceptance for the dying operating system[Vista}!!!.Dell and other computer manufacturers arereportedly also shipping computers ‘downgraded’ toWindows XP.”
While I generally despise MS software, it sounds like at least these problems you listed are hardware issues.
Thanks for the help. I turned off the tapping, it was far too sensitive and I did prefer using the left click button.
I looked for this earlier, already had the classic view setup but couldn’t find a touchpad option.
I've got Compiz installed, which takes advantage of the the graphics card to add some nice eye candy, and am now upgrading the desktop to KDS 4.1 - which adds yet more.
So, in the next few days I'll have a good side-by-side comparison.
But, even without all the glitz I've got to say that I'm sold on Linux. For me the big thing is that when I click the little icon in the system tray that says software udpates are available, it updates *all* the software on the system for which updates exist. (And it's all free!)
What is the relationship between Linux, Windows, and .net? Are there going to be any Microsoft-engineered difficulties running .net applications on Linux?
I'm not an expert on Microsoft.I have always looked at Microsoft with skepticism.
.Net was always calculated vaporware to me.
Most applications compiled with the 2005 editions of the Visual Studio tools will use (and thus require) the .net 2.0 runtime; the 2008 editions are optimized for the .net 3.0 runtime. How is that vaporware?
Okay, it's up to me, I'll do it....
a focus group in San Francisco of 140 volunteers who had not actually tried Vista but professed that they had heard awful things about it. They were then treated to ten-minute demos by a trained expert of a "new" operating system, allegedly called Mojave. They liked what they saw, and when told that this product was in fact Vista, they gasped in shock and delight."Do you think one of these piles of fresh linens looks whiter?" "Yes, I do." "Which one do you think looks whiter?" "Uh, the blue pile?" -- George Carlin
And how do you infer that? You're so smart you must be a defective! Did it occur to you that he might have spent 14 years on other Mac Os's and 6 on OSX, or something like that?
Because he said he was far more productive on a PC.Prior to OS X, MacOS and windows each had their strong and weak points.
With the advent of OS X, with it's BSD Unix core,
it outstripped M$ in productivity.Following the Mac move to Intel chips and the ability to run M$
in a Virtual Machine, the Mac advantage in productivity is complete.Windows runs better in a VM on a Mac than on a IBM clone.
Alright, I understand now what you’re trying to say. I still think the previous post was poorly worded, but thanks for the clarification. I’ve actually been thinking about switching to Mac and running Windows when needed in virtualization. I do a lot of it now anyway.
Yep, that’s the way to do it. When you’ve got a second rate product don’t make it better .... spend more on advertising. Its the American way.
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