The idea that Microsoft organised a so-called “blind taste test” of Vista under the pretence it was for an experimental new OS called Mojave is laughable. HotHardware carries the story here. The idea that a “10 minute live demo” of Vista compared against other OSes indicates that Vista is somehow underrated and misperceived is a bit, well, silly. Vista isn’t terrible but it is flawed in its memory demands, security features, performance of its UI, application compatibility, and a few other aspects. There are no perfect OSes and I doubt a Vista upgrade is a terminal condition 🙂 However, the Mojave experiment is a marketing gimmick rather than a serious attempt to resolve Vista issues. We’ve seen quite a few of these gimmicks from Microsoft in recent months. These include the Live Search cashback deal and the use of Apple’s iPod range as prizes in another LiveSearch promotion in Australia. It’s attention grabbing but I’d like to see innovation, engineering and design in the spotlight. It’s noticeable that Ballmer is happy to rubbish competitors products (e.g. the MacBook Air) in a way that Bill Gates rarely did. Gates talked up his own products whereas Ballmer is happy to take potshots at others. It’s a personality difference but it’s not like they’re selling beans here. OSes and Search Engines are complex products where the user is buying compatability, usability, performance, functionality, reliability, sophistication etc. These goals rest on great engineering & design, accepting that great marketing helps in spreading the message.
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