Vista is Dead in the Water but no matter – Microsoft is reputed to be spending a cool half a $billion to convince you that it is not. The NewYork Times, ZDNet, Gizmodo are just a few that have picked up this storyline and are punting it for all the satire its worth. Here is Gizmodos headline take: “Microsofts `Vista Doesnt Suck` Ad Campaign Thinks Everyone Remembers The 15th Century”.
I dont know…could $half a billion get better performance invested in such way that Vista didnt consume 1.0++GB at startup versus 0.25GB for Linux and 0.45GB for Windows XP. Oops I dared to mention the excommunicated Windows XP … it is only allowed to be bought to run on the Asus Eee and other Minibooks for which Vista is too bloated to fit.
This, by the way, is an example of linear versus lateral thinking. Linear thinking says what worked in the past will work again. In this case think of all the message control campaigns from Redmond – like the “spectacularly successful” but now terminated Get-the-Facts campaign on Linux versus Windows Server. Control the Vista message with overwhelming repetition – and hey all of a sudden people who have to buy Windows Vista because the better performing Windows XP has been withdrawn from the market will forget their real life experiences. But I suspect the Ad-Domos in Redmond have made a major booboo because they have given credence to Apples commercials like this one:
Now lateral thinking would have Redmond using the dough to sponsor five key projects within the Microsoft Campus starting with Surfaces and ending with .NET Truly and Completely Interoperable not just a case of Mono. But the current management troika cant get beyond safe and linear.