Inbox: 'Microsoft - focus on what you do do, not what you don't do'
"You risk devaluing your own product by association if you can't say 'ours is better because...'"
The weekly Inbox column collects the best and most thought-provoking of the reader comments silicon.com receives each week.
This week silicon.com columnist Seb Janacek prompted a heated debate between Mac fanboys and the Microsoft faithful.
Also: Microsoft's promise to provide Windows 7 with an XP mode got readers on a rant. And is the cloud nothing but a load of hot air? Readers weighed in.
Minority Report: Laptop Hunters on a par with drunken uncles
In recent years Apple's advertising strategy has been spearheaded by the Get a Mac ads, amusing little skits between an anthropomorphised Mac and PC, with the Mac always coming up on top through better features and a cool, if somewhat smug, demeanour. The 'cool' bit is important.
Throwing his toys out?
Seb - it sounds like you're the resentful teenager who's found out that he's been wearing the emperor's (cool) clothes.
Most of the MS ads have been terrible - the Mac ads have been just as bad... Finally MS cuts to the chase.
The ads (both Mac and MS) are not aimed at the fanboys - they're aimed at the masses... the masses want: a) Internet b) Office Applications
"Cool" is a luxury above and beyond... and these ads finally show the public what it's about. I've had Mac and PC products with no discernible reliability, usability differentiator... in fact the PC I'm using now is eight-years-old and has had no issues. I have to reboot my iPhone regularly. The real difference is CPU, memory - MS have it right.
Anonymous, Sydney, Australia
Apple just works
Anonymous in Australia... you are a consultant with the ability to keep malware and viruses at bay on an eight-year-old Windows PC.
Try getting an average member of the public to do that. The number of PCs that get 'dumped'/ upgraded by users because of viruses/malware is unbelievable....
My wife is completely non-technical and has never required 'support' for her G4 laptop. It just... um... works.
I don't think Seb is coming across as a fanboy, just stating the obvious. MS admits that Apple hardware IS better...
Jason Smith, UK
Why focus on the negative?
Good grief, there's never any neutral ground on this is there!
Personally, I don't think Seb's article makes him a "fanboy" particularly. It expresses no real thoughts on the relative merits of either company. What it does is express surprise at the negative aspects of Microsoft's advertising campaign itself, which I happen to agree with. Saying how bad your competitors are is always a dodgy course to go down. You risk devaluing your own product by association if you can't say 'ours is better because...' After all, if you can't say anything positive about your own and the opposition is supposedly rubbish, yours must be rubbish as well.
Richard Howlett, Bognor Regis
Hardware/software distinction
Seb Janacek made the perfect distinction between Microsoft as exclusively a software company and Apple as a hardware company that happens to build the software for its kit. I would expect things to work properly with an Apple for that reason but the fact that Microsoft appear to be on the back foot with the ONLY type of product they design and produce tells me that they've lost their way somehow.
Malcolm, Kent, UK
Plain bizarre
The most bizarre thing about Microsoft's line of attack is that it is further alienating around 10 per cent of the potential market for its software products.
Mark James, UK
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Microsoft to woo users onto Windows 7 with 'XP mode'
Microsoft is trying to make it easier to sway users of Windows XP onto the latest version of its operating system.
Worth the wait
Better late than never I guess. The hassle I had renewing software when I changed from XP to Vista at home was enough to have put me off attempting it at work. It sounds like the wait for W7 might be worthwhile after all.
Richard Howlett, Bognor Regis
Stick with XP
I'll stick with my old XP ta very much!
Galleyslave, Watford
Used to be happy
I was a neutral to positive user of Microsoft very happy with XP. And then I was forced to upgrade by circumstances to Vista.
Vista is by far the crappiest OS I have ever used.
So I have gone back to XP and will never upgrade to any other misfit junkware
Ellen O, Toronto, Canada
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Cloud: Resistance is futile
There may be a number of unresolved security issues around cloud computing - but if you try to resist the trend you are likely to be shown the door.
Nothing new
The "cloud" is nothing new. In the 1980s it was called Time Sharing or Computer Bureau's. Since then it has been tidied up a bit, but the fundamental problems are the same.
Can you buy the loyalty of a third party; what do you do about loss of in-house skill; will they love and cherish your data; plan for divorce in the pre-nuptial agreement.
Charles Smith, London
Bulletproof, bring it on
Goodness me. I've been in the IT industry since 1981, and this is the most amazing I-am-bulletproof-bring-it-on statement I've ever seen... it's wonderful.
Three wake-up calls: 1. Out of sight, out of mind, once the hardware leaves your doorstep you are blind to where it is, and who accesses it.
2. Trust takes years to develop, nanoseconds to destroy; and you need a mountain of trust with your cloud supplier.
3. The salary levels for the IT security bods will be astronomical, as they will be infrastructure, middleware, applications and security superstars - all power to them... whereas you executives will worship the ground they walk on, because without them you are screwed. There's something to be said for devolved expertise and responsibility.
Anonymous, Manchester
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