Another day, another stupid Microsoft 'PC vs. Mac' comparison

It seems like not a week goes by anymore when Microsoft doesn't feel it necessary to post up yet another lame Microsoft 'PC vs. Mac' comparison website.

Here's the latest.

I don't want to get all caught up in the while 'PC vs. Mac' fanboy thing, and I hate to be harsh on Microsoft's continued attempts to score points against Apple, but it's getting ridiculous.

The first problem is that I'm not sure who Microsoft is talking to here. The link to this site came to me via Microsoft's Windows Twitter account. This has over 210,000 followers but I'm not sure how many people who'd follow a Microsoft Twitter feed would need help deciding between a PC and a Mac in the first place.

Audience aside, I'm really not sure as to the point of these comparisons. Sure, the desired outcome is that people buy a PC rather than a Mac, but each time I come across one of these comparison lists, I'm struck as to not only how lame some of the points are, but also how many own goals Microsoft seems to score.

Let's take this latest 'PC vs. Mac' comparison. It starts out quite strong by explaining how 'PCs are ready for fun' and how when you buy a PC you can get all sorts of cool stuff like Blu-ray, TV tuners and so on. This is a valid point, but what you actually get with a Windows PC ultimately depends on what the OEMs want to sell you. It's also a fair point that PCs can connect to Xbox 360 games consoles while Macs can't, but there's no mention as to why this might be on interest to people (again, is this comparison educating the masses or preaching to the tech informed?).

But after this the comparison starts to fall apart. Once you get to the 'Simplicity' reasons, you realize that whoever wrote this is scraping the bottom of the barrel already. "Working smoothly,' 'working simpler' and 'working hands on' really don't say or mean much to me, and the whole idea that 'PCs are familiar' doesn't really say anything. It's a lame way of conjuring up the scary notion that Macs might be too complicated for people.

The the comparison loses all credibility with the 'Working hard' tab which informs us that 'PCs are ready for work and school.' Yeah, whatever.

There's three more tabs of stuff that really doesn't tell us anything of any importance. There's even the obligatory 'PCs are available in a full spectrum of colors across a wide range of price points. Macs are only available in white or silver.' garbage. I mean, seriously, color. I really don't think that someone who bases their computer purchasing decisions on color is ever going to find that website in the first place.

Please, can we leave selling PCs to the OEMs, and go back to selling Windows as a product.