Microsoft says it's time to stop worrying about Vista - Does that make you feel any less worried?
Microsoft is tired of having sand kicked in its face by Apple over Vista and is coming out with guns blazing. But is this too little, too late and does all this puffing make you feel any better about Vista?
My blogging colleague Mary Jo Foley does a good job of distilling down Brad Brooks' (Corporate Vice President of Windows Consumer Product) keynote speech at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference. The bottom line is that Microsoft is tired of putting up with criticism from Apple and other quarters (which, in a small way, probably includes me) and is getting ready to "start telling the real story" about Vista.
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OK, first off, like Mary Jo, I wonder why it has taken Microsoft so long to to try to polish Vista (or at least start shoveling off some of the, erm, dirt, that's been dumped on it). I guess that the most logical reason is that Microsoft knew that Vista was a bit lacking in some areas and needed to wait for SP1 before starting any kind of campaign. This makes sense since SP1, along with other updates released by Microsoft, has significantly improved the OS, putting it at least on par with XP for reliability and performance.
Another thing that we can gather from all this is that despite what the likes of Ed Bott say, Microsoft is worried about how businesses are seeing Vista and that maybe history isn't repeating itself in the same way as it did back when XP was launched (Don't believe me? Think about how Apple and Linux has changed the digital landscape since the days of XP.).
I never like to underestimate Microsoft and what it's capable of doing with can do with its cash and power, but I think that even the Redmond giant has its work cut out. While Microsoft might be able to carry out some sort of damage limitation, I think that the mental image that the word "Vista" conjures up is fixed.
Even my feelings for Vista are subdued at best. In fact, the main aspect of Vista that I feel has made upgrading worthwhile has been the ability to migrate to 64-bit Windows in a no-nonsense way. Previous attempts I'd made to migrate to XP 64-bit had ended in spectacular failure. Being able to make use of Vista to break the 4GB memory barrier for me has been the single most beneficial aspect of the OS.
It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft can come out with adverts that are anywhere near as entertaining as the Mac ads we've been exposed to in recent years.