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It looks like the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing: the site has a conflicting message. One part they have their hat in their hands and they're al

• mechanical_fish 18y ago
  The problem is that, while apologizing is the right tactical move in the face of angry customers, it's a tactic, not a strategy. A person who apologizes is gracious. A person who does nothing but apologize is gracious but impotent: One may accept them as a friend, but one doesn't hire them. The correct strategic move is to fix the problem, or refund the money, or throw up your hands and declare, believeably, that the problem is unsolveable by anyone. Microsoft doesn't seem to be able to fix the fact that Vista has no compelling features (they're too busy supporting all the non-compelling features that are in Vista... as someone wise wrote here the other week, once you introduce a feature you're stuck supporting it for life). They certainly don't want to offer refunds. And attempts to pretend that it's impossible to build a better OS than Vista break down as soon as the customer walks past an Apple Store -- or, even worse, as soon as she reboots back into XP. So, in the absence of a new strategic direction, most of the marketing machine is still coasting along the path of the old one. They're applying lipstick to the pig. Again.
  • aneesh 18y ago
    > Microsoft doesn't seem to be able to fix the fact that Vista has no compelling features Without getting into specifics, Vista is a much more secure operating system than XP. It also has much better support for detecting and resolving errors. I run Vista (with 2 GB of RAM), and it runs great. I guess in the eyes of most users, security isn't a "compelling feature" because it's not very visible -- but it's a big improvement over XP. Most people who use Vista with capable hardware (yes, I admit this is a weakness of Vista) are happy with it. When it was released, there were lots of compatibilty issues. But today, it's a much better OS than its reputation might suggest.
    • mechanical_fish 18y ago
      I guess in the eyes of most users, security isn't a "compelling feature" because it's not very visible You got it. And there are two other big problems with marketing Vista strictly on security grounds. One is that Microsoft has very little credibility on security. I seem to recall a long, long era when security was an afterthought at Microsoft, and when security issues were downplayed. That, plus the energetic PR efforts of thousands of malware authors around the world, has pretty much tarnished the brand as far as security is concerned. The company does not start from a position of strength. The other is that Microsoft's market probably doesn't contain a lot of security-sensitive customers anymore. Those that haven't been driven to the Mac or Unix have evolved defenses: They're acclimated to running tons of antivirus software and periodically reinstalling their systems, or they've firewalled and proxied the living death out of everything. Or, you know, their machines have been 0wned and they're living in blissful ignorance. At this point, trying to convince long-time Microsoft customers that the new OS is safe and secure is like trying to talk grizzled survivalists out of their shelters in the mountains. ("We have no weapons! You can put down the rootkit scanner! You don't need to fear anymore! It's the 21st century out here and we've got a utopia!")