The Only Thing That Counts Is Me

Microsoft's Desperate PR Spin

The following headline appeared in the online edition of our daily paper this morning: "Passionate users beg for Windows XP not to be taken off shelves".

First of all, "passionate users"? Of Microsoft Windows? I've heard of passionate Macintosh users and Linux users but surely nobody in their right minds has been described as a passionate Windows user right? Isn't Windows just the operating system everyone who is not into Mac or Linux has to use because (a) they are forced to by the office; or (b) they don't know any better?

And secondly, begging for XP not to be removed? Why? Because the replacement Windows Vista sucks! That's why! Think I'm being harsh? If you read the article attached to the headline it becomes all too obvious. Here are some quotes:

"[XP users] trumpet its superiority to Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, whose consumer launch last January was greeted with lukewarm reviews."

"They complain about Vista's hefty hardware requirements, its less-than-peppy performance, occasional incompatibility with other programmes and devices and frequent, irritating security pop-up windows."

"[XP users commenting on a website] rail against the very idea that Microsoft has the power to enforce the phase-out from a stable, decent product to one that many consider worse, while profiting from the move. Many threatened to leave Windows for Apple or Linux machines."

So it's not so much that users are "passionate" about XP; they think Vista sucks and they don't want to be forced to use it! Instead of "Passionate users beg for Windows XP not to be taken off shelves", a more accurate headline would be "Windows Vista sucks so much that XP users beg not to be forced to use Vista".

"Passion" for XP has nothing to do with it. Since the new thing (Vista) sucks, of course you'd rather stick with the old thing (XP). If the new thing sucks enough (Vista) you might even get passionate about refusing to switch to the new thing - not because the old thing (XP) is great but because the new thing (Vista) is downright horrible!

It's like that part in Saving Private Ryan when they overrun a German machine gun position and all the German soldiers are dead except one. They get him to dig all the graves for the dead and when he's done, they get ready to shoot him. Realising what's going to happen to him, the German soldier grabs the shovel and continues digging "passionately", insisting that his work is not done yet. I mean, it's easy to get passionate about the previous thing you were doing and refuse to stop doing it when you realise the next thing you're going to do is to get shot! Windows Vista is like that in many ways.

Think I'm being too harsh on Vista? Don't take it from me:

• The Editor of PC Magazine, in his farewell column, finally admits that Vista sucks, "The litany of what doesn't work and what still frustrates me stretches on endlessly."
• Cracked magazine nominated Vista in its list of "2007: Seven things we should pretend never happened" and explained that "Nearly everyone hated Vista in the way that nearly everyone hates being stabbed."
• Vista sucks so much that Dell complained bitterly to Microsoft.
• Vista sucks so much that NEC launched a program to allow users to downgrade from Vista back to XP.
• In fact, Vista sucks so much that even members of Microsoft's own Board of Directors can't get their PCs to work. Their email complaints to Fester (Microsoft's CEO) get revealed in a class action lawsuit filed by "Vista users" (oxymoron?) against Microsoft!
• And finally, even after Vista Service Pack 1 is released, it proceeds to screw up on a common Intel chipset found in thousands of computers!

Misleading headlines like that make me shake my head and worry for the people who know better but write them and for the people who don't know better and read them. Reminds me of another headline, on the front page of the print edition after the dot.com bust which read "Economy Nearing the Bottom". Nearing the bottom? So we haven't seen the worst yet. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say "Economy Going to Get Worse - If you think this is bad, wait till you see what's going to happen in a few months' time!"

I'm still waiting for a newspaper to fess-up about the sub-prime crisis and run this headline "Economy Turns Corner; And Falls Down Stairs".