Your verdicts are in: The new Microsoft
"I'm
a PC" commercials aren't exactly worse than the Seinfeld ones...but
that's not saying a whole lot:
I too have seen the "I'm a PC" commercial (at least the first
one). I don't know if it's defensive or not, but it's not persuasive. For
one thing, even though I use a PC, I am NOT a PC. Nor am I "PC,"
although that's a whole other discussion. For another, "PC" is a
generic enough term that it's arbitrary to imply that if it's a PC, the thing
is automatically a Windows computer. Finally, even though the commercial I
saw showed different people using their PCs for different activities, it largely
showed someone simply making a claim.
What I'd like to see instead is something along the lines of this: "My
PC is me." HP has the tagline "The computer is personal again."
Why shouldn't Microsoft make use of something similar? I'd prefer to see a
real profile of someone using their PC for interesting activities, rather
than just a talking head saying, "I'm a PC, too." Microsoft has
partnerships with enough major PC vendors that it could do tie-ins if it wanted.
Microsoft just needs to do something different than what it's doing (and has
done) so far in its massive ad campaign. I, for one, don't think they're getting
their $300 million's worth.
-Dennis
I read your review of the "I'm a PC" commercials and thought
it was a bit harsh. The new ad is leaps and bounds better than the Seinfeld
ad (mostly because Bill is not in it). Actually, Bill is so goofy that any
ad he would be in would ruin it. That said, the new ad has integrity and shows
real people doing amazing things with the technology. I am happy Microsoft
is finally responding with any kind of ad, actually. It has been tread on
by Apple for for too long. I will admit the marketing machine at M$ needs
a lot of polish.
-Charles
Really incredibly poor ad. It says nothing. (Are you sure that Apple didn't
pay for it?) More and more, it seems like Microsoft is really out of touch.
-Howard
I think the main point of the ads is that while a Mac can SAY how great
it is, the fact is that the majority of the world uses a PC!
-Anonymous
The "I'm a PC" ads do a good job of overcoming the myth that
only Macs work well. I would like them to go further and say exactly what
users like about the PCs. For instance, a Mac ad states that Macs can run
Microsoft Office. If I were Microsoft, I would want a PC ad to compare the
amount of third-party compatible software and hardware for Macs with PCs.
I want to see comparisons of the quantity of qualified support people for
Mac vs. the PC.
Given the necessary resources and accepting the limitations of each operating
systems, all computers can work well and I am happy for the diversity. Many
of my clients only call me after hours of unsuccessful phone OEM support.
My PC clients are frustrated by their phone support. My Mac clients accept
that phone support didn't help without complaint. Can anyone tell me why the
perception is different?
-Earl
I myself find the "I am a PC" commercials confusing and contradictory.
If you think about it, the PCs are still a market leader and they perform
all the functions that we need them to in one form or another. The commercials
are not explaining or saying anything to me other than, "We are all different
and we all have our own weaknesses." And what I mean by weakness is the
inconsistency of hardware quality. As unique and different as we all are,
we are also frail and easy to break if we try to be the cheapest thing out
there.
This is exactly why Apple is of such a high quality, including in price.
The design is wonderful, performance is amazing, and it is gaining ground
because of the opinion that it has a stable OS that is easy to learn and master,
and owning one means a sense of longevity.
-Albert
The Gates-Sienfeld ads were STUPID! In fact, they were beyond stupid and
rank in stupidity next to the "brilliant minds" who gave us the
current financial meltdown.
The current ads are better, but why not try the simple approach? Something
like what Sprint did with its CEO talking about how they can personalize the
handheld telecommunication box to your needs, rather than spending $300 million
on a STUPID Sienfeld ad. Microsoft could've used the money to pay some American
developers to test the Chinese-developed Vista OS for bugs and trap doors.
That way, MS could've blunted Apple's so-called superiority, as far as system
security goes.
-Anonymous
I have to agree with your assessment. How about an ad that directly refutes
the so-called "myths"? These ads just make it seem like they are
in fact true. It will fail to convince those that need to be.
The "Mojave experiment" is even sillier -- nobody ever said
Vista didn't LOOK good.
-Anonymous
Bill thinks Microsoft made another misstep when it decided to buy
back $40 billion of its own shares:
I have to disagree. While the stock buyback is an excellent indicator
of the strength of Microsoft's balance sheet and fiscal position, it is also
an excellent indicator that the company is running out of ideas.
Apparently, they are sitting on a mountain of cash and 1) they can't
find (or can't make a deal on) other companies or products worth buying, or
2) they can't think of anything internally in which they can invest. Stock
buybacks are, to me, a sign of a company that has lost its vision.
-Bill
In the spirit of Doug's "Speak Out on VMware and Chrome" item, here
are a few of you doing just that:
I'm eager for VMware to virtualize more. The best part is the company's
focus on quality in both the underlying technology and the management tools.
I don't have to be an ESX expert to configure and operate the tools. Assuming
VMware maintains this ability to make intuitive, stable products that ease
labor, I'm eager to buy, deploy and use them.
-Milton
Chrome is OK, I guess. I remember that when I started using Firefox, I
practically gave up IE immediately. With Chrome, it seems that I have to keep
reminding myself that I have it, and want to try it out. There is nothing
there that excites me about it.
-Jason
I downloaded Chrome a couple weeks ago, and other than a few sites that
aren't supporting it too well yet, I've been truly impressed. As an Internet
application developer I really get off on the memory usage, multiprocess-oriented
tabs and "Inspect element" feature. It's great for analyzing what
exactly ASP.NET or any other framework is shipping down to the client. I love
the internal task manager with the "Stats for nerds." At work, we're
currently doing some final performance testing before we implement into production
and would love to be able to use Chrome to help distinguish basic memory usage
issues. But alas, my company is much too bureaucratic for useful tools to
be downloaded willy-nilly.
My only complaint is that I haven't found add-ins like in Firefox. So
from a user perspective, I'd say I still like Firefox better, but as a developer
I'm quickly shedding my ties to all other browsers.
-Seth
One reader has a bone to pick with a recent
news item that said most botnets come from the U.S.:
According to SecureWorks, 20.6 million attacks originated from U.S. computers
and 7.7 million from Chinese computers. But that's meaningless unless you
normalize that to the number of users with wideband connections in each country.
-Anonymous
And, since it's on everyone else's mind, Bruce shares his 2 cents on the current
economic situation:
Hell yes, the AIG investors should bear the brunt of the fallout! I agree
with you wholeheartedly: The investors in those companies should bear the
brunt of them failing -- NOT the general public. There needs to be a constitutional
amendment against bailouts. Yes, I'm a card carrying Libertarian.
-Bruce
Tune in next week for even more reader letters -- including more of your reviews
of Microsoft's new ad campaign. Meanwhile, tell us what you think by commenting
below or sending an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on September 25, 20080 comments
Earlier
this week, I talked about Microsoft's new HPC 2008, a supercomputer-style
version of the OS based on clusters aimed at scientists, engineers and massive
data-mining/massaging apps.
I lamented the fact these high-end OSes and hardware don't mean much to mainstream
IT -- that we're missing out on all that power. In fact, most of our cores,
especially on the desktop, go unused (I wrote about that problem in this
cover story).
Microsoft is one step ahead of me, at least when it comes to HPC 2008, and
is now positioning this clustering tool right
at IT. Hopefully its hardware partners, such as Cray, will go along for
the ride and give us commodity supercomputers that run database, e-mail and
even Web apps. This could give the Crays and the SGIs a whole new lease on life.
Posted by Doug Barney on September 25, 20080 comments
I'm doing two articles that I may want to quote you on. The first is about Chrome,
which we've talked about quite a bit. I'm writing a Reader Review, which means
you and your peers are the actual reviewers. Share your Chrome thoughts by writing
me at
[email protected]. Over
a dozen already have.
The second article is about VMware and its plans for a datacenter operating
system, one that promises to turn all your x86 servers, network connections
and storage into a single utility. The company claims 70 percent of this functionality
is already in place. VMware users and others can contact me at [email protected]
and I'll shoot you a bunch of questions.
Both of these articles show how Redmond magazine is driven by readers
as much as it is by our writers and editors. So thanks!
Posted by Doug Barney on September 25, 20080 comments
I've had a lot of questions about Windows 7 lately, such as whether it has a
brand-new microkernel or is instead a rehashed version of Vista. Some of the
questions will be
answered
late next month at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC),
where attendees will get a pre-beta version (didn't this used to be called an
alpha?) on a handy USB drive.
My new question: How many folks will go to PDC just to get a free 160GB flash
drive?
Meanwhile, the Engineering Windows 7 blog, which was dormant since its inception,
is gaining serious steam. Check it out.
Posted by Doug Barney on September 25, 20080 comments
The Google phone is
nearly
ready to rock. And while it has nowhere near the fanfare of the iPhone,
this is clearly a significant product. The idea is the phone will tie closely
to Google search and apps, making it easy to find information, get maps and
perhaps feed Google all your personal information.
From all reports, the Google phone (sold only by T-Mobile) is fully featured.
But the real keys are usability, reliability and how well these features work.
It took Microsoft a long time to get phones right, and even Apple has had its
hiccups (and Apple has been building operating systems since 1976, way before
Microsoft got into the game).
But is the real play Android, the OS that drives the Google phone? Could this
be the basis of a range of intelligent devices that ultimately replace our laptops
and desktops and thin clients? PC World weighs
in on this without reaching any major conclusions.
Are you excited about the Google phone? Don't call -- e-mail your answers to
me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on September 25, 20080 comments
We in the U.S. love to point fingers at overseas hackers, phishers and Internet
vagabonds. To many of us, the threats are in Bulgaria, China and Russia. The
reality, apparently, is much closer to home --
the
problem is us.
According to research from SecureWorks, most botnet attacks (those nasties
where a hacker uses your computer to attack others) start right here in the
good, old USA.
Posted by Doug Barney on September 24, 20080 comments
Unlike Doug, readers don't seem too sad to see the Seinfeld ads go. But at least
one of you thinks the new ads are a vast improvement:
The Seinfeld commercials were an abomination (I can't say what I said
when I first saw them aired). I'm neither a PC apologist nor a MacManiac;
I'm a user of the Wintel consortium products. Those commercials should never
have made it off the storyboard, and the agency who created them should be
immediately cuffed and tossed in jail for abuse of our sensibilities.
-Benjamin
To heck with the Jerry Seinfeld TV spots. I think that Microsoft is onto
something with its new 'I'm a PC' campaign that gives us quick cuts to some
pretty cool people, both famous and un-famous, that all claim, "I'm a
PC." This is a subtle yet powerful way to steer consumers away from the
attitude that PC users are "squares," which was brilliantly depicted
in the original Mac spots.
I saw this 'I'm a PC' spot a couple of times over the weekend, and was
more impressed the second time I saw it than I was at first look. I think
Microsoft is right to have a campaign that, unlike the Seinfeld spots and
the "Seinfeld" show itself, is actually about something.
-Ken
On
Monday, Doug asked readers whether they've come across any sites that cover
cloud computing. Here are a couple:
Here are some sites: Enamoly
Elastic Computing and Enterprise
Cloud Computing: Build Your Own With Cisco VFrame -- Why Wait?
-Hermine
Here's an interesting cloud blog: The
Wisdom of Clouds.
-Anthony
But Ari, for one, isn't buying into this cloud computing
business:
I'm surprised that you don't see cloud computing for what it is: a return
to the tyranny of the mainframe/dumb-terminal paradigm, and the loss of jobs
for hundreds of MCSE/MSCAs. Most, if not all, of our tech support is outsourced,
and most, if not all, of our manufacturing is outsourced as well. The United
States doesn't really produce anything, with the notable exception that we
keep finding new and wondrous ways for us to murder each other. The latest
and greatest innovation to come out of the dot-com disaster -- and now cloudware
-- is that today, your cab driver is likely to be an MCSE.
Then, there is the issue of downtime. With a server and smart workstation,
even a company of 15 employees would not notice a problem on the local network;
when setting up the network, you run two servers in parallel topography for
redundancy. When properly configured, if one server fails, regardless of the
reason, the secondary server automatically switches to the primary server's
role and sends a notification to your MCSE and your hardware vendor.
By contrast, a slowdown or drop-off of a cloud system places you, as
an employer, in the awful situation where you now have 15 to 20 people drawing
their hourly wage while sitting around and making paper airplanes or stringing
paper clips together, and you don't have a backup server, so you are stuck
behind the eightball and dead in the water (pardon the mixed metaphor). This
is exacerbated by the fact that you have no idea how long it will take for
the cloud to recondense (besides, with cloud computing, you always pray for
rain and that doesn't mix well with electronic components).
-Ari
And Mitchell shares his thoughts on Chrome:
I find it buggy, which is not surprising as a beta. It also tends to
be jumpy when scrolling through pictures and graphics on large pages. Also
have found problems with Flash and other multimedia. After using it for a
day, I went back to IE 7.
Now, IE 8? Many problems, as well. Oh, well -- betas are betas.
-Mitchell
Check in tomorrow for more reader letters! In the meantime, share your thoughts
by writing a comment below or sending an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on September 24, 20080 comments
On Monday, I
lamented
the loss of the Seinfeld Microsoft ads, which have been replaced by the
"I'm a PC" commercials.
Here's my review: First, the commercials, by taking on Apple's characters,
are overly defensive. Last time I checked, Windows was still the market leader.
The commercials sound like a high school student who was stood up at the prom.
And while they point out that Windows is effective for many, many people, they
don't articulate what's so great about it.
The PC revolution has inspired our global economy, led to many technical and
creative inventions, changed our very culture, and made the world more unified
through nearly ubiquitous communication. Grandparents talk to grandkids a hundred
or more miles away, college students e-mail parents...and not always to ask
for money!
PCs are also a stunningly great bargain. With so many providers, prices steadily
fall, and this commodity hardware is able to run everything from XP to all the
major flavors of Linux (note that I left out Mac OS and Vista).
The PC industry has many things to be proud of, none of which I saw in these
commercials. Maybe that will be in the next batch.
Are you a PC? Thoughts on these ads welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on September 24, 20080 comments
While there are smart tech people all over the world and all over the U.S.,
it's clear there are pockets where these types tend to congregate: Silicon Valley;
Redmond, Wash.; Austin, Texas; Raleigh, N.C.
But do you know where the spreadsheet was invented (by VisiCalc) and then reinvented
(by Lotus)? Where the minicomputer was born (remember Data General, Wang and
DEC?). Good, old Massachusetts, my home state.
Microsoft bought a bunch of Massachusetts' best brains by buying Groove and
Softricity, and got some bright New Hampshire bulbs when it bought Desktop Standard.
Now, Microsoft wants to tap into New England research minds by creating
a lab in Cambridge, Mass.
The Massachusetts tech economy fell on hard times after 2001. It's already
on a comeback, and with Microsoft in our back yard, things should only get better.
Posted by Doug Barney on September 24, 20080 comments
Microsoft's play in the world of high-performance computing doesn't get the
same attention as Vista, Bill Gates' wealth or attempts to buy Yahoo. And that's
a shame because Microsoft has been doing some rather exceptional work in this
area, with much of the innovation coming directly from the geniuses at Microsoft
Research.
The core product here is Windows High Performance Computing (HPC) Server 2008,
which was just
completed.
Tools like these have been mostly used by scientists and engineers, and for
massive data-mining-type apps. But as the world starts thinking more about cloud
computing and IT thinks about building internal clouds, what used to be the
domain of the supercomputer intelligentsia could become standard datacenter
fare.
Think Windows HPC doesn't have the juice for this kind of computing? Think
again. Cray thinks the software is good enough to drive its supercomputers.
Not too shabby.
Posted by Doug Barney on September 23, 20080 comments
Microsoft's stock is not the high-flier it was throughout the late '80s and
early '90s. Many investors earned their yachts, Porsches and retirement homes
on the backs of this baby. And thousands of employees became Microsoft millionaires,
driving the prices of homes in Redmond to near-Silicon Valley heights.
Since the tech crash of 2001, the stock has been stuck. Like a rocking chair,
it's going nowhere. But Microsoft thinks its own company is a pretty good deal
and is buying
back $40 billion in shares. That's like buying a Yahoo's worth of stock.
And that's on top of the $40 billion buyback already completed.
I'm no Wall Street whiz (and neither, apparently, are they), but this seems
like a good long-term move. It acknowledges that Microsoft is now a mature,
less volatile stock. It means there's stability and sound financial underpinnings.
Oh, how I wish Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates had been running Lehman, AIG and
Merrill Lynch!
During the tech crash in 2001, there were no federal bailouts -- and our business
came through just fine. Investors (like you and me, I'm sure) who lost money
took our lumps and went on. What lessons should we have learned from the tech
bubble burst that we can apply to today's Wall Street meltdown? Thoughts welcome
at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on September 23, 20080 comments
To make its products safer, Microsoft programmers have
designed
a Software Development Lifecycle (SDL) process that makes security a part
of every stage of development. Microsoft wants ISVs and corporate developers
to be equally safe and is packaging up its internal tools for outside use.
There's the model for development itself, which is free. On the paid side,
Microsoft has SDL-trained consultants you can hire and a Threat Modeling Tool
for sale this November.
As problems with Chrome, VMware, the Mac and Linux have shown, all software
can be subject to hacks. It's clear that Microsoft is trying to do something
about it.
Speaking of Chrome, are you using it? I'm writing an article about end user
experiences and would love to talk to you. Shoot me a note with your thoughts
and impressions to me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on September 22, 20080 comments