

Jerry Seinfeld to Push Vista for $10 Million - blogimus
http://www.appscout.com/2008/08/jerry_seinfeld_to_push_vista_f.php

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ComputerGuru
Someone's getting desperate. I mean, hiring a comedian to make your OS look
good? That's not a good sign, is it?

I mean, it's an OS, not a gaming console. I don't want it to be funny, hip,
cool, or otherwise "in" - if that's what I had wanted I'd have switched to Mac
a long time ago. What I want is an OS that... works. But it seems that I'm
asking for too much, so now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place (win32
systems developer, who really prefers Ubuntu as an OS).

~~~
raganwald
I was going to say the same thing, but I tried--to use a George-ism--doing the
opposite. If Apple announced they were retiring "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" in
favour of something new with Jerry Seinfeld, would I be excited? No, but I
wouldn't declare they were desperate.

So... MSFT are desperate, but although this _feels_ like a desperation move to
me as well, I don't know if it's entirely fair to say that hiring Jerry
Seinfeld is an act of desperation in and of itself.

~~~
ComputerGuru
Well, Apple has long made its "bang" by focusing on what's cool. While their
products also do _just work_ and tend to get the job done, their cash comes
from the fact that it's cool to get the job done _the Mac way_.

Microsoft's "name" comes (came?) from reliability in the business industry,
where code you wrote almost two decades ago DOS 5 would run on Windows XP
today (assuming you used their APIs for everything). Windows 2000 was a fast,
snappy, _and efficient_ OS that got the job done. Windows XP has a bit more
"homey" but as the years passed and the service packs came in, it grew to fit
that same role.

Windows has never been advertised as a truly "fun" OS until Vista's "the WOW
starts now" campaign; unfortunately, I get the feeling that they're turning to
the hip crowd because they've failed to stand out in any other way. From
performance to reliability, Vista has flopped (I'm using it now, fulltime) -
so they're looking for anything else that may save them some face.

So while it's no biggie for Apple to start advertising through Sienfeld, it is
for Microsoft who have never been the sort of people to do this kind of thing.

~~~
netcan
This isn't just a-typical it's dangerous. They are trying to be something they
are not.

Mac vs PC is not a symmetric fight.

If apple wins 1% of windows users, its a big win (somewhere around 10%
increase in sales). But it doesn't work both ways. If windows 'steals' 25% of
mac users, it's less then a 2% increase in windows sales. (& reaching those
markets with airtime costs the same)

Windows could have beaten that just by reducing replacement time by a few
months.

Going after Apple's (tiny) market, with their hands tied (Vista isn't fun) for
meagre rewards isn't smart.

~~~
unalone
Furthermore, the more attention Microsoft calls to itself, the most it
endangers itself. Because - with respect to Windows users - most people get
wowwed over by what Mac does, and inertia stops them from switching. When
Microsoft tries to push themselves, they make users move around, and Microsoft
is the most endangered by that set-up.

~~~
raganwald
Reminds me of high-end Backgammon strategy theory. One or the other of two
players in match play benefits from volatility, and part of the struggle will
always be that player attempting to mix things up while the other player
attempts to settle things down.

Microsoft probably benefits from low volatility in the market, while Apple and
Linux benefit from high volatility.

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jonknee
He's definitely a Mac guy, but I can't blame him. For $10m I'd promote
cigarettes to cute at-risk kids.

~~~
nickb
You'd sell your soul and push cancer onto kids for $10M? Seriously?!

~~~
Herring
10M is a lot of sleeping pills

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johnyzee
Yet on the show, Jerry had a Mac.

~~~
mynameishere
Vague recollection...he had a IIc in the first season.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIc>

~~~
jrockway
I think it was a SE/30 or something in a similar case anyway.

~~~
jonknee
There were various Macs through the years, including a SE/30, PowerMac 6100
and a Duo with Dock. The last one I remember was a 20th Anniversary, but
that's so easily recognizable there may have been one after that I'm missing.

IIRC, in one of the DVD commentaries they talked about the Macs and noted that
none of them were paid for by Apple, that's just what they used (or something
to that effect). Sort of like his Superman promotions.

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pavelludiq

        'Microsoft explains the concept thusly: "Windows, Not Walls," which involves "break[ing] down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting." '
    

you can't have windows without walls :D So windows now has no walls(they are
broken down) so now the windows just float around?(strange, but they do
actually float around in Vista :D) Weird

~~~
mynameishere
_you can't have windows without walls_

<http://tinyurl.com/5dtdn3>

~~~
pavelludiq
That looks like glass walls with no windows to me :D

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pchristensen
Could we kill this thread? It's troll-bait bait.

~~~
misterbwong
Agreed. Here's an article with much less bias from InformationWeek:

[http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml...](http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=210102262)

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tokipin
i thought Vista would run poorly on my 3 year old comp since my $300 graphics
card committed suicide some time ago and i'm forced to use the terribad
onboard graphics. but recently i installed it on a spare harddrive and it runs
smoothly, Aero and everything

in fact it runs better than XP O_O i'm sure the 2gb RAM i have helps. i'm
guessing the cases of sluggishness that people have been reporting are mostly
due to insufficient RAM or older driver issues

~~~
ComputerGuru
Sorry, but that's not the case for everyone.

I bought a new PC specifically because I attributed Vista's poor performance
to my old PC's poor specs; but the new PC is almost _exactly_ the same
performance.... though it's way out there as far as specs are concerned.

Vista x64 SP1 running on a WD Raptor 150, 8GB of RAM, a E6750 running at
3.2GHz - and still terrible performance. XP on this machine flies like crazy,
and Ubuntu is great. Only Vista can manage to take so long to copy files to
and from my USB drive, spend half an hour to empty the recycle bin, or move a
file over the network - it's I/O performance is a serious hole-in-the-tub kind
of affair.

(Note: I'm a Windows guy. Ubuntu is my preferred OS/distro; but I'm on Windows
90% of my time thanks to my job (which I love) as a systems engineer for
Windows platforms.)

~~~
arockwell
I had some really egregious file IO performance when I first got a new
computer with Vista on it, but that seems to have mysteriously cleared up.
Winzip was especially bad taking minutes to open archives that took xp seconds
to do on a much slower computer.

~~~
tokipin
i heard the file stuff was an issue with the initial vista, but it was cleared
up by SP1:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Windows_Vista#File...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Windows_Vista#File_operation_performance)

that link also mentions that file operations on Vista may seem to take longer
because the file transfer dialog stays up during the whole operation, whereas
in XP it can be closed before the operation has actually completed

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wundie
What's the deal with Apple? I can buy twice the hardware for 1/2 the price
when I go the PC route.

~~~
axod
What's the deal with a Porche? I can buy 4 cars for the price of a Porche.

Sort of a silly argument isn't it.

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ojbyrne
The WSJ article on this says "Microsoft Corp., weary of being cast as a stodgy
oldster by Apple Inc.'s advertising, is turning for help to Jerry Seinfeld."

He's 54. I'm not one to be ageist (cause I'm old) but MS can't seem to get
anything right.

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ars
Every time I see the title I read it as:

Jerry Sentenced to Push Vista for $10 Million

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gms
The money would've been better spent had it gone to me.

