Bonum Certa Men Certa

Windows and Advertising

Pen on calendar



Summary: The latest look at marketing hype that surrounds Vista 7

LAST NIGHT we wrote about press coverage that Microsoft was essentially buying. It is no exaggeration to say that the news is driven by money rather than the importance of news. Both Apple and Microsoft have colossal marketing budgets, so in many ways they can be considered marketing companies for mediocre products that they adopt and sometimes build. It's about branding.



“Among the headlines, "Vista" is seen mentioned only 3 times this week, in conjunction/overlap with Vista 7, which has 44 matches in the headlines.”Windows Vista is hardly covered in the news anymore. We have just looked at 800 Microsoft headlines from the past week (in the same way that we do this every week). Among the headlines, "Vista" is seen mentioned only 3 times this week, in conjunction/overlap with Vista 7, which has 44 matches in the headlines. That is a 15:1 ratio in favour of vapourware, a product which is not even available. So it becomes very clear what Microsoft is marketing out there in the news and which products it prefers not to mention. Free upgrades from Vista to Vista 7 (Windows 6.1) indicate that Microsoft wants to bury Vista and restart afresh.

Speaking of advertising, here is an advertising-oriented Microsoft product which our reader ZiggyFish claims to be a dead product now.

A Microsoft Office spokesperson whom I contacted this week said Microsoft is not building an Office for Advertising SKU.


Does that counts as yet another Microsoft product which is axed before arrival?

One of our readers, who goes by the name of Goblin, has carried on experimenting in order to understand how Microsoft manages public perception in Twitter. He draws in people whose role -- whether voluntary or not -- is to defend Microsoft products and the latest findings are rather amusing. Here is his tease for Vista 7 AstroTurfers.

Too lazy to upgrade to 7?



[...]

Its another one of those general articles that implies there’s great features of 7 but never goes into any real detail. Maybe its posts like his that are encouraging some users to try alternatives? Or maybe those users are, as Mr Hussain says, just ignorant and lazy for daring to be happy with an OS that “just works”?

Mr Hussain would be welcome to come here and justify himself, but I wont ask if he wants a right of reply, I really don’t believe there is anything that can salvage the rubbish he’s posted. (IMO) An excellent reason in my opinion why if you are considering upgrading you should at least try Linux first. It wont cost you anything and it will certainly take you away from a platform that seems to always want to sell you things.

Ive posted on Imran Hussain’s blog, but as is usual in these cases, moderation is in place so the comment doesn’t appear. What are these posters so worried about?


There is a followup here.

MicroPirates, Censorship & Openbytes to be “ripped apart”?



[...]

Sunday has been rather interesting. I hope you enjoy this light relief, tongue in cheek look at the silliness some will engage in whilst promoting a Microsoft cause. Remember the girlfriend of a faithful MS poster coming here? I can’t promise you anything as funny or tragic as that (it will be difficult to beat) but heres a little entertainment. Today we met some new “characters” in the World of baseless Windows promotion.


As another sign that Vista 7 will disappoint many (and Microsoft knows this), XP availability is extended yet again, making it an operating system that survives for at least a decade due to strong competition from GNU/Linux.

Microsoft Extends XP Downgrade Option Until 2011



We've been here one or two times before (read: six times - see links below) but just like a champion who doesn't know when they are beaten, Windows XP has again had its lifespan extended...


Glyn Moody writes about more reasons why Vista 7 starts on the wrong foot.

Call me cynical, but I don't think that's going to wash with the punters. They will rightly see this as Microsoft throwing a pan-galactic strop, and doing all it can to be as nasty as possible to the European Union – forgetting in its rage that the ones it will most upset are those people formerly known as locked-in users.

Except that nowadays, they aren't so locked in. Improved cross-platform compatibility for apps means that alongside GNU/Linux (admittedly still something of an acquired taste), there's also Apple's hardware, which is becoming increasingly popular on the desktop. Or why not simply stick with XP and forget about Windows 7 *just* like everybody forgot about Windows Vista?


People may not recall this, but ahead of Vista's arrival, the atmosphere in the press was similar. Vista was hailed as the next great operating system and bribed bloggers led to it being praised on the Web. Microsoft spends hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring a warped consensus (it is called "perception management" [1, 2]). It manufactures people's feelings and thoughts about Vista 7. Many people won't try it, so they rely on hearsay, a lot of which is either bribed for or simply comes from Windows enthusiasts who install beta software for posing.

"I receive an e-mail from Julie McCormick at Waggener Edstrom in which she extends a "special save-the-date" invitation to attend a "unique, invitation-only" event being hosted by the Windows Client team. She labels the subject matter as "confidential"..."

--Randall C. Kennedy



Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
 
We Are Turning 19 in One Month, FSF Turns 40 in 3 Hours (CET)
For our anniversary next month we still have no concrete plans
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October