Summary: A lot of bad publicity for Vista 7 arrives from many different directions just days before its release

YESTERDAY we wrote about the Vista 7 marketing blitz, which intends to sell another new version Vista. John Dvorak, who moved to Ubuntu GNU/Linux on at least one of his computers, is far from dazzled by Microsoft's PR campaigns. The opening of his latest column states: "Microsoft's PR and marketing follies are symptomatic of a company-wide laziness."

Further he writes:

Having followed Microsoft's exploits since its inception, I can safely say the best anyone can hope for with Windows 7 is moderate success. For all of the fanfare surrounding the new OS, Win 7 is really just a Vista martini. The operating system may have two olives instead of one this time out, but it's still made with the same cheap Microsoft vodka.

This is an issue than runs deeper than mere OS programming. The cocktail analogy extends to other aspects of the company, including PR and marketing. You see, all Microsoft requires is some manner of moderate success that will help deflect Vista-like criticism and grief for the next four years. This, ultimately, won't have anything to do with what is in the actual OS. Rather it will be a reflection of the way the OS is perceived. Such perception is a function of Microsoft's marketing machine and PR, both of which are either AWOL or non-existent, seeming to have gone into a slumber the day Bill Gates left the company.

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In the end, Windows 7 is a big deal—but it should be an even bigger deal. It will get a lot of attention for the next week, but the buzz will wane rapidly as people realize that there is no new paradigm here, just more cheap vodka that will inevitably be followed by the same old Microsoft hangover.

In other Vista 7 news, Apple squashes Microsoft's hype by showing that Mac OS X is faster than Vista 7. Actually, those tests were done independently.

Test Shows Snow Leopard is Faster Than Win 7

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CNet's Dong Ngo took a late-2008 model 15-inch MacBook Pro and used it to compare Snow Leopard 10.6.1 and Windows 7 64-bit RTM (with native drivers from Boot Camp 3.0). The machine was equipped with a 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM, and a 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT video card – things that you could also find in a PC notebook.

Ngo found that Snow Leopard outperformed Windows 7 in nearly all areas except for graphics (likely due to better drivers from Nvidia).

As the above mentions graphics, worth mentioning is this new article from Kotaku, which shows that Vista 7 is bad for gamers, just like Vista.

The problem I have with Windows 7, though, isn't its failure to vastly improve the gaming experience, it's Microsoft's failure to take advantage of the attention brought by the launch of a new operating system to once more thrust PC gaming into the spotlight.

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If Microsoft want its PC gaming platform to thrive they will need to do more than offer lip service in the future. But with the lasting success of the gaming console and PC gamers' ability to seemingly put up with anything, why should they?

Microsoft declined to comment for this article.

In order for people not to pay attention to Microsoft's bad financial results, the release of Vista 7 shall come on the same day. If rumours are true, Google will also attempt to steal Microsoft's thunder.

Google is doing its utmost to piss on Microsoft’s chips ahead of the official 22 October launch of Windows 7, by expanding its “Going Google” campaign to lure customers away from the software giant.

Thus far, the hype around Vista 7 does not match the hype that preceded Windows Vista back in 2007. If that's not telling, what is? ⬆