October 24th, 2007
Microsoft Vista . . . it's deja vu all over again
Tuesday evening I went to a very pleasant Vista dinner with Microsoft and Best Buy execs. I heard a lot about Vista and how consumers now have a choice in the PC arena.
I was puzzled about all the talk of choice because Best Buy, and other retailers, only carry Vista PCs on their shelves. Where is my choice, is it to buy or not to buy?
Why can’t I choose to load my machine with whatever I want–that’s the kind of choice I would like as a customer. (There are a couple of links online on BestBuy.com that will get you an XP machine if you know where to click…)
I said that these days we don’t need to choose, which is great.
My son runs Vista and Mac OS X on his laptop. I run Windows XP and Microsoft OS X on my laptop. Am I a Mac user or a Windows user? I’m both, I don’t have to choose, I just choose applications and they run great on my laptop.
I don’t have to have religion about Mac or Windows. That tedious 20 year plus argument has gone away, and I’m glad.
My Windows apps run great on my Mac thanks to Parallels, but I could use other virtualization software, and I could to run multiples OSes. And Microsoft still gets paid. Yet Microsoft people get upset about Apple, which I can’t understand.
Leopard?
BTW, MSFT’s chat with the media about Vista has nothing to do with Apple’s imminent launch of its Leopard operating system this Friday, which looks awesome. It is coincidental timing, I was told, MSFT just wanted to tell us about what is new in retail PC land.
But isn’t Vista nearly a year old I asked? Yes, but it is new to a lot of people.
(Tune in for Video Vista Interviews…)
Undercover VPs
I did learn a couple of interesting things. Microsoft VPs will sometimes throw on a blue Best Buy employee shirt to talk to potential customers in Best Buy stores to gain some impromptu market research. They will throw on a red shirt in Circuit City stores . . .
Inside the Geek Squad
I accepted an opportunity to drive around with Best Buys’ Geek Squad as they strive to make the world a simpler place for technology users. Which is a very worthwhile quest, imho.
Tom Foremski reports on the business and culture of Silicon Valley at the intersection of technology and media. He also writes at Silicon Valley Watcher. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 10/24/07
