Isn’t it cheaper still not to pay for either OS (Windows variant or OS X), and use a free OS? Why isn’t there a more diverse environment of OS in our world? It is theorized that product diversity is representative of a healthy market in the same way biodiversity is representative of a healthy ecosystem. If world OS usage is +90% Windows in the global market it follows that our information age is demonstratively unhealthy. The primary reason for that lack of diversity is criminal behavior on the part of the company with that +90% share. Unfortunately many government judicial systems are stuck fighting monopolies with laws designed for railroad tycoons and steel barons. Please save our world and choose a non-windows OS today and quit buying into the crime syndicate! If the mob made a good OS would you buy it?
Microsoft Press books have a very distinctive cover, which can easily be recognized in the ad. Of their books, Code Complete is very probably the most prominent.
Luke, you gotta admit—Mafia XP would be pretty awesome. With company names like BambinoWare and CementShooz. Talk about killer apps!
Jeff, which of Tufte’s books on your bookshelf (seen on your book reading post) would you recommend as Tufte first-read?
thanks
I think the ad campaign has thus far been brilliant. I am looking forward to seeing the next one, which is undoubtedly their intention. I’ll never install Vista, because it sucks. However, I think they are on to something here that Mac, yet again, is going to be unable to compete with.
I hope somebody from Microsoft is readng these comments. I absolutley love the ads. Over the last 3 years I’ve learned C#, TSQL and the .Net framework…all on a PC and from a jumpstart in Excel with VBA. I just recently switched to Vista and love it…after turning off UAC. (which really isn’t a bad thing if your kid has ever screwed your computer up). I would recommend getting Vista to anyone. It is the warm fuzzy feeling that XP just doesn’t have and is competative with Apple’s product. Aero is butter. Microsoft is a great company that has operated in such a way to become the premiere software company worldwide. Phenominal achievement. Wish I worked there. 
mixing with regular people. how condescending. Bill and Jerry care nothing for human beings. they are laughing at us inside. we are fools to believe they care.
Microsoft doesnt have to address those ads at all. All one has to do is walk into an Apple Store and realize that you’re going to pay a premium of 50% to 100% for the same exact hardware in the Apple Stores that you can walk over to Best Buy and get an HP or Dell. Sorry. I dont care how much better the OS is (and it isnt). Ever try to actually USE of of those Apples? My God its unproductive, in the least!
sorry for being dumb, but according to wikipedia:
…Today a PC may be a desktop computer, a laptop computer or a tablet computer. The most common operating systems are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux, while the most common microprocessors are x86-compatible CPUs…
So its just the same old…
Apple is trying to say that are not like the rest and always does something new. And Microsoft is trying to say there is no other.
Am I the only guy who thought it was totally amazing that they got Bill G to do the robot?! (Ok, and power down. Now power back up)
He’s not a bad straight man to Seinfeld. They should get their own show.
ROTFL… that bit of the spot with Gates reading the bedtime story is actually the funniest bit, IMHO.
But I had not noticed the quote from the book… man you must have read it many times to notice this small detail :-))
Microsoft has a long tradition of funny virals…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juO1TY7xuUo
Found this one when searching for the old one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84U85Y–iTY
I don’t understand how people don’t know what book those lines came from… I knew the answer after :
You can use [the table driven method] approach in any object-oriented language. It’s less error-prone
that was enough to get me to remember the whole story.
That was way to obvious.
It has been reported that Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ campaign was (partly) created using Macs and Adobe software.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/151315/macs_produced_part_of_microsofts_im_a_pc_ads.html
Who said that thing about Hodgman and Long? He is wrong! Ed was an awesome tv-show, one of the best! (Of the world!)
Ok, Jeff, you got me. I’m finally buying Code Complete. Just gotta finish the last two volumes of TAOCP first… NOT!
I just fear that, having passed four years since the last edition, they would release another one in the near future. Do you think there’s a real chance?
Aaron G.
Very true, but it’s different when MS takes claim to it. And, I’m pretty sure Apple was not the first to make the connection. I guess it originated from the fact that (PC == not a Mac) and the MS market share meant that (PC == windows).
Got me buying the book. Currently reading it, great book so far
Apple’s Get a Mac ad series is nothing short of absolutely freaking brilliant. They are captivating, they communicate well, they are simple to shoot, and they have an endless supply of material. Sure, Hodgman is way better as an actor than Long – but that’s part of the magic of the ad. The focus is always on PC, never on Mac.
MS’s Seinfeld ads were a complete flop. MS’s PR department may say otherwise, but they just weren’t connecting at all. And there’s no way they paid Seinfeld $10 million to just make two ads.
In contrast, MS’s I’m a PC ads are good, if not great. They seem to convey the feeling that if you are using a PC, you are one of many. There’s no shame in running with the crowd. Unfortunately, for MS, this is not a revelation – PC’s have been more numerous than other small computers for over 25 years. If this is the only message, then the ads will soon become tiresome.
PS - Dodgeball is one of the best B-grade movies ever, right up there with The Fifth Element.
According to the NYTimes from two days ago, these Seinfeld/Gates
spots were just teasers for a more complete campaign making direct
reference to the Mac/PC ads. MS is definitely NOT pulling this
campaign:
Right. The ads by themselves are really crappy ads for Microsoft. However, they do accomplish one thing fairly well: They humanize Bill Gates.
My theory is that the ultimate goal is to start using Bill like Wendy’s used to use founder Dave Thomas after he handed over the company. The problem they had is that Bill doesn’t have the greatest of images. If they just started right in with that style of ad, we wouldn’t be going, Hey, its Bill. Instead we’d be going Hey, its that billionarie a-hole. So they needed this pre-campaign to soften his image.
If you look at it that way, the ads start to make sense.