Hello, I’m a Mac. And I’m a PC. And, dang it, this ad campaign has been successful!
Apple’s Mac and PC guy campaign has worked so well that Microsoft is fighting back. Apparently they’ve hired Jerry Seinfeld to lead a series of new, pro-Microsoft ads. The project is being funded with a massive $300 million budget.
I see potential here for a major goof-up. While I enjoy Jerry Seinfeld, it’s disappointing to see him shill for Microsoft. As a former shill for Microsoft myself, I can feel his pain. Now maybe Jerry can pull it off. Maybe he can bring some humanity to Windows dry, humorless reputation.
Of course, the problem isn’t Jerry Seinfeld. The problem is Windows. It’s boring. It’s severely uninspired. Windows is clumsy and cartoony and just never seems to capture the miracle and awe that Apple puts into its software. The older term for the Macintosh was insanely great. Windows will never been insanely great, with or without Seinfeld and $300 million worth of PR.
How about taking that $300 million and using it as seed money? Create a rogue startup. Make it very independent of Microsoft and its top-down brutality. Have them come up with a new operating system. Start over. Yes, it will cost much, much more than $300 million to complete. But such a move would most definitely break the Windows stranglehold on the PC, and finally give Microsoft an operating system for the 21st Century.
Yes, MS! Use that 300 mil. for some new Windows!
Wait… I know! I’ll put my Windows 1.01 bot disk in my comp and use that!
Jerry Seinfeld? oh no….
Comment by linuxlove — August 23, 2008 @ 1:36 pm
If I remember correctly, Apple was working on several alternative operating systems before OS X came out. I would think that Microsoft would be as well. But there is this corporate mentality that sticks them into a box that’s Windows! Windows! Windows! and even though they may have rogue or “experimental” alternative operating systems available, the sales force can’t think outside the box. Many big companies suffer from this fate. It’s easy to sell Windows. It’s a brand. But that’s the mentality that prevents monopolies from taking over the world.
Comment by admin — August 23, 2008 @ 3:06 pm
Yeah… WinDoze this, WinDow$ that, Windblows everywhere!
Talking about something compleatly un-related, I got my shredder the other day!
It’s a stripcut shreder, sadly it dosen’t have the CD slot you were talking about.
Comment by linuxlove — August 24, 2008 @ 12:11 pm
I got my shredder simply because of the CD thing. I had a stack of optical discs here that needed shredding. You can still cut them up, but be careful as the pieces are sharp. I’ve got scars…
Comment by admin — August 24, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
It was – A/UX was a unix-based OS aimed at professionals, which briefly made it to market. Copland was a similar OS, but it never made it past the private betas – most of its features were merged back into Mac OS 8.
Mac OS X itself is derived from NeXTSTEP, which Apple bought in 1996. (plug) It differs from A/UX and Copland in that whilst they use a monolithic kernel and the System V toolchain, OS X uses a hybrid kernel and a mix of the BSD and GNU toolchains, whilst also borrowing some code (I think) from Copland and A/UX.
They are – Singularity is an experimental OS that doesn’t do much at the moment, but looks suspiciously like it’s taken some cues from Unix.
Comment by Jonathan Rothwell — August 25, 2008 @ 6:03 am