Comments on: New Mac Ads Skewer Vista

By: Rob Hiltbrand

Rob Hiltbrand — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:14:39 +0000

Perception is reality, even if it isn’t true. If you have Vista running on a brand new piece of hardware, then it is great. If you install Vista on old hardware, good luck with performance and driver support for legacy devices. Vista should be judged on how it works with new hardware & software. Old stuff never works well with newer operating systems.

I ran a pilot project at my company and found that 10 year old legacy software ran just fine on a Vista Business desktop. Apple always does a good job of advertising its products.

By: Marcus Falz

Marcus Falz — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:48:23 +0000

The massive Microsoft campaign is a clear warning sign that they have finally woken up to how bad it really is. Apple is just adding a couple of snowballs to the avalanche. Many corporations have wisely taken a pass on this quagmire O/S to stay on a more stable platform. Looks like consumers are wiser than Microsoft gives them credit for.

By: Wallace Jackson

Wallace Jackson — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:40:23 +0000

Check out Novell OpenSUSE 11.1, it doesn’t need the ads, or all the memory to run, it just works, for free, and has the most choices for UIs, even i3D ones… Those who discover this O/S and how fast if makes their hardware run/seem are the true winners all the way around! Have a great week. Ciao. Walls.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:13:11 +0000

@Alec Rosen and Gayanna Magcosta: Thanks for the great comments. In my mind, quality always trumps cost. I have a PC and a Mac and my MacBook pro is hands down the best machine I’ve ever owned. I really like your point about leasing vs. buying outright. Great way to offset costs for higher quality equipment…and an easy upgrade path.

By: Alec Rosen

Alec Rosen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:32:41 +0000

the ads are great.

over the last 18 months i have been migrating my business from PCs to macs. the only problem i have is when i show up at client’s offices and they all want to check out the new macs -even my cleints who are Microsoft Dynamics Gold Certified partners

as far as the cost goes, i lease my macs, so i enjoy not only superior platform but a nice tax write off w/o the nasty deprecation on a hardware purchase – when the lease expires, i just turn it in for new shiny macs

BTW Walt Mossberger from the WSJ rates the new mac book the best lap top on the market.

By: Azmat Malik

Azmat Malik — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:16:35 +0000

I am getting sick of the Mac ads. The ease of use claim is not really valid anymore .. and the price differential is too much. For those who like to ‘feel’ special I guess it is OK … even if functionality is constrained … the iPhone sucks BTW.

By: Jim Marshall

Jim Marshall — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:01:53 +0000

It depends on what you mean by “fixing Vista”. My company is not adopting it as there is no business driver to do so. But I have been running it for almost a year now and like it compared to WinXP. It handles the subtlies of docking/undocking and network transitions better. I have grown used to the UI differences and do now prefer Vista.

Apple has no interest in the commercial space outside of education. And they have no global support or distribution capabilies and no interest in developing any. So one has to take the ads in context that they are aimed at the consumer space which is where Apple targets all their products.

Apple and MS are at opposite ends of the 3rd party development openeness scales so direct comparisons are and Apples / Oranges (pun intended). But Apple is making some good looking commercials and the MS spots are not that well designed.

In my mind, Apple is like the Japanese of old where they take interesting existing technologies, add some improvements and combine them in to a nice package with lots of marketing. The end result is usually only earth shattering to the Steve Job’s worshipers but MS could learn a thing or two from them.

By: Tadd Moore

Tadd Moore — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:14:15 +0000

The funniest things are based in truth, aren’t they. Apple is exceptional at marketing and product design. I wish they cared even one iota about the SME space.

By: Michael Stratton

Michael Stratton — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:50:31 +0000

My company has it’s own opinion about this Mac vs PC debate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1418JfAwR4

You will have to excuse the video quality as I spend most of my time taking care of the dogs.

By: Gayanna Magcosta

Gayanna Magcosta — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:59:33 +0000

Those ads are great. Apple attributes Vista with much of the reason for their increasing market share. One out of every three dollars spent on computer hardware are now being spent on Apple computers. People are finally waking up and choosing quality over low cost products that cause headaches. A very good trend. Especially in a tight economy where you need to make better spending choices.