Microsoft Battles Vista Perception With Prizes

LambAndMint writes "In what can only be described as an act of utter desperation to overcome Vista's mostly negative public perception issues, Microsoft has put together an online "Fact or Fiction" quiz about Windows Vista. Every person who submits themselves to Microsoft indoctrination gets a free shirt and the chance to win a $15,000 prize. Some of the supposed 'facts' will make you feel like you're reading a document from an alternate reality. Get ready to get a job as a computer salesman for a mass-market retailer as you go through the quiz."

Good luck with your free shirt...

[mythosaz]

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY

Instructions on how to enter form part of these Conditions of Entry. By participating in this promotion, entrants agree to be bound by these Conditions of Entry.

You must be a Local OEM Channel Partner. Definition of a Local OEM channel partner ("partners") includes resellers and System Builders who resell other branded hardware (PCs and Servers) with Microsoft OEM Licenses or who build hardware to sell directly to end customers.

Entry is only open to Australian residents residing in NSW, VIC, QLD, NT, or SA who are Microsoft OEM Channel Partners. The promotion commences at 09:00am (Sydney time) on Friday 14th December 2007 and closes at 11:59pm (Sydney time) on Friday 14th March 2008 ("Promotional Period"). The Promoter's decision in relation to all aspects of this promotion is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Cheat Sheet! No Silverlight Required!

[milsoRgen]

Windows Vista sold more copes than any other Microsoft Operating System (including Windows XP) In the first month following launch.
(Fact) Fiction

Windows Vista faces significant Compatibility issues with hardware devices.
Fact (Fiction)

Windows Vista faces significant issues in terms of integrating with other software applications.
Fact (Fiction)

Windows Vista delivers all new levels of security compared to previous Windows operating systems.
(Fact) Fiction

Windows Vista is expneisve to deploy and run.
Fact (Fiction)

Windows Vista hasn't been popular with businesses.
Fact (Fiction)

Windows Vista is unreliable and requires more technical support than Windows XP.
Fact (Fiction)

Microsoft has been swift to diagnose and rectify initial issues with Windows Vista.
(Fact) Fiction

Windows Vista can help deliver peace of mind for parents in terms of their children's online safety.
(Fact) Fiction

Windows Vista won't truly be ready until the first complete Service Pack is released.
Fact (Fiction)

Their answers, not mine!

Vista isn't so bad

[LM741N]

I've got a triple boot laptop: Vista, FreeBSD, OpenBSD. I only ever had one problem with it and it was fixed- the USB subsystem blue screen. Most of my old programs run on it unless they have some funky driver.

But I customized it so perhaps I just don't see any of the problems. My screen looks like Win2K and all the eye candy and crap is turned off. And I have yet to see any Ultimate Extra that is anything more than a screen background.

One thing that is useful is to download "Server Tools". With it you get a utility that will make bootable iso DVD's. Otherwise I just make DVD's in FreeBSD.

Instead of Gates doing the "Wow" thing, he should have just stuck to the features.

Re:Why do they care about perception?

[QuantumRiff]

Because the preloading on non-apple x86 customers is only a small piece of the pie. What they really want is large corporations to start rolling it out by the truckload. Major companies don't want to do that, largely because of the perception (whether true or not) that it is a crappy product. Many large companies are flat out telling Dell and HP and their ilk that they will not mass order machines without XP on them, or that they better ensure that they can revert to XP, and still have working drivers and support. Then Dell, HP, and their ilk get mad, because they have to train employees how to troubleshoot problems on model X in two os's, driving their costs up.

Re:Why do they care about perception?

[QuantumRiff]

Sorry to reply to my own post, forgot the second point....

By not having large corporations move to vista, one of the major incentives for moving to Windows server 2008 is evaporated, meaning a huge financial hit for MS. One of the biggest selling features of 2008, is how well all the new features are supposed to work with vista. Yes, that and server core, and Hyper V.

Re:Cheat Sheet! No Silverlight Required!

[Drewmeister]

Here's the quiz: http://www.microsoft.com/australia/vistafacts/fact.aspx [microsoft.com]

I filled it out and will be getting my free shirt sometime. I only filled it out because of curiosity and I want that grand prize. At any rate, a bum should enjoy the free shirt I'll give him.

Re:All I read was...

[srmalloy]

Going to the URL with both IE and Firefox showed nothing but a black browser window and a button to download and install Microsoft Silverlight. "We're going to give you the opportunity to win something, but you have to let us install our latest proprietary extension." No, thanks.

It's called propaganda.

[edunbar93]

I seem to recall a particularly interesting technique for indoctrination done to prisoners of war in some communist country somewhere, whereby the prisoners would be rewarded (with a better meal, I recall - a big deal when most everyone is malnourished) by competing in a competition to come up with the best communist slogan or advertising campaign, or what have you. The contest would be held on a regular basis too, and so the inmates would compete with ever more ferocity.

This didn't just turn the winners into good communists (and coming from their enemies in war, that too is a big deal) but *everyone else too*! It was a particularly effective method of indoctrination.

Re:Cheat Sheet! No Silverlight Required!

[chromatic]

What pieces of the Linux kernel are contained in hardware drivers?

That would be Linux-specific headers and all executable code in them that isn't strictly part of POSIX, Bobs.

Take an out of tree kernel driver. Compile it against Linux kernel headers. Then compile it against a clean-room reimplementation of the same headers. Now compare the resulting binaries.

If the binaries are bit-for-bit the same, then the binary is not a derivative work of the Linux kernel, and you can make the legal argument that you can redistribute it without any GPL concerns. If there's even a bit of difference, then the binary is a derivative work of at least the kernel headers, and their copyright terms apply to the binary.

The derivative work status of the driver source code is another matter -- but if companies distributed that source code, few people would complain.