I do not watch a lot of TV. I watch even fewer commercials. However, when a commercial came on TV late on Sunday evening talking about “the next new Microsoft operating system”, I did take note. The commercial was a defensive marketing effort on behalf of The Microsoft Corporation where they tell consumers about a great new operating system called Mojave and then break the news to them that it is actually Windows Vista.
Windows Vista has been the most problematic release of Windows for Microsoft to date. It is ashame as the operating system had huge potential on the white board. However, after numerous feature cuts and the general onset of the natural realities in the software development industry. I was actually working for the company during the planning and early development of this operating system which was code named “Longhorn”. Technically, there were several true deficiencies in Windows that were to be rectified. From a marketing perspective, they actually involved several large enterprise customers in the design of the product.
The Internet is littered with literally hundreds, if not thousands, of blog postings and articles that speak to the shortcomings of this operating system. Thus, I’m not going to waste anymore time going off on it. I will go straight for the disappointment in the marketing approach taken by Microsoft with The Mojave Experiment.
After I saw the Mojave Experiment commercial, I went to the Internet to see the site advertised in the commercial. Admittedly, I was pessimistic going to the site. What I couldn’t believe is that the home page of this site basically said that you’d need Silver Light to have the true experience and the main call to action on the page was to “install the software”. Is that not the problem with Microsoft Windows? Every time you turn around you are being asked to install something and reboot? Can Microsoft not even put up a defensive marketing website without asking you to install something and reboot before you hear their attempt to try and clean up the Windows Vista mess?
If you aren’t familiar with Silverlight, it is a creative development framework that is a reaction to Adobe’s Flash environment. It is even more ironic that Microsoft has chosen to mix pushing this technology in their attempts to repair the reputation of Windows Vista.
Windows Vista photo credit: Brajeshwar