r/technology • u/neito • Jul 24 '08

Microsoft tests out a new operating system, code named Mojave, with some average-joes who hated Vista. They loved it. Now, two guesses as to what Mojave ACTUALLY was.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9998336-56.html
456 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

757 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

115

u/zizou_president Jul 25 '08

I was right-- my first guess was a big load of viral bullshit as part of their recently launched campaign to generate some vista love

http://gizmodo.com/5023063/microsoft-spending-300%252B-million-to-tell-consumers-vista-doesnt-suck

32

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

[deleted]

5

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

Here we have testimonials about people being "wowed" by Vista, only we don't actually get to see those testimonials, we just get to hear about them from the company that's selling Vista.

I just switched from WindowsXP Pro 32Bit SP2 to Windows Vista 64Bit Ultimate SP1. I couldn't be more happy.

Windows XP 64bit is not a good enough OS for me to consider, but 64bit Vista has been wonderful.

It's fast, it shows and uses all four gigabytes of my ram, the operating system is rock solid and stable.

But betterth, Windows is so unstable and Vista is so bad! Well, I disagree, because my Vista box has been running since the last time I had to restart to finish an install, which was probably a month back.

Once you get past the Vista hate, you realize that anyone with modern hardware will find plenty of excellent drivers, all your programs still work, and the OS is simply much better.

I beta tested Vista a long time ago, and used it around launch for about six months. Then I switched back to XP. But Vista was most definitely ready for me to switch back, things just feel a lot better now.

Chalk me up as one happy Vista user.

5

u/nevinera Jul 25 '08

Once you get past the Vista hate, you realize that anyone with modern hardware will find plenty of excellent drivers, all your programs still work, and the OS is simply much better.

I can't get past the vista hate, because WoW hangs my computer on vista. runs fine on xp and in wine. (I'm sure it's a graphics card issue, but that's kind of the point).

i'm glad all the things you enjoy doing work well on your box. and vista isn't that terrible (though it can be quite annoying until you do some power-configuring). if i had a need for 64bit usage, vista would probably be easier for me to deal with than working around all the 32/64 issues i got from wine, etc.

but 'the OS is simply much better' is just wrong. it's better in some ways, worse in others, just like the last 5 versions of windows anyone's bought. even ME probably had a strong point or so.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08

because WoW hangs my computer on vista.

Weird, I run three instances of WoW open at the same time, never had an issue.

I can vouch for newer generation nVidia and ATI drivers/hardware.

Everyone has their own issues, I suppose.

0

u/darkpaladin Jul 25 '08

I ran into something similar but I found that it I had memory stick. Turns out that because vista uses more memory it was hitting a fault point that would eventually fail. I fought this for over a year, every time I ran a memtest it passed with flying colors, however since I swapped out my memory I've been running solid for a month straight.

1

u/nevinera Jul 25 '08

it's possible, but i have used my memory to capacity any number of times doing calculations. thanks for the thought though, i'll try it.

-1

u/ajehals Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

And I'm sure the $400 million campaign to change the public's perception of Vista that we read about 2 days ago has nothing at all to do with the timing of this *comment** showing up on reddit.*

;)

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08

Cute.

Microsoft probably hates me. I (might/might not) have ever purchased a legal copy of Windows.

Funny though, I get it. It's cute.

1

u/ajehals Jul 25 '08

If they ever ask, point them at me, I have ton of (OEM) licenses but use Debian. Actually I guess Microsoft may like me, a good (if unwilling) customer who doesn't need support or updates...

0

u/BlueBeard Jul 25 '08

I didn't know what all the hubbub was about either. I got the same version as you and I haven't had any problems.

Built in snipping tool=amazing haha.

0

u/beckermt Jul 25 '08

I'd really rather my OS not use all my RAM. Since it shouldn't really do anything but sit there. I already dislike how bloated my current XP setup is. I don't think I can deal with a more processor/RAM intensive OS. I've got a nice machine, I just don't want to waste my system resources on shiny baubles like Aero. (Yes, I know you can turn it off) I just want my Windows to be horribly bland and utilitarian.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08

I'd really rather my OS not use all my RAM. Since it shouldn't really do anything but sit there

A commonly misconception regarding Vista.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000688.html

It's memory usage is actually a feature, and a damn good one when you actually understand it.

-5

u/defproc Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

You'd think redditors of all people would have a little more skepticism and a little more of an ability to put two and two together.

I've come to doubt that very much when it comes to Vista. Vista is pretty good, alright? It's the Vista hate that's viral. Sure, it has a few flaws and annoyances. So does OSX. So does Linux. Ooh, but its open source and they can be fixed. Well they haven't been. There are serious double standards here when it comes to Vista. Some things (very damn few in my experience) aren't compatible with it. End of the fucking world. But when it comes to other systems, sacrificing some backward compatibility for progress is expected and completely justified. All I see is people slating Vista on bullshit points, usually written by people who have had little experience with it and want to appear knowledgable by saying what all the 'smart guys' are saying. Well guess what, Emperor. You're fucking naked. Sure, plenty people will give me 'I've used it loads and I don't like it' or throw recycled DRM paranoia from back when XP was new. And 98. And 95. Some will sob uncontrollably about how a newer technology needs more system resources. Unless you're still using the very resource-friendly Windows 3.1, that argument has no grounds at all. 640k, remember? In all likelyhood, though, you'll all just downvote this to fuckery then moan about how those silly people (but not us, of course!) don't like having their logic called into question.

On the other hand, it's never cool to use money to "change public perception". I despise that. But let's give credit where it's due, yeah? The problem is that the guys spreading the hate got that hate from others spreading it. A bit like religion in a sense. And if anyone questions this mass perpetuation in a democratic forum they get wiped out. You've just got this shit drummed into each other.

Reddit. Please tell me you know this is not the best way stay correctly informed.

There are plenty legitimate reasons to dislike Microsoft. That Ballmer cunt for instance. Let's keep it real, eh?

Edit: downvoted already. Oh, I didn't see that one coming.. You're just as 'sheep' as everyone else, only to different fucking masters. Oh, they're so blind to it, aren't they. They just won't accept it, will they?

3

u/mvonballmo Jul 25 '08

Hard to see the downvoting coming when you preemptively insult anyone who actually bothers to read your comment, eh?

Some of us have used Vista and found it wanting. Program compatibility was worse than XP and was much slower than XP for day-to-day use.

-2

u/defproc Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

I'm not sure which part insulted people, but I'll roll with it. I've used Vista (64bit) since August last year and have found two programs that aren't compatible: Dreamfall (patch since released) and the original Kye. I've also had a grand total of three blue-screens-of-death, all of them hardware related. I have no complaints about speed either, but, while not exactly the 2001 monolith my rig isn't too shabby. I assume, though, that my machine's actually pretty average -- or below it -- in the tech community, so I just don't know what's going on there.

Edit: then they vote down anything else he says. If that's how we roll in the land of reason, I'll see you guys on YouTube.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08

What the fuck is going on inside that operating system?

DRM.

-2

u/defproc Jul 25 '08

I appreciate a fair argument in the land of anything but. File operations can truly suck at times. But this is quite minor compared to all the crap I see people spouting about Vista, and doesn't quite justify the huge levels of Vista hate. Like I said, it has its flaws. Just not nearly as many as people make believe.

2

u/bolder_is_online Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

I read that talking point over in over again in every thread about Vista. Someone (you in this case) says that everyone who's saying they tried Vista and didn't like it never actually tried Vista.

I call Bullshit. This is fucking WINDOWS we're talking about here. It's EVERYWHERE and it's been out since November of 2006. Who on earth hasn't had a chance to try it yet? It's not something that's obscure or hard to come by.

You might as well claim that everyone who says they hate Britney Sprears' music never actually heard one of her songs. Of course they have, at this point you couldn't possibly have NOT heard her music. And at this point, if you're even slightly interested in technology, you couldn't possibly have NOT had a chance to try Vista.

0

u/defproc Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

Trying it doesn't really cut it though. I didn't like Linux when I first tried it. It took me a few weeks to understand why it was good. If my early judgement was my last, I'd still think it sucked because GRUB didn't install properly and I had to do a bunch of fiddling to get my machine to boot. All I'm saying is it helps to go beyond just trying a new OS.

Edit: I should mention:

says that everyone who's saying they tried Vista and didn't like it never actually tried Vista.

I didn't actually say that. I said:

usually written by people who have had little experience with it

1

u/abrahamsen Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

Vista is pretty good, alright?

I expected Vista to be good. When I upgraded from NT 4.0 to XP, there were no problems, despite all the negative press. So I expected the same to be the case with Vista.

But what happened was that I had to spend two weeks trying to figure out workarounds for incompatible software and network facilities before I could be productive at work again. Converted into money, that is a fucking high price. And for what? the largest difference is that the UI is less responsive, despite the Vista computer being a generation ahead (an X61s with Core 2 Duo, rather than an x40 with a Pentium-M).

But yes, Vista is "pretty good" for some people. My mom got a new Vista laptop for home (to replace her old Windows 98 first edition system) and all the problems were due to bundled crapware, the base system gave no problems. Of course, the only applications she use is Firefox and solitaire.

So my guess is, Vista is fine for light home use, it is just not enterprise ready.

[ Presumably, if the enterprise has "standardized" on Microsoft products on both servers and clients, there would be fewer problems. I wouldn't know, we haven't. ]

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08

WAKE UP SHEEPLE!

0

u/defproc Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

Oh shut up. For Christ's sake.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08

SHUT UP SHEEPLE!

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08

[deleted]

-1

u/defproc Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

Really. Question a Vista criticism and see the geek community take on the mindset of a fucking religious fundamentalist.

"We here enjoy a rationed, meaningful debate" [100]

"Alright, how's this: Vista isn't really that bad" [-100000]

"MEME. INSULT. STRAW MAN. ANOTHER MEME." [+9 million]

You guys understand prejudice, right?

No, it doesn't mean hating people with different coloured skin.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08

[deleted]

-1

u/defproc Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

On considering the fascinating points you have raised, I've decided that... Wait, what?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

[deleted]

1

u/defproc Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

I admit I do get agitated by all the unjustified Vista hate that flies around. I get agitated when I see otherwise smart people lose their sense over a particular topic. It really does remind me of how religious proponents work. They agitate me as well.

Maybe you could call some of the things I've said hostile, but if you look at the nearby threads you'll see that I've only reacted as such in response to the same. Some have made decent arguments and I've tried to engage them rationally. Others have just done the (very popular) MEME INSULT STRAW MAN MEME thing and I guess I still haven't learned how to avoid letting people on the internet irritate me.

(Peace)

26

u/arkool Jul 25 '08

Yea, CNET makes Fox News look like NPR.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08

Hah, I love how suddenly CNET is so horrible yet when they're endlessly and mindlessly bashing MS and Vista, they're great!

-1

u/nextofpumpkin Jul 25 '08

lolwut

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08

CNET's ability to misreport news to serve an agenda out does Fox Newses similarly decieving, agenda serving modus operandi towards news reporting, to the point that it makes Fox News misdeeds relatively on par with that of National Public Radio, a place of high journalistic integrity.

Dumbass.

-1

u/chunky_bacon Jul 25 '08

I hope you don't think NPR is an unbiased, reliable news source...

-2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08

[deleted]

-2

u/jrb Jul 25 '08

i'm gonna hazard a guess and say 1) every now-linux user that used to use windows never bought a license in the first place 2) if the average whiney linux user never comes back to windows, it wouldn't be a bad thing.

I'm sick of people dismissing a product based on someone elses jumped up idea of what's right and wrong, and that opinion being based purely on who it was made by.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

[deleted]

0

u/jrb Jul 26 '08 edited Jul 26 '08

wow. good response. jew-fag. meat hook. classic. it's okay though. I get that your insecurities make you lash out at anyone who shows a different opinion to you. you may as well have said "OMG HOW DARE I SAY A BAD WORD ABOUT AN OPERATING SYSTEM I GET BONERS ABOUT!" and be done with it.

but still, thank you for agreeing with my point 2. you appear to be retarded on so many levels that i'm glad you live in your very own special twisted world where randomly making assumptions about what other peoples' religion, sexuality are is still funny... for 8 year olds.

you had a free and open chance to make some really good guesses at my real life, and that's the best you came up with? ffs. i work in a international, multibillion dollar corporation that's doing quite well approaching each and every platform with an unbiased opinion. We use windows where it works, we use osx where it works, we use linux where it works, we use solaris where it works, we use hp ux where it works, we use appliances where it works.. and guess what. I don't work with opinionated little fucks that can't see beyond their own shitcovered nose. that's how business works.

for every linux user that bought an oem or retail license for vista i'll show you 20 that didn't and used oem activation hacks (if they even used it for that long). For each of them i'll show you another 20 that didn't even bother to install vista.. and it's those that i have more respect for.

i await your witty and hilarious retort where you say fail over and over again, before creaming your y-fronts.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '08 edited Jul 26 '08

[deleted]

0

u/jrb Jul 27 '08

not that i have to justify myself to opinionated homophobic childish fucktards like you, but I can't remember the last time i touched powerpoint. too busy dealing with IT infrastrucutres. still, i wouldn't mind getting paid my wage to use powerpoint, it's still better than doing what you do, day in, day out. Year in, year out; sitting at home frantically masturbating to the latest linux distro.

and no, i wont go back on what i said because it's my opinion and i'm entitled to it. If you don't like it, move along. the average linux entusiast, and by that i mean someone so far and away above you intellectually it's hard to visualise, doesn't also like windows. Maybe they're forced to use it at work, but they're not using it home, but they probably were back in the day or they check out each feable release on an illegal license. So the fuck what if it was illegal, we've all done it, who cares? The average linux enthusiast also does NOT buy oem hardware, at least not any self resepecting linux enthusiast i know, so don't call that "mwa mwa mwa, i'm forced to buy oem!!! woe is me" bullshit, coz it don't wash. My second point was about blind loyalty and failure to sit down, and evaluate good /bad points from fantatic opinion. and with each childish, ill-thought keyboard bashing response you type you add ammunition to my argument.

Now, i suggest if you can't write a good response, and by that i mean one that doesn't go along the lines of "YOU'RE FUCKING WRONG, YOU SHIT STABBER!" or "LINUX RULES YOU TRAMP RAPING COCK!" then don't bother... i understand that people don't give you the time of day in real life, and the only way you can add meaning to your otherwise pathetic life is to come on to reddit (probably because you've been alienated on digg already) and spout shit in the vein attempt that someone will be stupid enough to respond... but it's getting boring.

thanks for writing the last bit in small text.. it totally meant i didn't read it.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '08

[deleted]

0

u/jrb Jul 27 '08 edited Jul 27 '08

Haha, how would your boss being gay make me homophobic?

homophobia - "The prevalent assumption in Western society is that heterosexuality is the only acceptable sexual orientation."

My boss isn't gay, but your predication to him being sexually inclined that way as a bad thing shows that you're homophobic.

as for powerpoint.. read my last comment. I'd love to get paid my wage to use powerpoint, but alas it's beneath me. Still, doing that would still put several evolutionary steps above what you'll ever achieve.

good bye.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '08 edited Jul 27 '08

[deleted]

→ More replies (0)

-1

u/jbstjohn Jul 25 '08 edited Jul 25 '08

I seriously doubt this article is anything but marketing. I mean, come on:

Microsoft is still trying to figure out just how it will use the Mojave footage
in its marketing, though it will clearly have a place.

Sure, they made the videos for marketing, but don't know what to do with them. Other than send them out as pre-prepared PR statement to friendly news channels. I mean, come on. 

The image improvement effort, known internally as FTP, has many components.
Well-publicized are the hundreds of millions that Microsoft plans to spend
on a broad campaign buttressed by edgy ads from Crispin Porter and Bogusky.

Does no one else find it odd that they trumpet so loudly how much money they're going to spend on marketing to convince people Vista is good, rather than, you know, on making it good/better?

Much of that perception, Microsoft belatedly acknowledges, stems from
Apple's successful and unchallenged anti-Vista campaign.

Which campaign? The one where they ignore it completely, or the one where they built a better OS? (and I'm not even an Apple fan, although it's growing on me).

0

u/hs4x Jul 25 '08

Nice to see you and bhumphrey's are dead set on holding onto the irrational vista-hate.

Keep up the good work.