01.04.10
Deceptive Vista 7 Advertising, Neglect, Bugs, and More Security Problems
Summary: Latest signs that Vista 7 stinks, despite dishonest “placements” from the Seattle press and other pro-Microsoft circles
THE VERSION of Windows that the public needs to think about does not even exist. The boosters of Microsoft (SoftPedia in this case) insist that the vapourware known as “Windows 8″ will fix everything, as usual. They promise that it will not be just another Vista.
SoftPedia also wrote about video ads, correctly pointing out that no level of hype can ever match the disaster known as Vista.
By any standards, Microsoft’s marketing campaign for Windows 7 is much more modest compared to that of Windows Vista. The difference in financial resources allocated to each platform can be explained by a shift in focus as far as the message accompanying each operating system goes.
“Microsoft’s advertising misfires” is the title of this new article from PC Pro (UK) and in Jordan there are Vista 7 ads masquerading as articles. Microsoft PR employees are of course enjoying free adverts from their Seattle press and in the Seattle P-I we find details about the “Slog” against competitors like GNU/Linux.
The posting says Microsoft is looking for someone to, in part, “build and manage the activities of a v-team of 13 district Linux & OpenOffice Compete Leads, and develop a broad set of marketing skills.”
It’s not about “marketing” or “Compete”. We wrote about this a few days ago [1, 2]. Microsoft Nick does not point out EDGI, but he does publish this Vista 7 ad (as an article), leading to comments such as: “wow, another unpaid advertisement for M$” (there are other new examples).
Amongst other comments we have “Will in Seattle” saying: “We save millions not having Windows.”
Another person adds: “Wow, it only cost me 4 hours to find out it will not work on my machine, despite with MS said. Now we are having discussions with my credit company since MS policy is no refunds. What is my ROI??”
Finally, there’s this:
Cost Savings mileage varies widely.
How were the results calculated?
Who defined the metrics and how were they measured?
Did a credible 3rd party, Gartner or IDC, conduct the research?
Did Microsoft fund third party “research” to reverse engineer results to fit their product value propositions and messaging?
Ask your rep to provide you with customers to contact directly and make sure Microsoft is not on the call.
The Gartner Group and the likes of it are corrupt. It’s the nature of their business because they are paid by the very same companies that they cover. Here is a timely new example from Michael Gartenberg, a former Microsoft shill on the company’s payroll, who is now pretending to be an analyst [1, 2, 3]. It’s like people in costumes. He praises Vista 7 of course, despite the fact that not many users of Vista 7 even exist.
In fact, Vista 7 seems so irrelevant that Apple too is ignoring Vista 7 users. From the news:
• Apple delays Windows 7 support
• Apple-imposed Boot Camp deadline for Windows 7 is set be missed
• Apple misses Boot Camp update deadline
• Apple likely to delay rollout of Windows 7 support
Apple is likely to miss a self-imposed deadline for delivering support for Microsoft’s latest operating system to Mac users running its Boot Camp dual booting software.
Apple would have made its self-imposed deadline had Vista 7 been a significant business factor (but it’s not).
Our reader Ryan, a former Microsoft MVP, wrote last night: “Vista + SP2 + Platform Update gives you pretty much all of Windows 7 that means anything. I actually have a Vista Business license I thought about replacing Windows 7 Home Premium with. I found a lot of things in Windows 7 I hate worse than Vista, especially the interface. 7 is also buggier. Vista never shut down Aero with no warning then it comes back later… still haven’t figured that out… happens on Nvidia and ATI.”
In other news, it turns out that Vista 7 has more security problems it did not talk about:
• Long-time Windows vulnerability might be fixed soon
• Russinovich: A possible cure for exploitable heap corruption in Windows 7
The key to a huge plurality, if not a majority, of exploits that have plagued Microsoft Windows over the past two decades has been tricking the system into executing data as though it were code. A malicious process can place data into its own heap — the pile of memory reserved for its use — that bears the pattern of executable instructions. Then once that process intentionally crashes, it can leave behind a state where the data in that heap is pointed to and then executed, usually without privilege attached.
There have been many other security issues in Vista 7. Some posts about it can be found below. █
- Cybercrime Rises and Vista 7 is Already Open to Hijackers
- Vista 7: Broken Apart Before Arrival
- Department of Homeland Security ‘Poisoned’ by Microsoft; Vista 7 is Open to Hijackers Again
- Vista 7 Security “Cannot be Fixed. It’s a Design Problem.”
- Why Vista 7 Could be the Least Secure Operating System Ever
- Journalists Suggest Banning Windows, Maybe Suing Microsoft Over DDoS Attacks
- Vista 7 Vulnerable to Latest “Critical” Flaws
- Vista 7 Seemingly Affected by Several More “Critical” Flaws This Month
- Reason #1 to Avoid Vista 7: Insecurity
- Vista 7 Left Hijackable Again (Almost a Monthly Recurrence)
- Trend Micro: Vista 7 Less Secure Than Vista
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Needs Sunlight said,
January 4, 2010 at 8:48 am
Microsoft will also have a few skunks blogging and schmoozing at conferences:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/15/microsoft-recruits-student-bloggers-with-free-software-and-trips-to-conferences/
Chances are that any people or writing even tolerant of MS products and services are either these skunks or only a single degree of separation from the skunks.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 9:05 am
I wrote about these here. There’s also MSPs.
Best fans money can buy?
Needs Sunlight Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 10:10 am
These little sell-outs, if there are any, are not so much fans-for hire unless characters like Vidkun Quisling could have been called a German fan. The economic model more closely follows John Anthony Walker or Aldrich Ames.
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and open standards are essential to any nation in maintaining national sovereignty. Promoting Microsoft is antithetical to FOSS and Open Standards and, thus, to national sovereignty.
These skunks would be inciting people to undermine and work against their own people and their own government.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 10:39 am
When it comes to fans for hire, Apple has its share of sins too.
your_friend said,
January 4, 2010 at 11:32 am
I’m laughing at Softpedia’s assertion of a quieter, wiser Microsoft. If Microsoft is buying less advertising, it’s because they have less money. Recent advertising is so tasteless it’s apparent that the company is making desperate miscalculations that will surely backfire. Microsoft is imploding.
The company has dropped it’s decorum level from “unlimited potential” to false promises of privacy in sickening perversion. Run away product placement and astroturfing prove that the company is now proud to shove their private parts into everyone’s face for a buck. Yes, I mean private parts. It is hard to imagine more cringeworthy advertising than the Family Guy fiasco, the Windows 7 parties or the vomit advertisements for IE. We might expect that kind of thing from people who ordinarily dissmiss their partners as “one night stands” in training lectures but a functional PR department should have a more discression. It’s like the company is run by a drug addict.
The core of this, of course, is that Microsoft is not competitive. Windows is still the worst OS you can buy, and everything else they touch is ruined by the greed that makes Windows suck. Shifting more work offshore and firing more key US employees is not going to save them.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
It might help them meet quarter-to-quarter targets, which is the yardstick that makes or breaks an executive.