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Microsoft Pleads With Consumers to Adopt Vista Now

SlinkySausage writes "Microsoft has admitted, in an email to the press, that 'some customers may be waiting to adopt Windows Vista because they've heard rumors about device or application compatibility issues, or because they think they should wait for a service pack release.' The company is now pleading with customers not to wait until the release of SP1 at the end of the year, launching a 'fact rich' program to try to convince them to 'proceed with confidence'. The announcement coincides with an embarrassing double-backflip: Microsoft had pre-briefed journalists that it was going to allow home users to run Vista basic and premium under virtual machines like VMWare, but it changed its mind at the last minute and pulled the announcement."

31 of 912 comments (clear)

  1. Don't wait for SP1... by stevie-boy · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... it's not like it will actually fix anything, anyway ;-)

  2. I hate begging... by gbobeck · · Score: 5, Funny

    I really hate begging. Doubly so when it comes from such a big company.

    Now, bribery, I'm ok with... Maybe if they slipped me a couple hundred dollars, I would reconsider their operating system offering.

    --
    Navicula hydraulica plena anguilarum est. Omnes castelli tuus nostri sunt. Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.
    1. Re:I hate begging... by mqduck · · Score: 2, Funny

      Maybe if they slipped me a couple hundred dollars, I would reconsider their operating system offering.

      Yeah, then Vista Ultimate would only cost $200. Practically free!
      --
      Property is theft.
  3. Yay more masturbation material by heinousjay · · Score: 1, Funny

    Quickly, Slashdot experts. Get in here with your predictions of how Microsoft is failing and Windows will be a memory in a short time and people will suddenly start caring about Linux. You don't want to be the last to get your load on the biscuit.

    --
    Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
    1. Re:Yay more masturbation material by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      You don't want to be the last to get your load on the biscuit.

      Am I the only one who finds this sentence profoundly disturbing?

  4. Slashdot pleads with users to adopt Linux now... by Noryungi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Annoy a billionaire... Install Ubuntu today!

    (Feel free to replace "Ubuntu" with the name of your favourite FreeNIX: Slackware, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, you name it)

    --
    The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
  5. Nah, I'm gonna wait 'ntill the first pirated ver by hoyeru · · Score: 2, Funny

    thank you very much

    --
    fuck karma, I like saying the truth better
  6. Re:Too late. by MollyB · · Score: 3, Funny

    Too late, already switched to Ubuntu. You beat me to it! Anyway, that makes two (kazillion?) of us. 8)
  7. Re:Um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ah, yes... a new version of Windows called SEXP. I predict the name alone will sell a lot of copies of that one. :)

  8. If M$ wants me to run Vista... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...then they can drop the price below $100 and give me copies for my computer, my laptop, and my wife's computer.

    I don't need this buggy, OVER-PRICED, DRM'd, over-hyped piece of bloatware. XP does what I need it to do and there's no reason to go to Vista. When an OS is more restrictive than a straightjacket, more bloated than Rosanne, Rosie O'Donnell, and an entire convention of over-fed, beached whales, and more expensive than any other component in the system (especially with the economy in the toilet) what does M$ expect? They don't have a great track record as it is...

  9. Re:What use is DRM for a scanner? by anarxia · · Score: 2, Funny

    To prevent you from printing the movie frame by frame and scanning the frames in another PC.

  10. Re:Nah, I'm gonna wait 'ntill the first pirated ve by Legion303 · · Score: 2, Funny

    You've been waiting several months too long.

  11. Re:Some things I like about Vista by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good list. I can see why Longhorn Vista took so long to "complete."

  12. Re:embarrassing double-backflip? by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think an embarrassing double backflip involves either ripping leotards or landing awkwardly on something pointy. I'm hoping Microsoft has done the latter (mainly because Steve Ballmer in leotards would look something like a mouldy grapefruit in a sock, and that's as far as I want to take the imagery for fear of going to moderation hell).

    --
    Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
  13. Re:Yeah... Are they going to indemnify us? by aadvancedGIR · · Score: 4, Funny

    1- DRM. And since you apparntly don't want to upgrade your HW in the next 20 years, it won't be such a problem.
    2- New MS games DX-10 exclusive games. If they make games so good only 10% of the windows PC users can use them, you definitely should be part of that elite.
    3- Aero. No kidding, it if one of the 5 best looking UI of the moment.
    4- No need for a good anti-virus. Well, at least no good anti-virus available anyway.

  14. Re:Woe is them by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pleading with your customers to buy your product? Who do they think they are, "Head On"?


    Vista! Applied directly to the ... uhh... err... never mind.
  15. Video Professor by Bayoudegradeable · · Score: 2, Funny

    M$ should hire the Video Professor to handle their ad campaign.... "So please, try our product!"

    --
    Sig Registration Form 34c_766(a) submitted to Ministry of Signature Management. Approval pending.
  16. Re:Um... by Minwee · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Vista is way nicer to sue than XP."

    But what if I don't want to have to take legal action against my operating system?

    What if I just want to use it instead?

  17. Ferris was wrong: You can go too far by BillGatesLoveChild · · Score: 5, Funny

    > The company is now pleading with customers not to wait until the release of SP1

    Who said anything about waiting until SP1? ;-)

    Slow: "Please wait. And I emphasize the 'Wait'"

    Intrusive: "Vista has found a number of movies and MP3 recordings that you may not be licensed for. Please wait while Vista authorizes licenses for these."

    Obnoxious: "You've positioned your coffee on the left side of your keyboard this morning instead of the right side. Please wait while Vista reauthorizes your license. Sorry we've screwed up a script on our website so we'll assume the worst and now run your PC in degraded mode."

    Dilbertesque: "To help developers test their software under Vista, we won't let you test your software on a virtual machine. Go out and buy a new PC and test your software on there. This will make you more productive, or so the crack-smoking marketing executive who came up with the idea thought."

    Tedious: "UAC: An Application is about to do something. Are you sure?"

    A Bridge too far: "Congratulations for installing DirectX 10: Only available on Vista! As the 10th person to use DirectX 10 you qualify for a special prize. This will be a DirectX 10 game of your choice, when someone finally decides to write one. (We're hoping a Mac programmer will do it. They like to target obscure niche markets.)"

  18. Re:Drink the Kool-Aid© by mgiuca · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can't GET any damn Kool-Aid©, I need to be an OEM and sign a non-disclosure agreement!

  19. Re:Woe is them by Eberlin · · Score: 2, Funny

    As opposed to Ballmer's song:

    How many chairs must an angry ape throw
    before you call him a man?
    Yes, 'n how many sales must his vista sell
    out of their glorious marketing hand?
    Yes, 'n how many times must their CTO fly
    before XP is forever banned?
    The answer, my friend, is blowin' more hot wind,
    the answer is blowin' more hot wind.

  20. Re:Woe is them by bondsbw · · Score: 2, Funny

    Vista! Applied directly to the ... uhh... err... never mind.

    Back before computers, we called that toilet paper. But it wasn't transparent glass toilet paper, and it came off the roll faster.

    --
    All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
  21. Re:Yeah... Are they going to indemnify us? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Funny
    Ideally, your testers would be your Guinea pigs.

    What's the problem? That's exactly what he said.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  22. Re:Do I need it? by |/|/||| · · Score: 5, Funny
    For the DRM?

    --
    [javac] 100 errors
  23. Re:Yeah... Are they going to indemnify us? by hxnwix · · Score: 5, Funny

    Congradulations, you win the Well, It Works On My Parent's Computer Award !!!

    Remember, this is a step above the Well, It Works On My Computer Award.

    You're really on fire right now. Keep it up!

  24. Re:Yeah... Are they going to indemnify us? by Linker3000 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Did you ever come across a free prog called icopy? Much better and much friendlier options like incremental copies, skipping of open files.

    I'd put it right up there with thedraw and pc-file III

    --
    AT&ROFLMAO
  25. DRM defined: by Lost+Penguin · · Score: 2, Funny

    Doesn't Run Movies

    --
    I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
  26. Re:Do I need it? by jjrockman · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, for WinFS!

    --
    Quit jabbering on the phone while driving. You are not that important.
  27. Re:....Or not. Some facts here, please by djp928 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since when is making up bad info about Windows and Microsoft *not* worth +5 Insightful on Slashdot?

  28. Re:Yeah... Are they going to indemnify us? by Maltheus · · Score: 2, Funny

    As afar as Microsoft is concerned, it's not about where you're coming from, or where you're going to -- it's all about the journey

    Ahh, now I finally understand the season finale of the Sopranos AND the blue screen of death.

  29. Re:Do I need it? ??? No. by podperson · · Score: 3, Funny

    The real kicker is MS is still profiting off of this because of the people that have to go out and by a copy of XP to make their computer work.

    I wonder if they offer special downgrade pricing?