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Vista Is Good

mattmaroon.com

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Re: Vista Is Good

#61

Post by raganwald »

jimbokun wrote: post #34
mattrepl wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since it was released before MS' offering, Spotlight was probably inspirational to Vista's search.

Which is an important point. Steve Jobs was able to make it very clear that the most notable features of Vista were in OS X first. I was at the WWDC where Tiger was introduced and the posters said things like "Redmond, start your photocopiers", and "Introducing Longhorn" (Vista's previous code name). The brilliance of the Mac vs. PC adds is that it has been pounded into the subconscious of the consuming public that i…

"the PR burden has now shifted to Microsoft to demonstrate that they actually can offer functionality that's not already available on a Mac."

This doesn't seem compelling. What is wrong with MSFT simply copying Apple while maintaining compatibility and familiarity for its users?

Consider American retreads of Britcoms (a longstanding tradition, I recall watching "Three's Company" religiously). The value proposition is simple: All the laughs of "Robin's Nest," with an accent you can understand.

So why must MSFT "innovate"? What is wrong with going to their user base and saying "All the nice features of OS X, with backwards compatibility and rewritten to be familiar to you"?

This may not be sexy to me personally, but it seems like a legitimate business strategy and like something many Windows owners would want.

Re: Vista Is Good

#62

Post by axod »

pchristensen wrote: post #57
axod wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll "An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion." I think quite a few of his blog posts fall int…

Controversial: he's just opposing conventional wisdom Irrelevant or off-topic: Vista and Facebook are very relevant to this community Baiting others: maybe he's guilty of this, but I think it's more the jarring cognitive dissonance of him opposing the accepted wisdom. A minority opinion isn't necessarily baiting. Disrupt normal discussion: other people post his stuff. Let's face it, he writes well, he argues his poin…

The first line of the article was "As Apple fanboyism has spread throughout the tech publications".

If that's not baiting I don't know what is. In actual fact a lot of articles about Apple these days are bashing them. Especially for the Macbook air.

Also, I'm not really sure why Vista is relevent TBH, are people here starting up a company to write desktop apps for Vista? Do any hackers use Vista?

Re: Vista Is Good

#63

Post by [deleted] »

pchristensen wrote: post #58

Hi, I'm Matt Maroon's agent. Please direct all irrational, accusatory non-productive trolling downmods at me. As of right now, 23 people have voted for my client's article, indicating that it many people think my client is in fact not a troll. If you disagree, please leave a civil comment. If you disagree with my client's responses, add another civil response of your own. Disagreement isn't cause for downmodding.

[deleted]

Re: Vista Is Good

#64

Post by GHFigs »

He can't even get out of the first clause before trotting out the "Apple fanboyism" scapegoat. It's the tech industry equivalent of crying "liberal bias".

Re: Vista Is Good

#65

Post by mattmaroon »

andreyf wrote: post #48
alex_c wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matt Maroon: I disagree with the rest of the world, and here's why.

I'd rather read an opinion which disagrees with the rest of the world than agrees with it, if only for the sake of novelty.

I'd rather write one for the same reason.

Re: Vista Is Good

#66

Post by mattmaroon »

axod wrote: post #31
petercooper wrote: post #28

Why do nearly all of this guy's blog posts end up on the front page of HN? Sure, a couple have been good, but it strikes me as a little "odd" that he seems to be on here all the time. Group voting, or do random people really dig opinionated blog posts that much? Honest question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll "An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion." I think quite a few of his blog posts fall int…

Yes, it is me who is trolling by posting my opinions to my blog. It's not you, who out of kneejerk reflex caused by your sensitivity about being an Apple fanboy (a label you applied to yourself, then took offense to) leaves 10 negative comments every time someone posts me here.

Anything on my blog is, by definition, neither irrelevant nor off-topic, since the theme is "things that are interesting to me".

Re: Vista Is Good

#67

Post by gills »

olefoo wrote: post #38

It's too bad this article is such a troll. I'm sure there are intelligent and useful things to be said about vista; but this article is not where they can be found. Vista strikes me as a reasonably good OS crippled by the need to support the entire win32 legacy. It's too bad that Microsoft can't take 2000 of their best programmers and turn them loose on building a new OS that supports .NET and nothing before; as it m…

Some would argue that Microsoft got to the top of the pile due in no small part to maintaining backward compatibility. By doing so they lower the barriers to upgrading for most of their users, who don't want to reinvest in new versions of applications that can't make the jump.

Re: Vista Is Good

#68

Post by jimbokun »

raganwald wrote: post #61
jimbokun wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is an important point. Steve Jobs was able to make it very clear that the most notable features of Vista were in OS X first. I was at the WWDC where Tiger was introduced and the posters said things like "Redmond, start your photocopiers", and "Introducing Longhorn" (Vista's previous code name). The brilliance of the Mac vs. PC adds is that it has been pounded into the subconscious of the consuming public that i…

"the PR burden has now shifted to Microsoft to demonstrate that they actually can offer functionality that's not already available on a Mac." This doesn't seem compelling. What is wrong with MSFT simply copying Apple while maintaining compatibility and familiarity for its users? Consider American retreads of Britcoms (a longstanding tradition, I recall watching "Three's Company" religiously). The value proposition is…

"What is wrong with MSFT simply copying Apple while maintaining compatibility and familiarity for its users?"

I didn't say MSFT is doing something immoral by copying Apple. My point is that Apple has shifted perception such that MSFT, and specifically Vista, is now the butt of a joke. They have had external help, for sure, but Apple's relentless advertising campaign has certainly also contributed to making it so.

So my argument is that, empirically, in the minds of many consumers the burden has shifted to Microsoft to prove they do not deserve ridicule. Whether or not that is "fair" is a separate matter.

Re: Vista Is Good

#70

Post by axod »

mattmaroon wrote: post #66
axod wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll "An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion." I think quite a few of his blog posts fall int…

Yes, it is me who is trolling by posting my opinions to my blog. It's not you, who out of kneejerk reflex caused by your sensitivity about being an Apple fanboy (a label you applied to yourself, then took offense to) leaves 10 negative comments every time someone posts me here. Anything on my blog is, by definition, neither irrelevant nor off-topic, since the theme is "things that are interesting to me".

The main point I was making was that your articles seem to be written with the aim of irritating and provoking a response. I guess perhaps that's why they get posted - people can see that they are controversial and baiting in their nature.
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