Seeing is wanting for Windows Vista (Mojave Experiment) – people having their perceptions changed by actually seeing what it can do…

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The Schlog » Blog Archive » Mojave Experiment = Pepsi Challenge — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:26:50 GMT

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re: Seeing is wanting for Windows Vista (Mojave Experiment) – people having their perceptions changed by actually seeing what it can do…

David Overton — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:52:09 GMT

Paulie,

I know this will sound strange, but this is normal - no OS takes over, overnight - I wrote about this a while back how if you look at the press XP got a year or two on, it was the same.

In answer to your question of do we know about downgrades, I believe the answer is yes in the main.

Vista at launch was definately choosy what hardware worked well and most of the A/V vendors (IMHO) sucked on Vista, but that is largely a thing of the past (some vendors still suck, but that is both XP & Vista - again IMHO). With SP1 and the other updates, most people who are shown Vista, or who get Vista, like it.

Some orgs downgrade to XP so they only have to manage one OS, other people because they prefer XP, but I'm sure you still have people who only run Classic mode or Windows 2000 today too. This experiment was simply about finding out how much of the issue was reality and how much perception. It shows there is a HUGE chunk of perception problems and (IMHO) a smaller chunk of "real" problems. Those real problems we are continuing to chip away at.

thanks for the feedback - conversations like this are much, much better than throwing mud ;-)

David

re: Seeing is wanting for Windows Vista (Mojave Experiment) – people having their perceptions changed by actually seeing what it can do…

Paulie — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:34:13 GMT

Does Microsoft have a way of recognising Vista sales where an XP downgrade has been used?

I know that when buying new machines from Dell with XP shipped on the unit there is no mention of XP at all in the documentation. Vista recovery media is shipped and it is registered as a Vista sale. My Dell account manager tells me they still ship a LOT of XP.

It is difficult to nail exactly why people do or don't like Vista. I have customers who take to it with no issue at all and quite enjoy the experience of having something new, others who have outright rejected it after a period of usage. In some cases there is a perception issue, but there are a lot of cases of genuine dislike. I’ve used Vista almost exclusively since launch and find it better than XP in most areas, but the networking side of things still frustrates me.

Maybe XP has been around so long people just got too used to it.

re: Seeing is wanting for Windows Vista (Mojave Experiment) – people having their perceptions changed by actually seeing what it can do…

David Overton — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:00:14 GMT

Vlad,

you are both right and wrong - look at the other stats on the site - 89% of people who have bought Vista were satisfied or very satisfied and . What you are talking about are some problems that were mainly fixed by SP1 or hardware manufacturers. The Vista experience is better than with XP when it launched.

I'm not saying that mistakes were made, but with 140M copies sold and people still buying it, seeing is enough for many people. This is not the "big" advertising campaign - it is exactly what it claims - an experiment - that showed that when most people actually Vista it changes their perception.

While Vista might not be for you (as XP was not for some for a long time), UAC is solving the security awareness problems and the fact is that other than admining my system I never see UAC prompts.

VARs refusing to sell Vista - I still know some who refuse to sell XP - their choice, but otherwise there is a vicious circle here "people don't want Vista, so I won't sell it. I'll tell people the reason is because people don't want Vista." Many don't get a choice from these vendors, but simply only "hear" that Vista is bad.

As you know, good hardware, less crapware, 2GB of memory and Vista is a great experience.

It is time for Microsoft to show that rather than being told what is good or bad, finding out is a much better place to be. Watch the videos - and the guys were not shown a 10 minute video!!

ttfn

David

re: Seeing is wanting for Windows Vista (Mojave Experiment) – people having their perceptions changed by actually seeing what it can do…

Vlad Mazek — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:46:23 GMT

So people that upgraded to Vista and used it had horrible experiences, lack of hardware support, major complaints about UAC and more. For almost two years.

On the other hand, you had people who had not used Vista at all watch a 10 minute presentation and get impressed by a demo.

I am not sure how that is a big positive Dave, why not send them home with those laptops and have them use them for a little while and then compare their opinions after the fact. Because thats the Vista problem, every Mac switch you read about is full of disdin for the Vista as a platform, it's not just an issue of perception when you look at people that actually used and dropped Vista.

What about thousands of VARs that refuse to sell Vista? Are they just ignorant too?

I applaud Microsoft for doing this, but the marketing needs to be more sustained and far reaching, not just a one shot of web stuff only us geeks are going to look at.

-Vlad