Moved My Blog

I moved my blog to Wordpress as I can't stand the Blogger.com text editor.

See: http://windows7classaction.wordpress.com/

And yeah, yeah, I should re-point my domain.  I'll get round to it...

The Morning After

Ok, so this morning I woke up and wondered if my buying http://www.windows7classaction.com/ was a late night pizza induced dream. But nope, the blog is still here. But unlike my experience with Vista I can't say I have any "buyers regret". A lot of people have taken the Vista plunge and then chosen to downgrade back to XP. How many people have ever bought a brand new car and then turned around and traded it back in for their 6 year old model with the coffee stains on the front seat and the red crayon indelibly melted into the back one? Not many. This morning I was checking out the articles in my RSS feed (look b-e-l-o-w) and one of them, “The Mojave Experiment:” Bad Science, Bad Marketing by Wil Shipley was very funny.

This so-called experiment of Microsoft’s is an insult to science, and to our intelligence. And I am dying to see the out-takes from their shoot. I mean, how many people do you suppose like being told, “Hey, this giant, unpopular monopolistic software company just made an ass out of you! Ha ha! Our leading scienticians just PROVED that you LOVE VISTA and WANT TO MARRY IT. You are TOTALLY GAY for Vista! Haaaaaaa HAAAAAAA!”

Yeah, good point! When a company starts having contempt for their own customers you know they are in deep trouble. It was bad enough that Microsoft was getting slayed by those Apple ads, now Microsoft decided to lampoon its own customers. But I digress... another point made by Mr. Shipley was that the Mojave Experiment was sort of like the "Pepsi Challenge" where Pepsi routinely won blind taste tests against Coke, but Coke still sells more than Pepsi. The theory is that Pepsi is very sweet and will win in a small tasting challenge. But after a whole can of Pepsi is too much. Good analogy for Vista vs XP, I think. But I have another one... Vista is a dumb blond bimbo gold digger. I'm not saying blonds are inherently dumb or bimbos. Or that all bimbos are gold diggers. But Vista is all of these. At first her Aero effects make you a little weak in the knees. But in the end she looks a whole lot more appealing than she really is. Plus, she's very expensive to have around. She chews up resources, goes through batteries like they were "bling", doesn't get a long well with others, embarasses you at business meetings... sigh. Vista, we had a good fling, but the "morning after" I'm seeing your true colors. So will Windows 7 be sexy AND smart. Kind of a witty and tart brunette ala Tina Fey? Here's hoping. But I'm still convinced that Microsoft owes the faithful who have had to put up with the "bimbo" Vista an apology and a VERY steep discount on Windows 7. If you agree please drop me a line.

Windows 7 Class Action

I overslept this morning and after dropping my son off at school in a driving cold rain I hit Dunkin Donuts and returned home fortified with sugar and caffeine. Roused from my stupor by my guilty pleasures I began browsing my email when a ZDnet article grabbed my attention: Why Windows 7 Should Be Free. I admit I'm sometimes a sucker for hyperventilating blog titles, but the logic was immediately apparent to me and I raced through the article as sugar, caffeine, a brilliant idea, and the sweet smell of revenge coalesced into a sudden desire to DO something. "I'm mad as "H - E - double L and I'm not gonna take it any more", I said to myself.

Within seconds my fingers were typing GoDaddy and before I knew what happened I had purchased http://www.windows7classaction.com, .net, .info, .org, and .mobl. My orgy with the GoDaddy girl had cost me $33. If I should ever stand before a court of law for my actions it will undoubtedly be defined as a "crime of passion". My wife, in contrast, simply labeled it "idiotic".

But enough about me. "Why should Windows 7 Be Free?", you ask. Well, if you have had the misfortune of buying Vista in the past three years (especially pre-Sp1) you should already understand by now that Vista is a verifiable klunker. Windows Vista is the worst upgrade from Microsoft since "ME". Even Microsoft realizes this.

But don't take my word for it. Here is what Steve Ballmer said about Windows 7 -

"it's Windows Vista, a lot better"

Still not convinced that the Big Cheese at MS agrees with me? Ok, he also said the following...

"Windows Vista is good, Windows 7 is Windows Vista with clean-up in user interface [and] improvements in performance"

Read Gregg Keizer's excellent article on Ballmer's comments in Oct. 2008 here

While I'm glad to hear that Ballmer expects Windows 7 to improve on Vista's performance, that isn't exactly setting a very high bar considering the fact that XP still routinely out-performs Vista.

So this begs the question... if Vista is a lemon that Windows 7 "makes lemonade with" why are Microsoft's faithful customers being forced to buy what we should have had three years ago? Back in the day the Philadelphia 76ers launched a campaign for Philly fans, "We owe you one, we owe you 1!". Finally Moses Malone and Dr. J delivered on that promise - late, but better late than never. So I respectfully submit to Microsoft and Ballmer - "You Owe Us One". How about selling me Windows 7 for ONE DOLLAR? Am I Don Quixote for the new millennium? Perhaps. But maybe if enough people join me we can wake up Ballmer and Microsoft before it is too late. Trust me Steve. I really don't like Vista. Really. A Mac is looking better to me everyday. Please send flowers before it is too late.