Even if the Windows XP is already a three years old OS, Microsoft decided that it is time to try convincing the users that Windows XP is a product like no other.And the big software giant has started a marketing campaign which will run on TV, printed media and Web for the next 15 months.
The campaign which will be launched in 11 countries will try to play up Windows as the start to many things. The ads will have messages like “Start something curious,” “Start discovering lost cities” and “Start feeding your brain.” Briefly: “Start something” and start it with Windows.
And the big software giant has started a marketing campaign which will run on TV, printed media and Web for the next 15 months.
15 months? So when are they planning on releasing Longhorn?
A few more suggestions:
Start Looking For A Good AV Vendor
Start Hourly Updates
Start Saving
…
They would better spend that money paying more staff and bringing longhorn out sooner with less bugs
ha ha… Yeah time to start looking at other Operating Systems!!
Your question may be self-answering.
Well… how funny? They will do the add until Longhorn hit’s the marked:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/Apr05/04-18StartSomet…
Now that Apple (no! I don’t use Mac OS X and I don’t like the Apple OS) has so many features that Longhorn will have, I am not surpriced that they run this campaign.
Anyway… I hope for them, that their software is not so buggy as it used to be. I think most users would like to “finish” something with Windows.
I don’t know, SP2 came out so Windows XP is now sort of stable it seems, Why would they have marketed there beta versions?
This is quite possibly the funniest goof ever. They forgot to remove the exif metadata on the pictures of the campain:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/Apr05/04-18StartSomet…
It reads: Camera Software: Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh
Yea i guess windows XP is really the place to start something with nowadays…
Priceless.
I think this this campaign is because of Tiger….
Cause we’re cutting support for everything else right before we release something new so that you have to upgrade twice!
“Watch as Lotus 1-2-3 integrates Miami Vice!”
It surely is, the whole layout and appearence is very Apple-ish. That “start something sonic” page has some figures that look exactly like Apple’s iPod/iTunes campaign.
Start…..the ultimate weapon, never under estimate the power of the dark side
(sorry, couldn’t resist
Though it seems more appropriate (following that insane article recently about “key” Longhorn features which ammounted to no more than filer thumbnails and a sensible search facility), to maybe use a slogan like….
Start…..to panic!
Is it just me? Or are Microsoft really loosing it? By the time they actually get around to releasing Longhorn the only “innovation” will be a restrictive licencing policy, no wait, that’s re-scheduled for XP too
*yawn* BORING.
They’re just trying to dent Apple’s Tiger release and cover of the fact that Longhorn is Longdistance.
Hah, this is great! Microsoft really didn’t need to do this to keep people using Windows. Most people don’t have any idea there’s something other than Windows! But now that Microsoft will launch a marketing campaign, people will probably think “huh? You want me buy Windows? Is there something else?”. You’re opening the eyes of the people, Microsoft. I thank you for that!
@ dood: CONFIRMED!!!
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/images/press/2005/WinXPcurious_l…
DOWNLOAD the jpg file and look at the EXIF info. You CAN DO SO USING WINDOWS XP by righ-clicking the file, selecting “summary” and then, “advanced”.
Thanks, dood, for finding out.
This is the biggest joke I EVER saw during a long time 🙂
So, Microsoft has THAT much trust in their OS, even they themselves use a Mac to START things and get them, like SteveB said, FINISH something.
instead of making it better just market it lots.
scary thing is that this actually works.
… is the obvious rejoinder.
Where do the marketeers get it from?
About as great as “Where do you want to go today?” with the oft-reported Linux reply “Where do you want to go tomorrow?”
Stop running away from Microsoft…
identify -format %[EXIF:*] dl/WinXPcurious_lg.jpg
Orientation=1
XResolution=300/1
YResolution=300/1
ResolutionUnit=2
Software=Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh.
DateTime=2005:04:07 11:35:29.
ExifOffset=164
ColorSpace=65535
ExifImageWidth=4650
ExifImageLength=3075
too funny! yeah i know it’s petty, but it’s funny.
article should read…
“Microsoft to launch the biggest blunder ever”
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/images/press/2005/WinXPcurious_l…
instructions for xp…
1) save file to hd
2) right click on file
3) select “Properties”
4) select “Advanced”
sorry, too busy laughing.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/images/press/2005/WinXPcurious_l…
1) save file to hd
2) right click on file
3) select “Properties”
4) select “Summary”
5) select “Advanced”
I just tried it, but for me it says that there is no exif data anymore.
But hey, from a real point: This is done by an ad company, and those guys use Macs, they are graphical guys. I have to meet an hardcore graphical guy that uses a PC …
That effort comes too late. Everyone is switching to Linux already and people simply love it. Microsoft can’t expect to keep selling a bad product for that many years. Linux is the big new thing now and not because of advertising but simply because it is a well engineered OS that has become easy to use.
File name: WinXPcurious_lg.jpg
File size: 7744069 bytes (4650×3075, 4.3bpp, 6x)
EXIF Summary:
Camera-Specific Properties:
Camera Software: Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh
Image-Specific Properties:
Image Orientation: Top, Left-Hand
Horizontal Resolution: 300 dpi
Vertical Resolution: 300 dpi
Image Created: 2005:04:07 11:35:29
Color Space Information: Uncalibrated
Image Width: 4650
Image Height: 3075
Other Properties:
Resolution Unit: i
Exif IFD Pointer: 164
Compression Scheme: JPEG Compression (Thumbnail)
Horizontal Resolution: 72 dpi
Vertical Resolution: 72 dpi
Resolution Unit: i
Offset to JPEG SOI: 302
Bytes of JPEG Data: 7888
But now that Microsoft will launch a marketing campaign, people will probably think “huh? You want me buy Windows? Is there something else?”.
I think you give people too much credit. This is all about moving from earlier versions of Windows to XP.
“I just tried it, but for me it says that there is no exif data anymore. “
You have to click through to the large version.
I hope you’re joking!
The ads will have messages like “Start something curious,” “Start discovering lost cities” and “Start feeding your brain.”
huh?! Is it really possible to feed his brain using Windows?
That Steve Jobs will poke fun at this SNAFU while demo-ing Spotlight at the upcoming WWDC?
Steve:
“Spotlight is amaaaazing technology. Our engineers have this stuff down-pat – now us mere-mortals can find the stuff we really need – all at the flick of the wrist – Boom, Boom…. see that? Amazing…. But it doesn’t stop there. with Spotlight, Photoshop jockeys and graphics professionals can gather color-space and EXIF information on their image files to better manage print jobs. Let me pull up an image to show you Spotlight at work. Let’s see… here’s an image we can explore (brings up WinXPcurious_lg.jpg) let’s see…. wow… I guess even the competition thinks highly of us (EXIF info highlighting ‘Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh’ is displayed on huge screen behind Steve – crowd bursts into laughter)
It’s gonna be gggggggrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeat!!
a patch like no other. Just try to apply it. You’ll learn the difference.
Yes microsoft… Bit late
I am in a class of 10 CISCO CCNA 1&2
I myself use linux at home
three class mates want to move to linux
40% of my class are moving or have moved to linux
Students are leaving windows in droves
That MS bought Macintosh from apple????
Very funny. Oh and btw, I do pre press work on Windows2000 using Photoshop and InDesign.
That’s right and you know why?
You just have to imagine traveling in a plane and sudenly windows break (or crash if you find it more apropriate). And everything get’s sucked by windows and vanish
Enough for jokes
This ad just seems to confirm Microsoft Corporation’s autoritarian aspirations. What it is about to do is nothing more than propaganda, an instrument well known of being used (and it’s still used) by dictatorships.
Just like we haven’t enough in our physical and political world, we also must endure it and verify that it also stalks the machines we use to work.
Do they really need this?
..like they are competing against someone..
The ads will have messages like “Start something curious,” “Start discovering lost cities” and “Start feeding your brain.”
I think that last quote would more accurately be represented by “Starts eating your brain.” or “Rots your brain.”
Sorry I couldn’t resist poking the Windows users…
😉
“Luke, I AM your Operating System.” — Darth Linux
…is toilet paper. Everyone on the planet uses it, it’s a monopoly on our rear ends. However I’ve seen a few things that can replace it quite eficiently, like a small water tube… anyway, the point is that you wouldn’t need to use your hands anymore and risk to get dirt on them… same with windowze.
Just my 2 cents…
2000 was the last MS product that I will ever buy. I am using Slackware and Mepis Linux and couldn’t be happier. I don’t wish to buy into latest “marketing” experience from Redmond.
I want to say something really nasty here – but I will let it ride for civility’s sake.
It crashes uniquely! Better and more often than any other OS on the market.
It’s true.
I wondered what it was an ad for. “Start something”… as it repeated over and over with different faces. At the end? Windows XP.
Gives recycling a whole new meaning.
To the dude that does graphics works on Windows 2000 on InDesign and Photoshop – I’m sorry. No one should be forced to do that.
True story: place I worked for had Macs for design work. Let’s just call the marketing director closed minded. Her husband was in ‘design’ and used all NT4 for his work. He told her that Macs were dead and she needs to switch over to Windows ASAP. I tried my damnest to explain to them the problems they were going to have: slow swap files, font issues, crashes, etc. Would not listen. Installed a Windows 2000 top of the line machine at the time( (P4) with gobs of memory. Fast forward 6 months: new marketing director in place and we’re getting calls on a daily basis about something that isn’t working on the PC. My favorite was the graphic on the screen in Quark. Should up on the PC, hit print and it would not print that stupid graphic. Save the file and open it on the Mac and hit print. Whala. Prints perfectly. Called Quark. Their answer: we don’t know why it isn’t printing. We don’t know why it is working on the Mac. Honestly, we don’t get many calls on problems with Quark on the Mac.
Anyways, the PC got swapped out for a new Dual G5 1.8 and loaded with CS Suite and Office 2004. The person using it said that she was at least twice as productive on the Mac than the PC. Must be the truth because the same person is now on her own with her own design company with all Macs.
the day Apple ups their hardware is the day I buy one…till then…unfortunately I am stuck with XP. I dont know what all you guys problem is but XP just works fine for me. IT is fast and light…well cause I tweaked the shit out of it. But other than that its ok. It is not the best I realize. But if Apple ever launched OS X for pc I would be the first to buy it I can tell ya. PC hardware just evolves so damn fast…I love it. Macs are just so slow…thats my gripe. I saw my friend with a 17 in powerbook and while that thing was gorgeous he couldnt even run WOW on it without making my eyes tear…holy cow I could count the frames. I am sorry but for that much money a POS XP box runs way faster and is way more efficient. I dont know why you guys complain about stuff not working on XP. I guess you guys just dont know how to use it. Everything works fine for me. Peace y’all.
Oh PS…the ad campaign is really stupid. M$ will still sell Longhorn by the truckloads. Go figure.
It’s not due to coincidence that MS decided to just now launch an aggressive promo campaign for XP as OS X is about to be released. Since Longhorn is far from ready, they have no new product to push, so I suspect it’s a tactic to divert media and public attention from Apple’s OS X until they get Longhorn delivered. It’s gonna be surreal for alot of XP users who have had to deal with patches, viruses, malware, etc, so it’ll be a case where actual experience with the product won’t jive with the ad’s message of empowerment ….
please do not start that garbage any more.
it is all in your head.
It surely is all in his head
Many thanks to people here giving us such great laughs from their amazing humor!
OSnews people ROCK! Trolls too :p
If you think I ma a troll…well I am sorry I am not. Why do people get called trolls when all they are doing is trying to put across their point of view? I did not start this did I? I have a genuine gripe and I posted it. It is sorry indeed that people cant chat on forums without being called trolls.
Windows barely ever crashes for me. In fact, my personal XP box has never crashed. The ones at work have problems but people are stupid. Which is why MS has the upper hand.. You uber-geeks think everyone can just switch to linux and everything will be fine. I’m proficient with computers; I’ve been trying to switch to linux, in my spare time, for the past few months (well, for years, but not with as much effort as now); but still, I can’t get linux configured 100% right and becoming proficient at linux seems like an overwhelming task sometimes. You need to understand the concepts of configuration files, what they’re names are, where they are. You need to.. well, I’ll stop ranting…
My point is that I love linux and am proud to say that I haven’t touched windows (accept at work) for maybe 2 or 3 months now. I’m mostly doing it because I believe in the Open Source and Free Software movement. But I still think Linux people are cheating themselves if they don’t accept that windows is still the better OS for the average user. The job is faaaar from done.
hmm
even though they have what 90% of the desktop OS area its understandable that they would use advertising because of longhorn and competitors right now.
Sorry mate but I NEVER called YOU a troll! Re-read my previous post!
If you are still thinking that I called you a troll perhaps…
I think it’s a strategic blunder to admit to running the campaign for 15 months. It’s telling people their brand spanking new OS won’t be here until at least Q3 of next year. Isn’t that starting to sound like the equivalent of 40 years in the desert?
The fact that they feel the need to spend a lot of money on promoting an OS that’s been released for three years already is an indication of their fears for the long term future of their market position. If you think they wouldn’t mind losing 10% market share what with Linux and Mac OS becoming more prominent, you couldn’t be more wrong. That represents a shipload of dead presidents the difference and Bill isn’t going to have it.
It’s also a good barometer for the fact that Microsoft genuinely believes they [finally] have some competition on their hands. That’s been a while.
Unless people wake up from their decades old slumber, which is not very likely, Windows is easily going to remain the dominant platform out there. They will have competition from the Chinese [unless Bill can buy them. The Chinese love a bargain] and Linux and OS X. I don’t see them dropping below 85% of market share anytime soon though. I do wonder what they’re going to charge for it. If it’s over $129 dollars, I’m maybe going to scoff a bit at them.
Icons that represent the first page of a document… it’s new, it’s refreshing. Who remembers putting icons on folders in Mac OS 7?
It’s going to be a great campaign: lots of people are going to be happy with the money Microsoft is putting into the economy. That can never be a bad thing. And the OS has some merits. Not many, true, but it’s -not entirely- useless either.
But to then use a graphic processed by a Mac… it kinda takes away from the [rolling] thunder, doesn’t it?
[does anyone know why no other nation seems to be inclined to develop a kickass OS? I’m not talking about another UNICE, I’m talking about a completely new paradigm. I wonder why nobody ever seems to be doing that.
Guys,
MS probably used an external agency to do the work on their campaign. Most ppl in that field use a Mac – it’s hardly a contradiction at all.
“The campaign was created by the company’s longtime agency, McCann Erickson.”
Like I said.
Every other propietary OS vendor has at least a release cycle.MacOSX annually releases it’s successors with a lot of updates,fixes.Some would say that the prize of XP is the same as 4 * annually upgrade of the average propietary Linux distro or even MacOSX.The big difference is that with the annual or earlier release shedules you get your OS updated with *new apps*,*features* whereas MS only gets updates and bugfixes,and the rest still stays the same OS.Now they start a multi-million dollar campagne to buy them some time,with the same advertisements they brought they launched before the first release of XP.All the others have evolved (UNIX,Linux,*BSD,MacOSX,..)Not XP,what they managed to release with all their resources whas SP2,although not insignificant,certainly not enough if you see what the competition has accomplished.Some people must be very stupid and or ignorant if they don’t notice it.Probably the same poor mf’s who vote for their own dictators and monopolists worldwide.
Every other propietary OS vendor has at least a release cycle.MacOSX annually releases it’s successors with a lot of updates,fixes.Some would say that the prize of XP is the same as 4 * annually upgrade of the average propietary Linux distro or even MacOSX.The big difference is that with the annual or earlier release shedules you get your OS updated with *new apps*,*features* whereas MS only gets updates and bugfixes,and the rest still stays the same OS.Now they start a multi-million dollar campagne to buy them some time,with the same advertisements they brought when they launched before the first release of XP.All the others have evolved (UNIX,Linux,*BSD,MacOSX,..)Not XP,what they managed to release with all their resources whas SP2,although not insignificant,certainly not enough if you see what the competition has accomplished.Some people must be very stupid and or ignorant if they don’t notice it.Probably the same poor mf’s who vote for their own dictators and monopolists worldwide.
If you want that people really read your comment (I didn’t), try formatting and paragraphs instead of double-posting.
First i would like to thank you,i really appreciate your suggestions.Feel free not to read any posts here and bluntly throwing in the POST whatever comes up first.The 2nd post wasn’t what i head in mind but links2 was faster than i’m used to with most browsers.:-)
“does anyone know why no other nation seems to be inclined to develop a kickass OS? I’m not talking about another UNICE, I’m talking about a completely new paradigm. I wonder why nobody ever seems to be doing that.”
It was called Be. And microsoft killed it.
//You just have to imagine traveling in a plane and sudenly windows break (or crash if you find it more apropriate). And everything get’s sucked by windows and vanish
//
Of course, it’s been proven over and over by the FAA, that a broken window in an airplane cabin will *NOT* cause the cabin’s contents to be sucked out into the air.
Nice try.
Who ever said that MS produced that add in house? Could have easily been contrcted. Anyways, On the proper hardware, Windows 2003 / xp / photoshop goes down easier than on a mac IMO.
BTW: My 2003 Server workstation has never crashed (some crappy applications have, but not the system) in the past 2 years on Dual P3 866Mhz. I very very rarly have to even reboot, even after an update.
Apple should now start a campaign… “even Windows PR do their work on Mac !!”
You can’t blame BeOS’s death entirely on Microsoft. I think that a majority of the blame should rest squarely on the shoulders of Be and Be’s incredible knack for making stupid managerial decisions. Be had about a bazillion and a half chances to make it, and they squandered each one. For one, Be’s product was originally an entire machine that was designed to be a hobbyist computer, so they weren’t really competing directly with Windows at all. Be’s next port was to Apple computers, where they had a good chance at being bought out by Apple and turned into the next Mac OS, but they got greedy and blew that.
Only after that fell through was Be forced to jump headfirst into the PC market, where they were immediately smacked down by a whole host of problems that pretty much made up for the 20-fold increase in potential market. Some, such as driver support, were just the nature of the PC market. (although I’m sure many would agree that they might have been better off focusing on getting their OS to be usable on more hardware configurations rather than worrying about hardware 3D acceleration and the POSIX compatibility layer.)
But their response to these issues was often boneheaded – their generic VESA video driver deserves a spot in the “Shitty, Shitty Drivers Hall of Fame.” Not only was it black-and-white only, but it was so slow that it made relatively fast computers behave like conentrated molasses on a cold day. What with their general lack of many video drivers to begin with, I’m sure this crappy VESA driver caused many potential customers to turn away at the door and never look back. And it’s worth pointing out that BeOS was embraced by scads and scads of open-source developers, and Be completely failed to capitalize on them properly – OpenTracker is a shining example of “too little, too late.”
…Linux has it’s own campaign to promote it’s own OS. See here: http://os.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/04/16/0140217&from=rss
Don’t throw rocks in the glass house…
Okay, here are some facts: Linux can’t handle ACPI. I’ve personally seen it fry a laptop. Wireless support is in the dark ages. The kernel has all kinds of performance problems (schedulers, task managers, etc…) They still haven’t got the threading model right. How long is it going to take?
Oh, and don’t bother whining about how hardware companies don’t support Linux. If Linux was so great it would have been supported a long time ago.
Nuff Said…
Please no don’t let me hate windows more then i hate now …
as much as I hate XP and hope this is a sign that microsoft is finally starting to waver, I’m not getting my hopes up.
seriously, any company that can release an OS as bad as windows ME and survive has to be tough as nails. i’ve never hated computers as bad as I did runny that pile of stinky monkey poo.
My linux box uses ACPI without a problem. I use the staircase scheduler and am very content with the performance. And what exactly is wrong with the threading model? All I know is that I can open more than four apps without my hard drive going nuts and the system coming to a crawl and that makes me happy.
Just curious, coming from a user who’s doesn’t notice all the things you mentioned. (barring wireless, since I have no experience with it)
GNU/Linux is definately far from perfect and I have no experience with it on a laptop, but from a power user perspective, i’m rather fond of it for my Desktop needs.
They would better spend that money paying more staff and bringing longhorn out sooner with less bugs
Does the term ‘diminising returns’ me anything to you? MS has all the developers they need and maybe more than they need.
“They would better spend that money paying more staff and bringing longhorn out sooner with less bugs
”
This is all becouse of longhorn, they know there slowly slipping out of control and when people see their friends don’t have a windows they will wake up and microsoft will fall faster and faster untill they have nothing. When windows Is gone and the thousands of word replacments take over the market (I wonder if the .doc format will stay around) then bill will have nothing.
BTW this isent anything new, i remember seeing M$ people at conferences setting up .ppt’s on a G4 tower, they diden’t want to risk a windows box crashing in the short time they have to set up.