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back to article Microsoft resuscitates 'I'm a PC' ads to fight Apple

In desperate need for something – anything – to stop the advance of the iPad and Android, Microsoft is trying to convince consumers that the PC is as modern a computing device as any tablet. On Monday, Microsoft will hit US TV audiences with a new ad campaign that updates its "I'm a PC" spot from a few years back, which was …

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  1. Richard 12 Silver badge

    Weird and pointless advert there

    So MS are now advertising the form factor of the machine as being the most important?

    The bit that they don't have any control over and is entirely down to third parties. How strange.

    Why do they not mention any reasons to buy a machine running Windows 7 as opposed to anything else - like Mac OSX, Linux or even Windows XP?

    Or have MS decided that there's nothing whatsoever about Windows that's worth advertising?

    5 4
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Not quite

      You missed out the colour. Now available in a range of colours.

      Once technology is no longer just for the techies (which is now) then it is sold by colour, weight, shape, size, whether the wannabe celebs are using it, in fact anything except the technical details because the target market won;t understand that.

      Depressing I'm afraid.

      3 0
  2. schnide
    Gates Horns

    Trying.. to.. type..

    ..but cringing.. too.. hard..

    5 1
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Advancing in the wrong direction

    If you took my current Linux box and sent it back to 1999, I would have no trouble using it because the legacy software works fine. You could buy a mid-range machine just as fast in 2004, and a silent version in 2007. If I had to replace it today, it would be with something cheap, silent, but the same speed and the same software.

    PC retailers need machines that clog up with spyware so they can sell a new machine. Microsoft need to change their software and convince people to buy it because it has "improved". Intel need software to require faster processors or they will get trounced by ARM CPU's made with a much cheaper manufacturing process. None of this has any value to customers, and customers are beginning to understand that they are not locked to Microsoft in any more.

    11 1
  4. Daniel Wilkie

    It pains me to admit it...

    But as a dyed in the wool MS Fanboy, they've made the same mistake Sony made with the PS3. Part of the reason the Xbox did so well was it got there first and was well established by the time the PS3 came to the market.

    It's the same with the iPad, I think MS have left it too long now. People buy the iPad, they're not going to buy a WinTab too :(

    And yes I do have an HTC7 and not an iPhone and do think that actually it would have been fairly easy to make a half decent tablet out of that.

    3 2
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Best ad to make

    Would be a film of the Mac and PC guy, MAC guy going through all the wonderful benefits and smug factor of using an apple product...surfing the net on his iPad, checking his e-mail, playing angry birds, going outside and navigating to starbucks with his iPhone to use his iBook to write a screenplay whilst supping warm milk flavoured with a small amount of coffee...all the time PC mans face (hidden by the beige PC monitor, natch) is getting more and more angry....until he stands up, screams at the pc, removes his in ear head phones and apoligies for not paying attention as he was playing call of duty.

    12 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Clever & funny...

      ..but not sure which "lifestyle" you're advocating here?

      Or are you saying that each device has it's own uses/strengths, and we should all just try to get along?

      If so, it's far too clever and relevant to ever be made into an ad for either of the products...so I gave you +1.

      1 0
    2. Gav
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      "I'm a PC and I'm a basement dweller"

      So you're saying the PC being a gaming machine beats someone with a Mac out and about, generally having a life?

      I'm not sure that's exactly the sort of advertising message that Microsoft wants to get across.

      3 3
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        You consider blogging in starbucks having a life?

        I find it just as repugnant as never leaving ones basement.

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        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          at least the basement is cost effective

          Think how much instant coffee you could drink for the price of a paper cup full of milky white shit at Starbucks.

          2 0
          1. JEDIDIAH
            Reply Icon
            Linux

            Belittling the basement...

            > Think how much instant coffee you could

            > drink for the price of a paper cup full of

            > milky white shit at Starbucks.

            Or you could just make proper coffee starting with fresh whole ingredients.

            "The basement" is just a means to denigrate those with a clue and who care about all the finer details that make a good product possible and who might shun the herd or Madison avenue nonsense.

            2 1
      2. JEDIDIAH
        Reply Icon
        Linux

        The PC does more...

        PCs do more than tablets. Doesn't matter if it's a PC running Linux, a PC running WinDOS or a PC running MacOS. Although Apple fanboys seem intent on trashing their own PC OS these days.

        So when you are "out having a life", the PC will do the things that the tablets refuse to do.

        You don't need an Apple product in order to pretend to be a screenwriter in Starbucks.

        Although sometimes you have to pull out a real PC in order to do what the tablets can't or wont do.

        2 0
    3. Marvin the Martian
      Reply Icon
      Stop

      Best ad to make???

      Quite funny, so good in that sense. For shifting product? A big fail! And an advert's primary task is shifting product, or building brand loyalty...

      For gaming, the obvious discussion is not Apple (nor Linux) vs Windows, but console vs desktop... so this proposed ad completely misses the point.

      I think you could improve it by showing the PC's an /occasional/ gamer, where gaming is part of his real life -- he can look guilty and minimize the game to reveal daily stuff open (facebook, financial planner, something work related). And maybe have a woman instead of a man.

      ----

      For starters, nobody reading this site is target audience of the lame advert shown.

      As in the Mac vs PC ads, the PC was the "everyman" and the mac more "elitist" [where the unmentioned pc-elite would buy a top-of-the-line Lenovo or Toshiba for the same or more as the mac equivalent], but here we're supposed to empathise with someone who's surprized at LCD-screens (presumably she's been thinking they're tv-only?!).

      It's quite a leap of the imagination, such empathy. I can't really pull it off, after 7min trying.

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  6. Steve Todd
    FAIL

    Exactly what was the Apple angle here?

    MS are trying to convince owners of old PCs that they should upgrade to a new Windows 7 box. The only part of the PC market in decline is the netbook (which has likely had a bubble of sales) but this is somehow all MS fighting Apple? It's about time that the journos around here got a grip.

    3 1
  7. MarcusArt
    WTF?

    What - you've never heard of a Mac?

    Wait and see her face when she see's a Mac!

    I'd never go back to a damn PC using Windows. I'll push the three laptops, one running Ubuntu Netbook, the other two windows 7 under the carpet and shuffle off. And push you in front of my 27inch iMac.

    What an inane advert. The 30 second advert did nothing to help. It's plain for the world how to make a success out of selling hardware. Own it all. Own the box and innovate in product design. Own the operating system and push it. Own a search engine business and screw the competition and then force the mobile operators and every other business to try to get their hardware to run your cobbled together OS. No Microsoft, not you, I mean the other company that has actually made money in advertising / searching.

    If apple did this advert I bet it would look like a very glamorous apartment. Not something out of DIY SOS.

    'Let's put a shop in home. WTF?!' she cried. 'Where's my sofa! Where's my Mac?! I want a Mac!'

    Husband looks embarrassed.

    7 6
    1. Marvin the Martian
      Reply Icon
      Gates Horns

      Windows --- we'll invade you

      It's a strange message; it's back to the bad old days where Microsoft = the Borg, assimilating your living room.

      1 0
  8. hplasm
    Gates Horns

    "I'm a PC-"

    "-and everyone wants to punch me!"

    5 1
  9. Heironymous Coward
    WTF?

    uninspiring

    Pretty sad ad. I wonder how many of us watched it on our iPads?? :-)

    1 4
  10. ArkhamNative
    Headmaster

    Doesn't get it

    I still can't help but feel bad for MS when I see people say, "I'm a PC". It just screams "Microsoft doesn't get it." In the Apple commercials, Long and Hodgman aren't consumers, they are personifications of the devices that run Mac OS and Windows OS, respectively.

    After the "I'm a PC" ads came out, Apple even drove the point home by bringing a consumer into one of their ads. Long greeted her, saying "Hi, I'm a Mac". She responded: "I'm a Megan."

    7 1
    1. Eponymous Cowherd
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      I'm a Megan.....

      and I only eat meat......

      4 0
  11. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Happy

    Oh dear!

    Something so vomit inducing about technology TV advertising that makes me want retch so hard I'd turn inside out!

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  12. FreeTard
    Thumb Down

    Its not great...

    What was that screen showing? media centre I think it was, looks shit if you ask me.

    Very primary school.

    And no, I'm not a MAC user....

    0 2
    1. NightFox
      Reply Icon

      Media Centre

      Actually, having made the switch to Mac a few years ago, the only PC I'm still running is a dedciated Windows 7 Media Center box as nothing else comes close to offering a 4-tuner Freesat and Freeview 1TB PVR capable of streaming video and music over the Internet or from my server. Yes, matching compatible hardware was always an issue during the development of MC from its birth alongside XP, but with W7 it's pretty much hit the spot (probably means MS will drop it for W8 then!). Sure, it had its occasional hiccups, but from what I gather its generally better behaved than the average Sky+ or Humax box.

      And the 'big' graphics and buttons are there for a reason; the interface is designed so that it can be operated from the other side of the room by a TV remote rather than being sat a couple of feet in front of it using a mouse.

      No, much as I haven't really missed using Windows as an OS since switching, I couldn't imagine giving it up as a home entertainment UI so I feel forced to leap to its defence here.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Flame

        Your luck I guess

        I have a Win7 box that I'm using as a HTPC. Which turned out to be a bad idea. Selecting Malaysia from the list automagically disables the digital part of my hybrid tuner despite the fact that there is indeed digital transmissions in the country, and won't let me set up the digital signal manually even if I lie to it and tell it I'm in a country it knows to have digital transmission . Under XP MCE 2005 I was at least able to use the proprietary software that comes with the card. Software doesn't work on Win7. I've been thinking of dropping a *myth* distro onto it and see how well it'll fare for a while now. But I also have a set top box that could pick up the channels fine.

        Sure, the TV station calls it a "trial", but then the signal has been around since 2006 and never got out of the "trial". And oh, one can freely buy digital USB tuners from most computer stores.

        0 0
    2. Michael Thibault
      Reply Icon
      Grenade

      ,./aaacddddeeeeeeghiiiiiillmnnnnooqrrrrsssstttttttTuu

      The post is required, and must contain letters.

      When those letters include "MAC" in a context such as this thread, you don't need to tell anyone that you don't use a Mac - they already know.

      1 0
  13. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Innovation

    "...The idea is to convince the skeptical and the incredulous just how much PCs have changed."

    Except they haven't changed, have they? Apart from a few whizzy colours, Windows 7 of today isn't really any different from the Windows 95 machine I used years ago. Ok, under the hood it may have changed quite a bit; I don't really know. But from a user's perspective, it really has not changed a jot. It does the same job (and fails in the same ways; even the bugs haven't progressed much!), it runs the same software (or would do, if the software didn't keep bloating out of all sense - Office anyone?), and ...errr ...well that's it really. Because that is ALL an OS does; it runs applications and provides interfaces to the outside world. All the extra sugar that keeps piling on top is mostly functionally useless nonsense that 99% of people never use anyway.

    Like I'm sure many people do, I tire of the "innovation" nonsense MS keep spouting. MS have not innovated anything since they first stole the WIMP idea from Apple (who stole it from Xerox, of course). Since then, virtually nothing has happened; in the last ...ooo ...20 years (?), Windows hasn't moved. It's got bigger and more demanding. But functionally, what's changed?

    I really DO blame MS for the lack of progress in the software world; by now, PC's (or tablets, or whatever) should be miles and miles ahead of where they are. Progress has been severely held-back; primarily by MS and the drones that follow in their shadow. With all their resources and cash, how have they managed to achieve so very very little over the years.

    With all this tablet stuff in vogue at the moment, and mobile stuff exploding, I'm sure MS must be getting quite worried. Especially as these are two areas that they have demonstrably failed to succeed in many many times in the past despite the billions they must have spent of R&D by now.

    15 0
    1. Oninoshiko
      Reply Icon
      WTF?

      Are you part of the solution?

      So, you don't think the front end changes are significant.

      So, you don't think the back end changes are significant.

      Can you tell me, exactly WHAT do you think is significant? Personally I blame all of you who want to blame someone else for not creating what you think is significant change, rather then taking some damn initiative and writing it your selves.

      0 0
  14. BristolBachelor Gold badge
    Megaphone

    I'm a PC

    But you will have to work out which version of me you want. Buy the wrong one, and no, sorry I cannot connect to that network, you need a different version for that.

    Some of your users want a different user-interface language? Sorry you have to buy a different version and re-install for that (or you could buy a different version that allows you to buy language packs for it, but you can't get that on your license scheme, and the different version won't work properly with the others on the network.)

    I would very much prefer windows like MAC; only 1 version. Everything is included with each one. If you want a different language, just select a different language. If you want a network just connect them together; none of this Windows Vista won't talk to an XP machine, Windows 7 won't talk to a Vista machine; Or "If you want a network of PCs that work together, you need the new feature only in Win7 and all machines need to be Win7" crap.

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    1. Captain DaFt
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Do the world a favor

      Somebody forward the parent post to Steve Ballmer!

      0 0
  15. calagan

    Why a Brit?

    I've been told that any time they need some kind of expert, US TV networks bring in a Brit.

    Does this also apply to MS commercials?

    Is there some kind of inferiority complex going on?

    2 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Down

      Brits

      I thought the Merkins only used Brits for the bad guys...

      1 0
  16. Mikel
    Pint

    You can't just buy ads of this quality

    You have to berate, degrade and belittle the artsy types until they are driven to deliver the most sideways, awkward and deliberately unhelpful works their brilliant minds are capable of selling to your executive team.

    3 0
  17. ChrisInBelgium

    simple choice

    Since I bought an iPad last year, I have not once gotten my Windows laptop out again at home. By the time that one starts up, I have already done with the iPad what I wanted to do.

    By the way, I am not a fanboi, but a developer and at work I use almost exclusively Microsoft technology products.

    A netbook equiped with Win XP was the only thing that was acceptable at home before, having a half decent battery life if used sensibly, but Microsoft thought it was a good idea to destroy that particular market with Win7... on one equiped with that OS, if you listen close enough, you can almost hear the battery draining.

    Last netbook I had with Win7 had 2GB ram and a 64-bit processor and that only just worked acceptably with Win7 + had barely a 2 hour battery life. A bit more than that when the screen backlight was turned down so much that it hurt the eyes.

    My next personal home computer will be the next iPad - whenever necessary to replace my iPad1.

    13 1
  18. Jim 59
    Paris Hilton

    Style

    "Through the ads you will see each family discover the wide variety of style and software benefits..."

    The guy is a Windows wonk - and he is talking about style. Listen up, people.

    5 0
  19. Nick Ryan Silver badge

    Sometimes...

    Sometimes marketing drones should be shot. What next? MS will hire the annoying arses that are responsible for the Halifax ads?

    3 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Grenade

      Sometimes?

      Always.

      0 0
    2. hplasm
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Hopefully, yes.

      "Hi-I'm a PC"

      "ISA ISA?"

      *earth shattering kaboom*

      fade.

      1 0
    3. Piezor
      Reply Icon

      answer

      yeah, yeah, yeah

      1 0
    4. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Halifax ads

      I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the people who did the Halifax ads got bought out by the people who have done the recent MS cloud ads. Yes, they did contribute to the clouds ads.

      0 0
  20. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    ROFLMAO

    In a deft move, Microsoft's ad men neutralized the cheeky Apple campaign................OH Really, you think so? The Apple ads are memorable, whilst the windows ads are???? shite, that is the word I'm looking for. Microsoft is safe in its corporate PC haven for now, where every iteration of office must be bought. But as I visit my customers, I notice that there are Macbook Pro's around, even IMacs, they are making inroads into areas that MS thought was safe. The game has changed, MS has not. Apple in it's IPad have a device that attacks the handheld game market, Home PC and corporate. Unfortunately Apple as they become more successful are becoming just like MS.

    All Julie really needs is an IPad. LOL No dear, no tower

    7 0
  21. Mage Silver badge
    Headmaster

    Taking the Tablets

    Very often MS do have the right idea but fail on the execution,

    x86 second Tablet interface

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_for_Pen_Computing 1991

    I worked on a non-x86 "Tablet" project in 1989. The reason everything used a stylus from then rather than a finger was:

    1) The holy grail of handwriting recognition

    2) Send handwritten faxes

    3) Deemed faster for notes and annotation

    4) Xerox only made a mouse because they couldn't fit a tracker ball into a pen.

    Capacitive type touch screens DID exist, but no-one wanted the low resolution. Everyone chose Resistive to allow high resolution input (ideally to avoid "jiggling" the input resolution should be higher than screen resolution. With light pens it could only ever equal display and only worked if blacks where a bit grey, well dark green)

    0 0
  22. The BigYin

    Bleurgh!

    Someone pass a sick-bag, please!

    Is this how desperate MS is getting? Kee-rist. They don't even go into the "virtues" of Win7. "This one's touch screen". Ooh-wee, excuse me whilst I get some tissues. That is just a matter of hardware rather than OS as such (although is need OS support, obviously).

    It is true that buying a new PC almost forces one to accept Windows, but that is more down to market abuse rather than an informed decision to buy Windows.

    5 1
    1. Liam Johnson
      Reply Icon

      @Someone pass a sick-bag, please!

      Sorry, you went "Bleurgh!" first. What you need now is a mop, bucket and some air freshener.

      7 0
  23. Zephyrus Spacebat
    Headmaster

    Something amiss

    "In the meantime, Microsoft is left trying to convince ordinary Joes and Julies just how far Windows desktops and laptops have come so that they bypass an Piad in favor or a PC – or at least move their PC to Windows 7."

    A Piad? Is that an Apple-branded Fiat? :)

    0 0

  24. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Marky W
      Reply Icon
      Grenade

      I call bullshit...

      From working with numerous Win 7 machines, all of which work perfectly well and all of which have a much lower spec than the machine you claim has problems (including some rather underpowered laptops).

      It's commonly accepted that Win 7 is a vast improvement on Vista (which I admit, is not saying much) in terms of the demands it makes on a machine.

      1 4
    2. Ragarath
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Down

      Yikes! Tech Dept is rubbish.

      Either your tech department or is a pile of pants or you have pissed them off and they have slowed your machine on purpose. Why is Windows 7 running like a dog on that machine?

      Nice and smooth on my Athlon x2 with 4GB which is rather old now.

      Stop trying to find excuses to off load onto a MAC I do not believe the "I'm no MAC fan" comment. If you were not you would be using Linux instead.

      I use Windows 7, MAC OSX and Linux (occasionally) and I can tell you if you don't look after Windows or OSX they both slow to a crawl. Linux is much better at dealing with the crud.

      Now run along and buy your MAC safe in the knowledge that you have justified it to yourself by actually not knowing anything.

      4 3

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

  25. philbo

    I'm a PC

    ..and I run Linux

    (is what I always wanted the ad to say.. or at the very least have a bobby on the beat saying it)

    11 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Alert

      I'm a Banana

      Makes just as much sense - i.e. none at all.

      Stupid ad.

      1 0
  26. Steve Ives
    FAIL

    Not a good ad...

    I left the Windows world pretty much behind in 2003, having bought a Mac Powerbook ('cos it looked v. stylish - G4, 800) for email and web-browsing whilst away from my Windows desktop and then getting sucked into the whole Apple way of doing things. (I'm very technical, and my Apple gear does all that I need it to) but don't feel the need to bash Microsoft non-stop but I have to say that this is not a good ad - where's the excitement? Where's the snazzy UI? Say what you like about Apple, but their ads are generally brilliant. They even make the magnetic cover exciting! I was shown nothing in that ad that I want to have a go on.

    Steve

    0 1
  27. Jim 59
    Stop

    @ChrisinBelguim

    "By the way, I am not a fanboi..."

    "My next personal home computer will be the next iPad - whenever necessary to replace my iPad1."

    Not a fanboi of course, but you are committed to buying whatever Apple introduces. Beware the blackjumper brainwashing.

    4 2
    1. Jim 59
      Reply Icon

      Changed my mind

      There is nothing wrong with a bit of brand loyalty. And if you are very pleased with a product from company X, it is natural you will look forward to version 2 from the same source.

      0 0
  28. Richard Porter
    FAIL

    I've just had to...

    buy a Windoze laptop for a charity I'm involved with because the software we want to run doesn't run on anything else. I'd forgotten just how awful Windows is. Even Windows 7 pro.

    Anyway I don't want my eyes popped thank you very much. It makes a mess of the screen.

    1 0
  29. Richard Porter
    Happy

    A PC is just a personal computer FGS

    whatever OS it is running.

    I update my RISC OS pc every 10 years, not every four (or 18 months). With a bit of luck there could even be an up-to-date ARM powered laptop to run it on next time round. Failing that there's the Beagle Board that currently rund RO on ARM.

    1 0
    1. Nigel 11
      Reply Icon

      One good thing MS are going to do ...

      ... is support ARM for Windows 8. Which will create a market for PC-format ARM boards with all the canonical PC interfaces. Which will mean that at last, low-power always-on LInux boxes won't be tied to obscure overpriced hardware, or graphics-deprived hardware like Pogo/Guru plugs.

      As for tablets - no keyboard, fundamental flaw. I'd rather have a notebook-format device. At present there isn't even any cost saving for not having a keyboard.

      2 0
  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm a PC and I'm gonna kill 'im

    Odd they didn't re-shoot that comment.

    Are Windows users psychopathic murderers? Seems a bit extreme, although I could understand it if Clippy were still around.

    0 0
  31. NightFox
    Megaphone

    @So many posters on here

    It's a Mac, not a MAC. Short for Macintosh, you see.

    1 0
    1. defiler
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      It's a MAC if it's on your NIC

      Sorry. Been too busy trying to persuade Windows to generate a Local Link Address that actually conforms to the IPv6 spec...

      1 0
  32. JeffyPooh
    FAIL

    Two words: 'Windows 7 Anti-spyware' malware

    <- Microsoft

    Okay, it's not really two words.

    My kid has a Windows 7 laptop that is set to keep itself fully up-to-date with Windows Updates. MS Security Essentials is also kept fully up-to-date. He's browsing Google Images for game related pictures. Windows start oppoing open, in spite of IE being set to prevent them. One false click (as directed by the malware) and he's installed malware that *even got into the registry* (!).

    Imagine: it's the year 2011 and we still have such piss poor security implementations from MS.

    4 1
    1. Captain Underpants
      Reply Icon
      Stop

      Clarification needed, please

      Before we assume that the problem is just Microsoft - does your kid have UAC turned on? And was he using a standard user account rather than an administrator account?

      If the answer to either question is "no", you can't blame Windows or Microsoft for the problem. And that, of course, is before we get to the question of why he followed the instructions provided in a pop-up.

      Now, if you want to talk about how MS managed to reintroduce the ping of death into Vista and 7 at one point, that's a different issue...

      0 0
  33. stu 4
    FAIL

    windows 7 parties

    reminds me of the windows 7 parties fiasco video... I actually registered for one, so I got my free windows 7... and the 'party pack' they sent just defied belief... they reall really don't seem to get it at all...

    you can see some MS FW sitting there 'ooo apple always has these big queues with new products' - we'll show people how they can arrange a group of people to meet together and have exiting fun around our product...

    we'll give em the product free for the publicity...

    oh.. and it's our customers we are talking about here, so we best explain to them what a 'party' is and provide a series of games for them. that's what happens at parties right ? anyone ? anyone got friends and been to a party ? anyone ?

    3 0
  34. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    "I'm not upgrading because I don't feel there's something out there better than what I've got now"

    Really? The reason I'm not upgrading is because I can't afford a new computer. The same reason I'm not 'upgrading' any of the plethora of objects I possess.

    Should I suddenly find I'd got the money to upgrade my possessions there are few things on earth that would prevent me upgrading them should I wish to do so. Not believing there are better things on the market would be my last consideration unless I'd had a reverse brain-transplant.

    2 2
  35. Jimster71

    MS Only Do The Software

    Apple have an advantage in that they have all that lovely shiny hardware to show you in the Mac adverts, while MS can only show you the OS.

    Apple make pretty computers, everyone else makes fairly ugly computers. The ugly computers are usually a lot cheaper though.

    Mine's the ugly, but fairly cheap computer that is loaded with virus and spyware protection.

    4 0
  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "just how far Windows desktops and laptops have come"

    Windows has actually gone backwards. I don't remember Windows XP ever having a problem "thumbnailing up" a folder of pictures, so why is it so goddamn flaky in Windows 7? Sometimes it works, usually it doesn't.

    I don't have to remind you that it ALWAYS works in Linux.

    Yes thumbnails, pretty simple, but without them, what the hell good is having an £800 PC if you can't find the fucking photo you want to edit? And don't give me that "well you're weird for having more than 10 photos" crap. If my camera takes a 16GB chip, Windows 7 should be able to thumbnail up a 16GB folder. I have 8 fucking gigabytes of RAM and about 5,500GB of disk space, why should it not work?

    Of course, Ubuntu can't play audio CDs, something I could do fine in Windows 95. CDs skip and lag for no reason, and when I went through the rigmarole of proving that my hardware and discs are fine, some plonker tells me "oh yeah sorry we're aware that this is a bug [and we're not going to fix it]" So it just goes to show that all generalised OSs suck. They've packed too much shit into them at the expense of things people actually want to use.

    When am I ever going to write code to compile for my Graphics Card? So why did the fruit baskets at Microsoft spend ten million hours implementing that and then neglect to let me look at my fucking pictures? Personal Computers really are going backwards.

    1 1
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Megaphone

      Help required!

      I think anger management might be called for here... you're gonna burst a blood vessel if you're not careful.

      And for the record I have well over 16GB of photos and they all thumbnail perfectly

      1 1

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  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    macs vs pcs

    we were having a similar discussion to this at work this morning...

    i think the real issue is, we're argueing about different things. the mac side of things is a complete package (and for that matter, lifestyle it seems), while the windows side of things is an OS. to me it seems a bit silly to compare the 2. do i prefer windows 7 to macOS? not particularly. do i prefer being able to build my own PC to my own spec rather than go with a generic setup thats been custom designed to suit hipsters (or whatever they're calling themselves nowadays) everywhere? yes.

    i'm also increasingly irritated by the idea that all PCs are boring beige boxes with beige mice and keyboards and screens attached to them, while macs are these sleek shiney 'things'. there are windows PCs out there that look at least as good as any mac... just because one off the shelf in pcworld is a sack of crap doesnt mean they all are.

    oh well, guess i'll just be happy that i get to play games on pc, rather than having a mac and feeling like i have to evangelise about it, and sit around in coffee shops making sure everyone knows i'm hip and cool

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  38. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Eh no

    The laptops are NOT literally peeping.....

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  39. stubert
    Thumb Down

    Wrong market?

    I think Microsoft may be gunning for the wrong personal computing market here, wing it on a prayer that these customers don't find out about iPads...

    Windows is better for those who know a bit more about what their computer is made up of and want more choice and control over it: Gaming computers, servers, high performance machines, specific mirroring/backup configurations on their storage, crazy system setups, but want a fairly decent GUI which also allows them to control and configure this stuff.

    Not tech heads and not home users but the inbetweeny tech enthusiasts/PC gamers. That seems to me to be the Windows market. Am I wrong?

    1 1
  40. Dave P 1
    FAIL

    Windows 7 : BAH!

    I needed a couple of new machines; the hard drive died on my Pentium 133/ WIN95 machine, and the video card kept dieing on my WIN2K machine. So the IT guy bought me two shiny WIN7 machines. Too bad that the company cannot afford the $20,000 to replace the software that will no longer run on WIN7. The hardware is nice, but the OS SUCKS!

    3 1
    1. paulf
      Reply Icon
      WTF?

      I'll agree with that

      I'm still running Microsoft Office 97, because it does everything I want it to.

      It was easier to install O97 (Word and Excel) along with the two service release patches, on my Mac (Mid-2010 MBP 17" i7 x86_64 proc Snow Leopard) using Crossover, than it was to install it on my Windows 7 64-bit machine (i7-960 x86_64 proc).

      The main install on W7 64-bit was fine, but the two patch installers failed despite going through all the various XP compatibility options. In the end I just copied the patched executables from my XP machine and it worked fine.

      Seriously Microsoft WFT? How can it be easier to install MS software for Windows on a Mac than on Windows.

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  41. Mark .

    Re: Weird and pointless advert there

    "Why do they not mention any reasons to buy a machine running Windows 7 as opposed to anything else - like Mac OSX, Linux or even Windows XP?"

    Well, why do Apple equate "PC" with "machine running Windows" - even though "Macs" are just PCs these days?

    Blame Apple for the "PC == Windows" idea. Microsoft are just cleverly spinning that round to their advantage.

    And when we're considering PCs as opposed to tablets/phones/etc, I don't see why it's strange for Microsoft to promote that. Yes, they might not create the hardware themselves - but they *are* the company with 90+% market share on such products. So *of course* they're going to promote this.

    You see this in all sorts of areas. It's in Nokia's interest to see phone use promoted in general, because they are the market leader, and will benefit from an increase of people using phones. It's in Apple's interest to see mp3 playing be advertised, because even if the advert doesn't explicitly mention their Ipods, Apple will still gain sales.

    As for the hype about tablets - more people are still using tablets that we more usually call phones (where Nokia are the market leader, not Apple). And netbooks still outsell tablets - and any slowdown in their sales is probably more due to phones (for portability) and ultra-portable laptops (which are now cheap, and much more powerful). Not the Ipad. Apple are not the market leader in any category here, unless you handpick the category of "devices that are exactly like the Ipad".

    @Anonymous Coward: "Windows 7 of today isn't really any different from the Windows 95"

    You must have been using a cool version of Windows 95. The version I and everyone else saw was a joke. (Yes, they look the same in that they both have GUIs and icons, but then by that logic, no platform has changed - including anything from Apple, both for OS X and IOS).

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  42. Mark .

    Boring PCs

    "i'm also increasingly irritated by the idea that all PCs are boring beige boxes with beige mice and keyboards and screens attached to them"

    Indeed, and this is the problem with the Mac view all round - it's 20 years out of date.

    The portrayal of PCs being boring machines for business use; as the Microsoft ads pointed out, this claim is ludicrous. (And it's also hypocritical - 20 years ago, Macs were only really used in business machines, and back then, the token Mac fans moaned that home computers like the Amiga was just a "toy", because it wasn't used much in business. I guess the Mac is now a toy...)

    As you say, you can get interesting looking PCs that aren't from Apple. But it's better that even you suggest - even for the average PC (yes, even off the shelf in PC World), beige went out of fashion 10 years ago. Most PCs you buy today are black, and look perfectly decent - and indeed, it's actually Apple PCs that stick with the boring beige/white colour.

    Then there's the spin of "Macs versus PCs" itself. 20 years ago, it was reasonable to use PC for "IBM compatible", and other machines to not be PCs. But today, Macs _are_ PCs. They use the same hardware. They are compatible. They might not be exactly the same as a 1980 IBM PC, but then neither is any modern PC.

    There's also the problem that, in my experience, a Mac user's view of non-Apple PCs is at least 5 years out of date. They'll moan about lack of multitouch pads, or conjure up examples of Windows instability from the Windows 9x days. They're convinced that there's a whole line of features of Apple PC hardware, that no other PC has.

    1 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      @ Boring PCs

      "They'll moan about lack of multitouch pads"

      I moaned but never at the lack of multitouch trackpads but the fact the manufacturer implementation sucks. I owned a HP Envy 17 in the past and it had multitouch but it was sticky and didn't work smoothly from the get go.

      Although the laptop was sturdy it lacked some quality control in some areas and the screen was terrible. Being in the UK I was only offered the rubbish 1600x900 resolution at the time of purchase.

      Not just a saying but really I am not what you call a Mac fan. I do admit that some products from Apple are really good and just work. Other ones not so well. Horse for courses is the saying.

      I speak only for myself here but I say it's not what Microsoft is doing it's how they are going about to do it.

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  43. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Android, Ipad and PC owner

    They all have their places, I wish people would stop thinking there is a one stop solution. For some people, one device may do all they need, but not for others.

    I'm very happy with my Android phone, does all I want and more - for a phone sized device.

    I'm also very happy with my iPad and use it whilst watching the tv, sitting in bed etc. etc. Does all I want and more - for a tablet sized device.

    I'm also very happy with my current PC and will be building another soon. It can handle all the content the other devices manage but also does much more such as my graphics rendering and design work using keyboard, mouse, 3d mouse inputs, it also has four monitors hanging off it (will have more or a couple of projectors) and also a couple of replica stick/throttle combinations for flight simming.

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  44. Tommy Pock

    Ok, I'm sold.

    "texture." It's why I buy Windows.

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  45. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    tits

    Can anyone explain why she's going to kill her husband?

    0 0
    1. hplasm
      Reply Icon
      Terminator

      She's a PC...

      Sent from the future.

      He's Sarah Connor...

      1 0
  46. hum
    WTF?

    Breaking and Entering

    My takeaway from this commercial is that Microsoft supports burglary! Perhaps that's not such a good thing, coming from a company that sells products that are so full of security holes.

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  47. JEDIDIAH
    Linux

    Right direction, really bad execution...

    I think the ad had a useful point. However, it kind of ran off the rails. The whole "store in your house" concept is just wrongful and entirely misses the point. They should have integrated "interesting new products" into her existing life rather than hijacking it. The ad should have been about how the market is more interesting these days and how new products could have some place in the jaded consumer's home.

    The whole touch screen HTPC thing had a great deal of potential but was mostly squandered.

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  48. Rex Alfie Lee
    Linux

    Microsofts biggest issue...

    They build-in software flaws that will need upgrading to fix. Apart from being try ugly microsoft has been doing this now for years & the more advanced users of systems realise wer can have something that actually works rather than something that nearly works.

    I'm not talking about Apple either. I'm talking about Linux, specifically Ubuntu, where whilst the software is cutting-edge, it is also being patched on a daily basis to fix problems, threats or wobbly bits. Apple's fixes don't exactly run to any kind of schedule if at all...

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  49. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Your old PC *is* good enough

    A four year old PC should be able to do everything that an every-day end user wants and needs. E-mail, web, office, media. The only thing that would suffer is gaming. Even then, there's plenty of non-bleeding edge games that would work fine, and a graphics-card upgrade could bring it even closer to playing modern games. Windows XP can do all this, too, though I can see the benefit of upgrading to Windows 7 (which again, should run fine on a 4 year old PC) for continued updates and support.

    Of course, you could just install linux and bring your PC up to speed, but that straight away identified you as a non-standard end-user (sadly).

    I'm disappointed that MS are still promoting regular PC replacements, but not surprised, as I imagine most of their business comes along with PC upgrades.

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