MSFT convinces you to buy crap

MSFT apparently isn't getting the sales of Vista that it wishes it had. So it's written an article on how to convince your managers that you need to upgrade.

By and large I have to deal with tons of Windows users on a daily basis. I've met two, seriously, two that are on Vista. The rest are on XP.

Hate to say it MSFT, but XPSP2 is the new 98SE. It is stable. Leave it alone. Why dump more shit on top of a already big pile of shit? Oh, to try and compete, that's right. Anyway. (*rolls eyes*)

So let's hit the bold points on the list (click on blog post heading for link).

"Security is the message"

"...management may not be aware that the most compelling reason to migrate to a newer operating system, such as Windows Vista, is to take advantage of the latest security features..."

MSFT, absolutely nothing about Vista that I have seen so far makes it less of a target. I have seen a bunch of upgrades for Vista, even updates that came out for Vista before it was even released!

"The challenges"
"Johnson said upgrades can be challenging for IT as well. It requires the team to be a lot more involved in the installation and testing of the individual machines, because users are typically not going to be the administrators. Users may also be resistant to this idea at first, because they can no longer download all those fun, quirky applications that may, inadvertently, make their machines vulnerable."

So, make like every other operating system, only execute things in the user space, get rid of the registry, and stop requiring "Administrator" access for every little thing!

"The hidden cost of vulnerability"

"What management may not realize, however, is that they are already paying a hefty hidden cost by having outdated systems in place, “because you are paying for an administrator’s time to deal with these issues,” Johnson said. The trick is to show management this in a way that translates into dollars saved."

Is that the trick? Nice word. "The trick." So we are now using the sys admin's of the networks to try and sell management on a piece of crap? Oh wait, did I say sell? I meant trick.

"Make a list"

"...itemize the work that they do in several categories: improved productivity, security breaches, recovering from problems..."

How do fancy graphics, Aqua Aero, and widgets gadgets make productivity higher? There are these fancy things in OSX, but they are just a nicety on top of an OS that makes things easier to operate, and you can get your work done. Vista has centered its whole idea around this graphical interface. Stop copying MSFT!

"Save me the money"

"So how do you convince management to buy new machines, or upgrade the RAM and get the latest OS, if what they are doing right now seems to work OK?"

Yes, MSFT, how do you do that?

"Proactive versus reactive"

"The best thing about the upgrades, once they are done, is that administrators will have more time to devote to preventing problems before they happen, Johnson said."

The only proactive thing I see about Vista is "Hey Boss, we need to upgrade to Vista, not for any other reason than, eventually... MSFT will stop supporting XP!!"

Not because it works better.