Apparently there’s something worse than being despised and that is to be utterly irrelevant. Gruber hits it spot on in his commentary on Microsoft’s panic response to the mixed reception of the Seinfeld ads. A company that stands for nothing can not market themselves out of that position.
I actually liked Microsoft better when they stood for something. Even when that something was being a ruthless corporation hell-bent on world domination. Batman needs the Joker too.
It’s hard to imagine that the once mighty 800-pound gorilla in the room has been reduced to a mere monkey. A monkey with a $230B market cap, but a monkey no less.
I pity the marketers working the Microsoft account. There’s no way to win. If they go vague, they get people_ready. If they go edgy, they get panic and push back. Talk about a set of golden handcuffs.
Brooks Jordan
on 18 Sep 08Absolutely, standing for nothing – it can’t get worse than that. The height of lameness.
I do think they have an option, though, to break those handcuffs, there’s always that option.
Someone has to step up.
FredS
on 18 Sep 08Maybe they realized the ads mostly appealed to Mac users and decided we weren’t the intended target.
JF
on 18 Sep 08I was hoping Ray Ozzie would be the one to step it up, but man where has he been?
Brooks Jordan
on 18 Sep 08@JF Yes, me too. A good friend at Microsoft tells me that Ray Ozzie is doing wonderful stuff internally, but you sure can’t tell from out here.
Don Wilson
on 18 Sep 08An author of a blog filled with Apple zealots doesn’t like the latest action by Microsoft? Shocking!
I was actually hoping they would eventually go somewhere with the Seinfeld commercials, but apparently they’ve bent to public voices and stopped it. Or the plan from the start was to make a couple horridly irrelevant commercials.
James
on 18 Sep 08Change the world or go home. Still relevant (the phrase, not microsoft)
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/003388.html
Eric Nelson
on 18 Sep 08I agree with the fact that they have really lost a position on what they stand for, but I also don’t think they’re completely handcuffed. They started to bring in some humanity and personality to the brand, but if they really wanted to go edgy and take the gloves off they would have played on the fact that they are the world beating evil corporation, the way we all remember them.
They still have successful products, they are still the defacto software choice, they’re just not cool. Accepting that, and playing on that fact would be a pretty cool way of fighting back at that statement. These ads were a little too esoteric, and tried to have some punch without going full on. Let’s see if they really go for it with the future extensions of the campaign.
Cameron Westland
on 18 Sep 08Just because Microsoft isn’t seen as ‘cool’ by consumers doesn’t mean they aren’t still doing interesting things.
I’m really not sure where this marketing campaign is coming from though.
zinni
on 18 Sep 08I actually thought the ads were effective, they made me look at something microsoft related I haven’t done that in a while. Unconventional is exactly what they need, it’s a shame they didn’t stick with it.
Jaime Bellmyer
on 18 Sep 08I ditched XP for Linux last year, but I still like Gates. And Seinfeld. And yet these commercials make me say, “Just get to the f’ing point!” They’re like the tangent hopping ramblings of an old man. Only there are two of them :)
In general, I despise all ads that make you work to figure out what they even what you to do. I don’t need new insight. I don’t need my thoughts provoked. Just sell me the damned widget so I can get back to my Futurama.
[email protected]
on 18 Sep 08I pity the marketers working the ____ (insert name of huge corp. hoping that the new world doesn’t really exist and isn’t about to pound them flat) account. There’s no way to win.
GeeIWonder
on 18 Sep 08You think that post is spot on?
This is a complete case of beggin the question. he identifies the problem, and then structures his argument so that his conclusion can be reached. They have nothing to hang their brand on, except products that are so big they support the brand. They’re all stuck in the past, except for the product lines that aren’t. Nevermind the fact that Google and Yahoo share more product space with Microsoft nowadays than Apple does.
I’m not a big fan of Microsoft, but arguing that their ads say nothing? As opposed to what, wearing a blue sweater with a goatee and saying ‘heck, we’re not them’.
Also, his chronology/interpretation/everything else is just plain wrong. Apple faced the problem with the Mac being too big a decade ago? Really?
This post could’ve been made in 1998 and it MIGHT be relevant.
Not good enough. Not even close.
Grant
on 18 Sep 08I was genuinely surprised with how quickly they changed course. This next phase may always have been in the plans, but you can’t make me believe that the first two Seinfeld ads were all we were intended to see.
That said, I agree with Gruber too. People love underdogs, but Apple’s campaign is really the underdog campaignamdpst people know that. By responding directly to it, on some level, Microsoft is just acknowledging all the little grains of truth that Apple has been using in their ads.
And it makes you wonder what they could possibly do better than the underdog.
GeeIWonder
on 18 Sep 08Oh yeah, and we’re going to argue about being evil and all, it behooves the author to mention all the stuff Gates and Microsoft are doing for real people in the real world, as opposed to yuppies in coffee shops.
/out
Geof Harries
on 18 Sep 08I quite like the new Life without Walls advertisements. Interoperability, power and options are attributes that Microsoft should really be playing up, and in the case of this campaign, they starting to focus on that. Really great work from Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Dave C
on 18 Sep 08Seinfeld sort of started out as a show about nothing (intentionally), so it’s kind of appropriate that the MS commercial would also be an ad about nothing.
I will say they’ve certainly got everyone talking about them, so I think that’s a win for the ad agency.
Won’t sell more copies of Vista, but nice to see Bill Gates as a human being.
Michal
on 18 Sep 08Well, companies doesn’t exists to stand for something. What IBM stands for? Novell? Adobe? 37Signals? Google? Don’t be evil? That’s not a stand, that’s just marketing strategy. Even Apple doesn’t stands for anything. They just make beautiful things to make money. That’s what companies are for, making money to owners and give people good jobs. And they make money only if they create something what people or other companies wants to buy. So apparently Microsoft is still very relevant, important and makes wonderful software. It’s not coolest or most discussed company but that doesn’t mean they are irrelevant or unimportant…
Don Schenck
on 18 Sep 08As I sit here, near the end of a 14-hour day spent trying to deploy a VB.NET application that uses the built-in Crystal Reports print engine - and it doesn’t work! - I wonder “what DOES Microsoft stand for”?
I certainly am not going to stand for this much longer.
ARGH!!
Jason
on 18 Sep 08They’d be a lot cooler if they embraced their “borg” reputation and played with it. It might not appeal to everyone but it would’ve been a helluva lot more interesting than that Seinfeld crap.
GeeIWonder
on 18 Sep 08Silverlight’s pretty damn cool.
Coudal and The Deck must think so too, since they “won’t take an ad unless we have paid for and/or used the product or service.”
Gaurav Sharma
on 19 Sep 08That $240billion or so market cap is determined by users, many of them just like you or me. Microsoft doesn’t choose to take that money off our hands. Feel free to come out with something the market wants more, with a market share to back up that claim.
Liza
on 19 Sep 08If Apple is to simplicity and elegance, Microsoft is to complexity and power. They should play to that strength rather than try to fun. If you can’t be the cool guy, be the baddest nerd in the room and people will respect you.
Brandon Franklin
on 19 Sep 08@Liza Well see, the problem with that is “complexity and power” isn’t Microsoft, it’s Linux. Microsoft stuff has the reputation of being complex, inelegant, and “not as powerful as it should be”. That’s sort of the problem they have to work with.
Linux is the “baddest nerd in the room”.
Reuben
on 19 Sep 08I can’t wait for the day I can fund my own commercial that shows people that I have nothing more creative to offer than a poorly executed robot dance.
Kirby
on 19 Sep 08As Peter Drucker once said “The purpose of a business is to create a customer”. Microsoft’s customer creation strategy is more analogous to invading a foreign country and forcing the women to marry the ruler. Sure, we’ve all been customer’s of Microsoft, but most of us were forced to become their customer.
Here’s the problem Billy Gates: we HATE your fucking company! Many of us were forced into a relationship with you and your shitty Windows products. We’ve stayed because we HAD to. We’ve never loved you, in fact we’re repulsed by your jiggling, obese mass of a corporation who has devoured and ground the bones of other companies so you could eat up great ideas and vomit up bad ones on you “customers”.
Now there’s Apple and Linux on the scene. We love them. They’ve rescued us from the bad marriage we’ve been in with you. We’re tired of being raped and abused by your products. We’re leaving Bill. Don’t try to say you’re sorry or to appeal to us on some sort of “I’ve always loved you” level. You’ve lied so many times we don’t believe a word you say.
Go fuck yourself Bill, ‘cause you ain’t getting any more anal action from your former “customers”.
Liza
on 19 Sep 08@brandonFranklin agreed, I think Microsoft lost its competitive edge with power and complexity. But they have a better chance with regaining that identity then they do competing to be the cool guy (a la Seinfeld). And no doubt, you are right about Linux, but its not for a mainstream audience.
To quote a friend “Geek is the new jock”.
Stu Willis
on 19 Sep 08So, I’ve began to ponder what choosing a computing platform says about a business:
Linux – we respect engineering. Apple – we respect the user. Microsoft – we respect the status quo.
Gaurav Sharma
on 19 Sep 08Kirby,
No one is forcing anyone to buy anything, most people go for Windows by choice, or work for corporations that go for Windows by choice, and choose to work there.
They’re not all dumb sheep who need to be enlightened by some MacBook toting Web 2.0 guys about a single minded superior way to do things. Neither does that mean MacBook toting Apple fans are deluded (i.e. this statement isn’t an attack either way). Embrace diversity if you will.
The legal systems in most western countries are now strong enough to prevent the “holding-gun-to-your-head to use it” type scenario you are keen to stress with Microsoft and their customers. People are free to choose, and if they’re not aware of their options they have a bigger problem than just Microsoft.
Paul James
on 19 Sep 08Microsoft is trying to be all things to all people. They really always have.
How do you end up with a bloated Office product where 50% of the features are only used by 5% of the users? By trying to be all things to all people.
How do you have an operating system that is literally gasping for air while dying under it’s own weight? By trying to be all things to all people.
How do you end up with a behemoth develop tool like Visual Studio .NET that can assimilate any language, run on the web, desktop, anywhere, has 60 bajillion classes, and weighs as much as an 800-pound gorilla? By trying to be all things to all people.
What happens when you try to be all things to all people? You suck at all of those things!
This problem emerges when companies have too much extra money and too much influence for their own good.
PSolus
on 19 Sep 08A PC is simply a tool meant to help you do your job.
Microsoft is simply the company that creates the operating system for said tool.
Neither was meant to be a religion, or a lifestyle.
Mac and Apple, on the other hand…
Tim Jahn
on 19 Sep 08It’s sickening how now reports say Microsoft is just going to imitate the Apple ads…why can’t Microsoft actually innovate and do something different? Maybe then they would actually stand for something.
Anonymous Coward
on 19 Sep 08So Microsoft made windows 95, which was very clickable and “simple” to use compared to typing commands. They did well, sold a few copies, made some profit, made improvements just like any company would, then expanded into other fields, they gave everyone free email and tried to be all things to all people(@ Paul james). I don’t know a whole lot about the politics etc but respect for MS on this blog is very low.
So I heard of these two guys from Stanford who made a way to crawl the web in order to search it ultra-quick, they did well, made some money, made some improvements, created a new way to do email, and try to be all web things to all web people, hell they even decided to compete with a wildly successful project and make their own browser. Are people going to hate Google as much as they seem to hate MS so much.
What does google stand for? improving access to the web right? So then from the start MS stood for improving access to desktop computing in general, which they have done I think it’s fair to say.
XP is sweet, Vista sux. Ubuntu is the future.
gwg
on 19 Sep 08I didn’t like the Seinfeld commercials at all, but I watched them and I was genuinely curious about what would be in the next one.
I like the new “I’m a PC” commercials, but I don’t even care what the alternate versions look like after seeing “I wear jeans” and “I wear a suit”. Ok, I get it. Mute.
The Seinfeld commercials stood out; I wish I could have seen a full run of them.
pax
on 19 Sep 08but is it ok to just imitate the Mac ads, isn’t this like admitting communication defeat and reckognizing apple as the unbeatable hipster? I ask the marketing guys of you? Is it ok from a strategic communication point of view? If this is apple talk(sic), then who are they targeting? The existing apple customers?
Martin Baker
on 19 Sep 08Every time they do this ‘trying to be as cool as Apple’ thing they fall flat on their face. It’s a pointless exercise. The Seinfeld ads were weird and these “me too” PC ads are nothing more than validation for Apple.
Windows will never be OS X. Zune will never be iPod. But Microsoft customers are being converted into evangelical Apple customers like never before.
That’s their problem and they’re clearly worried about it.
Andy
on 19 Sep 08To suggest the “I’m a PC” ads are a panic response to the debate over the Seinfeld ads is absurd. It’s called a campaign. You get people talking with the first wave. You then bang home the real message – that PCs are everywhere used by real people. Even developers/readers of 37signals!
Please write about ASP.NET MVC or SQL Services Data Services and their cloud technologies or something, comparing them with Rails, rather than daft posts such as this!
Robert
on 19 Sep 08Gaurav,
I disagree. Linux is used by choice oftenly. Mac OS too. But not Windows. Most Windows users haven’t event thought to switch to a different operating system.
Even single users who wants to switch to a Mac are scared, caused by change. To change a running system could be very hard. In a big company it is even harder.
John
on 19 Sep 08@Andy: I completely agree. The general opinion of most of the (mac-centric) blogs that I read is that Microsoft have panicked and created a knee jerk reaction to the ‘coolness that is the mac ads’.
I’ve seen all the Mac vs PC ads, and I GET IT. Apple hammered this point home so heavily, and dragged it out for so long, that it began to get a bit tiresome. Has nobody seen the first 10 seconds of the Microsoft “I’m a PC” ad? They are making a point that not everyone who uses a PC is a suited nerd. It’s really that simple. Sometimes ad campaigns made by people other than Apple’s agencies can be simple and get their point across too.
I’m a PC user, and I wear a suit somedays, and jeans others. I’m measured by the results I deliver, not the computing platform I deliver them from. I respect the views of all OS users!
Kontra
on 19 Sep 08The ad agency behind “Windows. Life Without Walls” is Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Their principal tactic in a number of recent ad campaigns has been the notion of perception reversing. [...] Therein lies Microsoft’s problem. Perception reversing by appropriating your enemy’s words can work only if your insurgency has an identifiable goal. Witness Apple which effectively used its insurgent status to barge into the consumer desktop, digital music and cellphone businesses and changed them in alignment with users’ shared aspirations.
Microsoft, one of the most lucrative monopolies ever, however, is no insurgent. Its enemy is smaller, cooler, better liked, more nimble, more creative and more aligned with users. So Microsoft has to not only show “it’s OK to use Windows” but tell us why it’s better and show us a goal that we can all identify with that the enemy cannot provide.
Microsoft “I’m a PC” ads are channeling Apple’s “Crazy Ones”
Conor
on 19 Sep 08Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Terry Sutton
on 19 Sep 08I don’t like to be anti anything. But I find it really hard not to be anti-Microsoft.
I work in healthcare, where Microsoft has successfully captured a market and held it hostage. Held hostage by un-openable xls and ppt files. I hear the statement, “I need to get this report done, but I can’t get the file open”, ALL the time.
MS is a company too unsure of itself to look forward. Its still looking back trying to ensure compatibility with every user, on every system, with every file, with every program.
[I think] the reason Apple has done so well is because it developed a good product, it believed it developed a good product, and it basically said – if you don’t like our product then fuck you.
I think MS needs a much better fuck you attitude.
Something like – “we’re putting all of our office software online”. If you don’t like it? That’s right – fuck you. Learn to like it.
B
on 19 Sep 08I can’t figure out why MS hasn’t tried to buy or hire or /something/ 37signals? They could turn them around by injecting some brand new thinking about productivity apps.
Jose
on 19 Sep 08http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/believe-it-or-not-hes-a-pc.html
Keith
on 19 Sep 08I’ve been a fan of the Mojavi campaign because it’s exposing people who only rejected Vista based on word of mouth rather than any actual experiences with it.
I know plenty of “average” PC users who haven’t even had a hiccup with the switch from XP to Vista.
The techies have obvious reason to hate it and MS did a terrible job at launch with it. Heck…I’ll never switch to it! But I think showing people using it and being impressed is more powerful than advertising features.
It also wouldn’t hurt if MS wasn’t chasing down every single thing that Google did and just focused on some genuine innovation for a change. The Office Ribbon concept is great and even won over the Nielsen-Norman Group. But aside from that usability push on one aspect of one product line they aren’t changing the world or defining it any longer which is their real problem in my opinion.
Tom G
on 19 Sep 08Seems to me that Microsoft’s ads are working very well – people certainly are talking…
I have to admin though, I was kinda hoping that Microsoft would hire away the Mac ad actors and just have the PC guy kick the smarmy Mac guy’s ass ;-)
Don Schenck
on 19 Sep 08I just watched Microsoft’s new “I’m a PC” ad.
In my opinion: Brilliant.
Rich
on 19 Sep 08I like the comment about being everything to everyone, it is a big job which frankly Microsoft has proved is very difficult, was spot on.
A home user is a far different customer than someone at Ford churning out company documentation.
Darcy McGee
on 19 Sep 08When Gates announced his retirement, I dropped them my resume. Never got a call. Big mistake on their part.
Companies often have transition problems with leadership. Companies dominated by one CEO have bigger ones (I consider Steve Ballmer more of a tumor on Bill’s ass than an actual person.)
Apple didn’t do very well when El Steve was pushed out. 10 years of crappy products, poor quality control. There was that Newton thing…loved that. A truly innovative product.
Apple might have trouble again.
Unept
on 19 Sep 08I had a boss not long ago who was a megalomaniacal asshole. He thought-and let everyone know-that he was God of the Internet, and all things Marketing. He is now starting a new company with a new team, because nobody who worked with him before is willing to now. His name is a joke in some industry circles.
But Sometimes we still miss the asshole. Do you think it’s because we miss having a target to rally against, giving us a similar cause? (once Microsoft, now Google?)
GeeIWonder
on 19 Sep 08It’s sickening how now reports say Microsoft is just going to imitate the Apple ads…why can’t Microsoft actually innovate and do something different? Maybe then they would actually stand for something.
Reports have been saying that for 20 years. In truth? Apple might have crafted a caravel, but then Microsoft built a thousand better ones and discovered the new world with it while it sat in Apple’s garage.
Apple might have trouble again.
Maybe they’ve planned to disappear for 20 years again, so they can then reappear, repackage someone else’s hardware and software, and pretend they had some part in the revolution.
You guys used steam power locomotives for those years we were gone? Why not use this TGV here?
Scott
on 19 Sep 08There’s a somewhat related article on NYT about Zune vs. iPod. It’s worth a read. The last paragraph says is all (but not what you would expect).
“Funny, isn’t it? In the music world, Apple and Microsoft have now completely switched roles. You buy Apple if you want to play it safe — and you buy Microsoft if you think different.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/technology/personaltech/18pogue.html
GWE
on 19 Sep 08I’d like to raise the issue in one of the first responses – where do the “coolness” and “productivity” lines exist and when do they blend. Every1 here knows Apple products can increase productivity but most do not yet Apple is the gorilla of coolness.
Jeff Putz
on 19 Sep 08As much as I typically drink the 37signals Kool-Aid, this is a post that wasn’t worth reading. When someone knocks 37signals, their response is, “We didn’t need them as a customer anyway.” Maybe Microsoft doesn’t need you?
Vista is a total failure (functionally anyway… the sales makes it successful). But with that said, they’ve always got something to be excited about in the development space. LINQ, ASP.NET AJAX, MVC (where they openly admit the influence of Rails), Silverlight, the many great features of C# 3.0… it’s a constantly evolving list.
Yeah, I do my Windows development on a Mac in Parallels, and I think Vista sucks, but I’m not silly enough to write off the entire company just because. I’ve met those cats in Building 42. Where else does a corporate VP in a company that size actually know how to use all of this code stuff? That’s a respectable culture in that part of the company, even if you’re not willing to see it.
Art
on 19 Sep 08Only the shallow and uneducated can make a statement like David’s. Microsoft has been around for a long time and have a track record of success longer than 37signals. Sure you guys are the cool kids at the moment, but do you honestly think that Microsoft can’t recover from this or that their influence has lessened?
Consider this…Imagine the chaos and mayhem if every server with a Microsoft product went down. Now think about every server going down with RoR installed. The few people buying shoes from Zappos.com will have to go to Footlocker instead…ooooh.
David, I want to pick my words carefully as I don’t want to be misunderstood…”You’re an idiot.”
Ta…
Josh Atkins
on 19 Sep 08DHH, interesting and somewhat insightful post.
But let’s be clear: Microsoft stood for more than just being disliked by Apple zealots like you guys. They may “just have absolutely no taste” (Jobs), but they DID change the industry. They’ve done more than their fair share of things that were not right. But then think of the things they done that ARE revolutionary.
Don’t laugh, I will prove it: They invented Ajax (oh yes they did, even the W3C said thanks) They invented JavaScript-WYSIWYG editors (you might not use them in your apps but no doubt you’re glad they exist and are in apps like GMail, Campaign Monitor, etc. The did what Apple couldn’t (please don’t kill me, Apple aren’t some infallible God, they’re a company that screws up just as much as anyone else, if not more): they made personal computers (by which I mean non-mainframes, not IBM PCs) mainstream, like it or not.I’m not ashamed to admit that Bill Gates has been my #1 hero growing up. You know, I never really took much interest in Apple or Macs until a couple of years back, but they are good computers, and Steve Jobs is also a hero of mine. If you watch the D5 interview you’ll see that, as one commenter pointed out, they “clearly have a mutual respect for each over”. Apple may not be God, but remember too that nor is Microsoft or Bill Gates the devil. You may disagree with him, but it’s just as much John Scully’s fault for signing the GUI agreement with MSFT as it is MSFT’s for making it.
Mutual respect is great. Now listed above was not a single current Microsoft revolution. Here they are: Surface IE8 Roundtable Live Mesh The Microsoft Store (only in Europe so far: http://www.microsoftstore.co.uk/) I could go on..mbreo
on 19 Sep 08Ford vs Chevy. Star Wars vs Star Trek. Obama vs Palin, oops I mean McCain. MS vs Mac. Ok, more of the same here people, move on, nothing to see here.
Ok, lets get to the point here. We ALL know that the path to greatness for MS was done so by the blood and carnage of the other software companies that have collapsed in its wake. There is not a single person in this post that can say otherwise.
Why has Apple stayed strong and is experiencing growth that is even making the most zealot of MS users take notice? Simple, they do something and they do it right. What was that one thing they did right? They invented a platform. Simple. The Mac, the iPhone and the iPod. Three devices all built on the same platform. The hardware is just that, plastic and silicon. And that is what MS doesn’t get.
MS thinks that they can just make the lipstick that is put on the pig and make just as good as a Mac. Well, it is still a pig.
MS needs to stop trying to be Apple. Just let Apple be Apple and move on. MS, go back to being the software company that you started out as. At one time you knew how to innovate, but even way back then, you got caught up in trying to steel Apple’s thunder. Get over it.
Stop with the zune. Stop with the xBox. Stop with MSN search. Stop taking other people’s ideas and forcing them to be your own. The world will stand up and take notice if you ever come up with an original thought for god sake. Like the big ass table. Ok, that one sucked, but at least it was original ;)
Keith
on 19 Sep 08I don’t think David was trying to say that MS is evil. I think he was trying to say that there has been a noticeable lack of competitive fire coming from MS recently.
The back and forth rhetoric is seemingly gone. Vista was universally panned for one reason or another. IE 7 seems to be a step in the right direction so people aren’t actively bashing their browser as much and IE 8 is shaping up nicely but not controversially IMO (so far). Likewise the regular iterations of Office and the rest of the MS products have gone largely unnoticed.
It seems that the shift in “evil” is now on Google which seems hell bent on imploding because of a complete lack of focus (cell phones, digital content distribution, etc.).
It takes some fire, noticeable output, etc. to stir up hatred and MS has been sitting on the sidelines. Not good for fueling word of mouth or at continuing to dominate market share across personal and business markets.
I find it somewhat troubling actually…
John A Davis
on 19 Sep 08There are people that do, and then there is everyone else.
GeeIWonder
on 19 Sep 08Why has Apple stayed strong
Which rock have you been under?
MS has been sitting on the sidelines
If you believe the article, yes. The problem is, it’s just not true. The article mentions in passing the xbox thing (as if just deciding to dominate consoles one day and then doing it was somehow a trivial accomplishment), but more glaringly completely ignores the place where everyone (except, it seems, Apple, until very recently) has been focused: the web.
If you think Microsoft’s on the sidelines for the web, it’s time to start paying closer attention.
Don Schenck
on 19 Sep 08@Jeff Putz: Please email me; I want to learn about your development environment. That’s what I want to do.
A thousand apologies, gang, for using this forum to send this message.
Hypocrisy Lives
on 19 Sep 08If Apple had put out this campaign you’d be tripping all over yourselves to proclaim it’s genius.
Michael
on 19 Sep 08@Art: ”...success longer than 37signals. Sure you guys are the cool kids at the moment…” I had to missed something. What make 37signals cool kids? Don’t get me wrong, they make solid very simple piece of web app but what’s cool?
Anonymous Coward
on 20 Sep 08this is an excellent , thanks a lot .
Sebhelyesfarku
on 20 Sep 08Gruber is a dumbass Mactard. Just like 37signals are.
Josh Atkins
on 20 Sep 08@JF Ray wouldn’t be lying is he proclaimed “I’ve got the power” in reference to saving Microsoft; your point is a good one.
I didn’t want to start the whole Microsoft v. Apple debate (that’s been had before); I just wanted to point out that they’re not the enemy of, say, the Millennium Development Goals, if you get my analogy. They’re not perfect, no, but neither are Apple. Turns, they’re both, wait for it, AWESOME. Yes, both of them.
Anyway.
(..and, oh, btw, @mbreo—it’s kinda silly comparing MS to McCain/Palin; Steve and Bill are both Democrats)
Long live Microsoft and Apple (or as their first joint product was named, Applesoft (no kidding).
Nonetheless I do still think this post is insightful – in that it discusses how being hated can raise corporate stamina. Although maybe I’m digging too deep here. On Wikipedia, we call it Don’t give a fuckism.
And, oh yeah, long live 37s.
Maykel
on 20 Sep 08Take a look at this news at MSNBC Microsoft enlists Seinfeld for ad campaign
How can the page content expire and not the title? :)
PaulC
on 20 Sep 08That’s funny, I liked 37 Signals better when they weren’t assholes.
Gaurav Sharma
on 21 Sep 08Robert,
This whole “too scared to change from Windows” belief is nonsense. No one using Windows is literally “too scared to change” operating system. If they insist on Mac, as some, say good programmers might, then they can go and make a successful living on that platform, as many have, it might even give them advantages. If not, their acceptance of the Windows platform (whether or not it’s simply given to them) doesn’t imply “scaredness to change from Windows”. It just means Windows does what they need and beyond that, amazingly enough, they don’t have a problem. Or it does something specialist (e.g. Xbox or BlackBerry programming) which a Mac can’t do. To suggest people are coaxed into Windows against their will is misguided and over dramatizing the issue. I suppose next you’ll be saying employees are coaxed into using BlackBerries against their will too, because “to change a running system is very hard”.
The best operating system is would be one that can make itself invisible, just enough to let users get on with producing value without getting in the way. Both Windows and Mac do this well in sometimes different areas, sometimes both equally well (e.g. running Photoshop). It could be argued even that Windows does a better job of being invisible to most users (because people in that case often talk more of the software than what it is sitting on), and enables faster access to software like Adobe’s apps or Chrome.
The key differences for programmers actually start to appear under the hood (NT vs UNIX, .NET vs JVM or Ruby, IIS vs Apache, etc) and this is where I’d imagine David and friends start to get picky. They’re entitled to their viewpoint as much as an uninformed friend of mine who might say ”.NET is better than Java because I use it and I’m a Microsoft Partner”. But honestly I’d have expected better of them.
I’d suggest catching up on the latest details of their CLR technology. It’s being worked on by guys different to the marketing guys, in case you were confused. Microsoft’s underlying contemporary technology is very general, very robust and isn’t going to have trouble remaining competitive, even for the Web. If any of this makes any sense then feel free to adjust your morals instead of spreading FUD.
Jack
on 21 Sep 08Oh, plz. Basecamp is not any better than any software created by Microsoft.
credibility
on 21 Sep 08To say that MS yanked the Seinfeld ads in a panic is simply untrue. Here’s the engadget post with the leaked email from MS exec explaining that the Seinfeld ads are just an icebreaker.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/05/poll-is-microsofts-new-ad-working/
Excerpt: “This first set of ads features Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Think of these ads as an icebreaker to reintroduce Microsoft to viewers in a consumer context. Later this month, as the campaign moves into its next phase, we’ll go much deeper in telling the Windows story and celebrating what it can do for consumers at work, at play and on-the-go. “
disappointed
on 22 Sep 08Wow, my respect for 37signals has gone down a lot after reading this post.
Pat
on 22 Sep 08What’s wrong with Microsoft having a little fun and showing some personality? We know who they are, so they don’t need to explain it. Just let me be entertained without the annoyance of a new product getting shoved down my throat, or being told how lame the competition is. Not every commercial is going to work well with every consumer. These were working great for me. I’m sorry to see there aren’t going to be more.
Shawn Oster
on 22 Sep 08Those ads didn’t work at all, I mean no one is talking about… oh wait.
This discussion is closed.