Microsoft to Respond to Apple's 'Get a Mac' Ads

[Ubuntu]

The part before the hyphen ("Vista is not going to work") wasn't a quote. Allchin didn't use the word "Vista" in the sentence. Note how an honest writer signifies that he's made a change to a quote for brevity or clarity:

Developer: Windows Vista Is Not Ready
Allchin has shown public concern about Vista's development ... of last year, Allchin had to break the news to Bill Gates that "[Vista] is not going to work. ...
archive.devnewz.com/2006/0802.html - Cached​

A couple of square brackets...difference between honesty and deceit.


The part after the hyphen ("we should be doing it like OS X") isn't a quotation as you claim, it is pure invention.

Allchin didn't say those words, and he wasn't even talking about the OS in the quote that you gave. He was talking about Apple's design philosophy:

("...my point is about the philosophy that Apple uses. They think scenario. They think simple. They think fast." - http://www.microsoft-watch.com/cont...c_email_exposed.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535)​

Note one dictionary's definition:

quotation noun

a person's exact words, as repeated by someone else

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary. K Dictionaries Ltd. 09 Jul. 2008.​

Remember the "exact words" part before adding the '"' marks .

Sorry, but that's really, really sad.

 

[t0mat0]

Time for something a little more fun. You know, this kind of fun and this. WooooooooooW

A run down of the over 50 Get a Mac adverts, modded from Wiki.

Anyone who thinks the ads are overly snarky, or actual heaven forbid wildly innacurate, please say...


N. American campaign
Accident – Magnetic power cord
Angel/Devil – iPhoto
Better – Handling media - Music, pictures, video
Better results – Home movie making
Boxer- PC wants to rumble – not down without a fight Mac sees it not as a competition but rather people switching to a computer that's simpler and more intuitive.
Breakthrough – Problems for PC with software & hardware
Choose a Vista – Vista’s licensing problem
Computer Cart – Cryptic Windows errors, and their frequency
Counselor – Mac being compatible with PC, complementing PC on Excel
Flashback – Ability of Mac to make a website and home movie
Genius – Mac’s Apple Genius Bar
Gift Exchange – iPhoto of Mac, Programming language of the 2 OSs
Goodwill – Nearly Christmas goodwill
Group – Vista issues - isn’t working as it should, errors
iLife – iPod, iTunes, iLife coming with every Mac
Meant for Work – Stickerless well designed aesthetic Mac vs…
Misprint - PC World - "Fastest Windows Vista notebook tested that year was a Mac
Network - Mac & PC can network together, but Mac is compatible with other hardware without needing as much driver installation
with virtually all new hardware.
Now What – The complexity in buying a PC vs. a Mac, Apple stores, personal shoppers, workshops
Office Stress – Mac’s Microsoft Office 2008 & Mac compatibility with PC
Out of the Box – Macs can work straight from the box (No step 3 )
Pep Rally – Mac’s #1 status on college campuses, in-built iSight camera, stable OS
Party is Over – Need for upgrades to use Vista and peripherals and software incompatability
Podium – Denial about Vista’s problems, compatibility issues, new features of Mac OS X, downgrading of Vista to X, "It's not about what Vista can do for you, it's what you can buy for Vista."
PR Lady – Bad use of PR by Microsoft, negative public reaction to Vista, downgrading, switching to Mac
Referee – WSJ comments that Leopard is better & faster than Vista
Restarting – Freezing/rebooting issues of Vista/XP
Sabotage – Delusional PR about Vista/XP
Sad Song – Switchers to Mac, Vista’s issues,
Sales Pitch – Mac’s increasing popularity, badly done Windows’ sales pitches
Santa Claus – Nearly seasonal goodwill
Security – PC is coming to a sad realization "cancel or allow" (UAC)
Self Pity – Mac has run Microsoft Office for years
Stuffed – Crapware on new PCs, iLife in comparison
Surgery – Upgrades needed to get Vista, Macs compatibility with peripherals
Tech Support – Mac’s built in webcam vs. lack of ease of installing one on a PC
Time Machine – Time Machine
Touché – Mac says "And I'm a PC too…the only computer you'll ever need."
Trust Mac – Spyware on PC, lack of spyware and viruses on Mac OS X
Viruses – “114,000 known viruses for PCs." Lack of viruses for Mac
Work vs. Home – Mac can do podcasts, movies.
WSJ – Mac’s favorable review in WSJ
Yoga –PC unfortunately had “bad Vista energy", problems

Web exclusive campaign
Banging – Problems with Vista
Hiding – Viruses, spyware, the pain of scanning
Knocking – Vista’s driver issues
PC Turf - How PCMag and PCWorld have given good reviews for Mac
Sign –DON'T GIVE UP ON VISTA". GIVE UP"…"ON VISTA".
Not – WSJ - "Leopard is better and faster than Vista"
Emergency Refresh - "Vista... one of the biggest blunders in technology?" -CNET.com; "It's time for a Vista do-over" - PC Magazine; "Mac OS X Leopard: A Perfect 10" - InfoWorld.
PC Newswire – Potential headlines – glitches, downgrading

 

[AidenShaw]

Any chance of chilling a bit? we got to the sources in the end...

Yeah, funny that for something he now claims was a "scenario", earlier DMann was quoting sources.

'nuff said already....

 

[DMann]

Yeah, funny that for something he now claims was a "scenario", earlier DMann was quoting sources.

'nuff said already....

But it WAS a scenario. You're the one who made a Federal Case out of it, by doing the very thing you were so vehemently protesting - taking a small part out of context.

 

[marco114]

Why I use a Mac

My dad calls me just the other day. Hey Marc, I got all these photos of your grandpa and I want to make a DVD and send it out to all the kids. How do I do that? I said, well, if you email them to me, I'll through them in iDVD and whip it out in a few minutes complete with music and submenus.

He's like "I don't wanna bother you with that, I know you're busy." Ok so you're calling me because I am busy but you don't want to just give me the damn photos and let me make it?

So he goes over to download.com and finds a few apps that "claim" to make movies from photos in just a few clicks. Yeah right. So after about 3 days of playing with it (good thing he is retired now).. he calls me back and says... I think I found a good one now. I said, you're still playing with that? ROTFL! I almost passed out.

So he buys the app and tries to make the movie and it's not working with his DVD player. It turns out he needs to download some other software just to burn it, another cost. So about $75 and 4 days later, he finally gets the DVD made and there's no menu and no music to it. He tried but it kept skipping. He said it literally locked up his whole machine whenever he did a command. And he's got a $2500 Dell XPS machine too.

Oh I forgot to mention that now his Internet Explorer is automatically going to some goofy search engine instead of google. Looks like one of those apps hijcked it. Nice.

This type of scenario is literally a weekly occurrence for my fairly computer-literate family that all use Windows daily in their jobs. I have many friends that have Macs, we go out and play frisbee golf, to the movies and all kinds of stuff and rarely talk about our computers, except about the cool stuff we make or that podcast we listened to.

Macs just get stuff done. Maybe I'm biased.

 

[gcmexico]

My dad calls me just the other day. Hey Marc, I got all these photos of your grandpa and I want to make a DVD and send it out to all the kids. How do I do that? I said, well, if you email them to me, I'll through them in iDVD and whip it out in a few minutes complete with music and submenus.

He's like "I don't wanna bother you with that, I know you're busy." Ok so you're calling me because I am busy but you don't want to just give me the damn photos and let me make it?

So he goes over to download.com and finds a few apps that "claim" to make movies from photos in just a few clicks. Yeah right. So after about 3 days of playing with it (good thing he is retired now).. he calls me back and says... I think I found a good one now. I said, you're still playing with that? ROTFL! I almost passed out.

So he buys the app and tries to make the movie and it's not working with his DVD player. It turns out he needs to download some other software just to burn it, another cost. So about $75 and 4 days later, he finally gets the DVD made and there's no menu and no music to it. He tried but it kept skipping. He said it literally locked up his whole machine whenever he did a command. And he's got a $2500 Dell XPS machine too.

Oh I forgot to mention that now his Internet Explorer is automatically going to some goofy search engine instead of google. Looks like one of those apps hijcked it. Nice.

This type of scenario is literally a weekly occurrence for my fairly computer-literate family that all use Windows daily in their jobs. I have many friends that have Macs, we go out and play frisbee golf, to the movies and all kinds of stuff and rarely talk about our computers, except about the cool stuff we make or that podcast we listened to.

Macs just get stuff done. Maybe I'm biased.

*
great story...Macs are just so easy to use, and do really cool things with

 

[Dustman]

Macs just get stuff done. Maybe I'm biased.

Windows offers the flexibility of being able to download one of the thousands of apps out there that all do the same thing, usually hit and miss. Macs offer what you need built in without the need to scavenge around the internet looking for different apps to do what you want.

This has always been this way. Macs rule.

 

[Eidorian]

Windows offers the flexibility of being able to download one of the thousands of apps out there that all do the same thing, usually hit and miss. Macs offer what you need built in without the need to scavenge around the internet looking for different apps to do what you want.

This has always been this way. Macs rule.

While I'll admit that off the shelf OS X is a lot more capable then Windows XP or Vista, the majority of my applications I have for OS X aren't Apple branded.

 

[mosx]

Oh wait, run Windows under Bootcamp and run all those PC games, or at least 90% of them. Or do you not know that this is possible? THAT'S what i mean by ultimate. Can a run of the mill PC run Mac OS X, at without running some arcane hacks? Nope. All I'm saying is that in terms of being software compatible, Macs are actually above Windows in this regard. Yes, Windows has far more software available for it, but I have rarely, if ever, felt left out in terms of what software I can run on my Macs.

You're forgetting the fact that Apple's top selling Macs have INTEGRATED INTEL GPUs and cannot run games. Those it can run you might as well not even bother with because they're essentially unplayable or ridiculously ugly compared to how they would be on a PC costing several hundred dollars less.

Blu-Ray? How many people do you know that actually have HD resolution computer monitors? I am sure we'll see Blu-Ray real soon; it makes sense for Apple to have waited to see whether HD-DVD or Blu-Ray was going to be the standard.

Who needs a monitor? 10s of millions of Windows notebooks sold over the last 2 years include the hardware (GPU + HDMI, minus the blu-ray drive) to play high definition movies.

Get the drive, connect the notebook to an HDTV with the HDMI cable and you're good to go. OS X does NOT have system wide hardware acceleration NOR does it have HDCP certification, so playing legal HD movies is out of the question.

 

[DMann]

My dad calls me just the other day. Hey Marc, I got all these photos of your grandpa and I want to make a DVD and send it out to all the kids. How do I do that? I said, well, if you email them to me, I'll through them in iDVD and whip it out in a few minutes complete with music and submenus.

He's like "I don't wanna bother you with that, I know you're busy." Ok so you're calling me because I am busy but you don't want to just give me the damn photos and let me make it?

So he goes over to download.com and finds a few apps that "claim" to make movies from photos in just a few clicks. Yeah right. So after about 3 days of playing with it (good thing he is retired now).. he calls me back and says... I think I found a good one now. I said, you're still playing with that? ROTFL! I almost passed out.

So he buys the app and tries to make the movie and it's not working with his DVD player. It turns out he needs to download some other software just to burn it, another cost. So about $75 and 4 days later, he finally gets the DVD made and there's no menu and no music to it. He tried but it kept skipping. He said it literally locked up his whole machine whenever he did a command. And he's got a $2500 Dell XPS machine too.

Oh I forgot to mention that now his Internet Explorer is automatically going to some goofy search engine instead of google. Looks like one of those apps hijcked it. Nice.

This type of scenario is literally a weekly occurrence for my fairly computer-literate family that all use Windows daily in their jobs. I have many friends that have Macs, we go out and play frisbee golf, to the movies and all kinds of stuff and rarely talk about our computers, except about the cool stuff we make or that podcast we listened to.

Macs just get stuff done. Maybe I'm biased.

A similar scenario convinced my Dad to get an iMac 24" and he hasn't looked back since. He lost all of his original photos using an expensive program which was supposed to find all duplicates - the program wound up trashing his duplicates and originals. He was already growing weary of reformatting the drive and re-installing the system once every 6 months. After having to run Anti-Virus vigilantly, with continued massive slowdowns, he said - enough! His only problem is that now mom is on his new Mac all night long making and burning DVDs, printing photo albums, editing movies, and recording her favorite TV shows with EyeTV - she stopped using TiVo altogether. She had no idea how to do all of this with his Windows PC. Now, I've got to get her one of her own.

 

[inkswamp]

I've pointted out this in the past and been accused of being a fan boy, as these are just details which don't really matter. Good luck, but I've given up on trying to change the minds of the Apple ripped of Xerox brigade!

Well, people are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Apple developed about half of what we consider the modern computer desktop GUI using work done at Xerox PARC as a starting point--with Xerox's permission. That's all factual. See the "Apple Lisa and Macintosh" section of Wikipedia's History of the GUI for confirmation.

I'm not sure why Apple's contribution to the development of the GUI is such a threat to some people, but it's a verifiable part of computing history. End of story.

That article on Wikipedia pretty much confirms what I already knew to be the case, but it also points out that Apple developed the concept of the desktop accessory and representative icons for files and folders as well as "manipulatable icons and a fixed menu bar and direct manipulation of objects in the file system..." All of those are significant developments to the GUI and they did not come from Xerox.

 

[DMann]

Where did those numbers come from, out of curiosity?

Here's a link to the survey:

http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=8299

You're forgetting the fact that Apple's top selling Macs have INTEGRATED INTEL GPUs and cannot run games.

the iMac happens to be the top selling Mac. iMacs, MacPros, and even MacBookPros all have GPUs capable of playing games. Perhaps you are referring to certain top selling notebooks.

 

[ilovefanboyz]

Wow.. I adore these threads.. Thanks guys..

GET A GRIP.

There are fanboys misquoting people... claiming Vista doesnt work and praising that their Mac can burn DVDs and print photos. It is VERY, VERY embarrassing. Even Adobe have abandoned 64bit for their next Photoshop for the Mac.. Finally, Macboys cant brag about how much better it is on the Mac

Macs are so outdated it is untrue. I have had Blu-Ray in my laptop for over a year.. I get to enjoy Netflix downloads (awww competition Steve?).. I have 64 BIT POWER.. And when you're running Windows; you are a PC NOT a Mac.. If Mac OS was so good why can the machines run Windows? Have you seen how many configurations of machines Vista can work on? OS X runs on what.. 20 different machines?!??! Its a JOKE. Macs do just work.. at doing things my mum and dad like to do.. THATS IT.

I use 3D software and this website has a software developer explaining why Softimage XSI wont ever appear on a Mac..
http://tinyurl.com/6nsqpm

Excellent

 

[DMann]

I use 3D software and this website has a software developer explaining why Softimage XSI wont ever appear on a Mac..
http://tinyurl.com/6nsqpm

That's funny, nearly every other post on the XSI forum bashes Vista 64, Dell, and Windows in general.

I record and produce audio CDs and music videos. Have you noticed how decrepit audio production is on Vista, even after SP1? Sorry, wouldn't even consider it.

 

[Quillz]

That's funny, nearly every other post on the XSI forum bashes Vista 64, Dell, and Windows in general.

You mean just like every other post here?

 

[DMann]

You mean just like every other post here?

Gotta be a reason for that.

 

[inkswamp]

(Accidental duplicate, deleted.)

 

[inkswamp]

There are fanboys misquoting people... claiming Vista doesnt work

Funny. I've seen links here to many articles from Windows fans making that claim, but if you can blame that on Mac "fanboys", well, hmm... okay.

and praising that their Mac can burn DVDs and print photos. It is VERY, VERY embarrassing.

Strawman argument. Cute.

Even Adobe have abandoned 64bit for their next Photoshop for the Mac..

Can you post a link to a source for that? Last I heard, Adobe had delayed 64-bit Photoshop, not given up completely.

Finally, Macboys cant brag about how much better it is on the Mac

Ever done design or prepress work professionally? Trust me, Photoshop 7.0 on a Mac would still beat 64-bazillion-bit Photoshop on Windows.

Macs are so outdated it is untrue. I have had Blu-Ray in my laptop for over a year..

Gee, it just became the standard and you think anyone is bothered that Apple hasn't offered it BTO yet? We're all really impressed that you have Blu-Ray but how about PCs with HD-DVD built-in? Bet those guys aren't bragging.

I get to enjoy Netflix downloads (awww competition Steve?)..

Netflix has a very slim offering of movies to view online. It's hardly a source of competition for iTunes yet.

I have 64 BIT POWER.. And when you're running Windows; you are a PC NOT a Mac..

Yeah, and your point?

If Mac OS was so good why can the machines run Windows?

Because Apple exists in a world that is predominantly Windows. If they want to survive, they have to make such concessions to keep people happy. That's hardly a measure by which to judge an operating system. You're really grasping at straws for that one.

Have you seen how many configurations of machines Vista can work on?

Now, are you counting all those "Vista capable" machines that MS is getting sued over or not?

OS X runs on what.. 20 different machines?!??!

Yeah, and they're all OS X capable. Imagine that.

Its a JOKE. Macs do just work.. at doing things my mum and dad like to do..

Good lord! If you're saying Macs are good at bringing people like you into the world, then you have made your point. You win. Bad Macs! Bad!

THATS IT.

God, I hope so.

 

[kaiwai]

Wow.. I adore these threads.. Thanks guys..

GET A GRIP.

There are fanboys misquoting people... claiming Vista doesnt work and praising that their Mac can burn DVDs and print photos. It is VERY, VERY embarrassing. Even Adobe have abandoned 64bit for their next Photoshop for the Mac.. Finally, Macboys cant brag about how much better it is on the Mac

Macs are so outdated it is untrue. I have had Blu-Ray in my laptop for over a year.. I get to enjoy Netflix downloads (awww competition Steve?).. I have 64 BIT POWER.. And when you're running Windows; you are a PC NOT a Mac.. If Mac OS was so good why can the machines run Windows? Have you seen how many configurations of machines Vista can work on? OS X runs on what.. 20 different machines?!??! Its a JOKE. Macs do just work.. at doing things my mum and dad like to do.. THATS IT.

I use 3D software and this website has a software developer explaining why Softimage XSI wont ever appear on a Mac..
http://tinyurl.com/6nsqpm

Excellent

Why do you hang around here and not even use a Mac? you seems to be nothing more than a certified troll looking for 'action' in the form of arguments by generating controversy where there is none.

 

[jlbrown23]

Ah, spoken like someone who hasn't used Vista.

Vista has other features that are not buried in any menus. In fact, I can't think of any of the new features that are "buried in menus". One great thing about Vista is its memory useage. Something the anti-MS fans mistake as "bloat", Vista caches data for the software you use the most. So if I click the Firefox icon it loads instantly on a fresh boot. See how long FF takes to open on OS X after a fresh boot.


It also amazes me how people say "haha Vista is failing!" When its already sold what? 5x more copies than there are Mac users total?

A couple of things:

The first part "see how long FF takes to load on a fresh boot[on a Mac]". I couldn't make the OSX argument any better. See, us Mac users aren't USED to a "fresh boot" because our OS is stable enough that we usually just go in to sleep mode - and when we wake our computers, EVERYTHING is loaded and ready to go instantly. Every Win machine I have ever used goes at MOST a few days using Hibernate(which FYI, takes a ridiculous amount of time to shut down) before the OS gets so buggy and slow it needs a reboot. Just the other day my work machine took 15 minutes for Lotus notes to start up after Hibernate. Feh!

Saying Windows is better because it sells more is like saying Chrysler makes better cars than BMW because they sell more. It's hardly an argument. Windows is entrenched, especially in corporations, so it is destined to have a much bigger market share LONG in the future no matter how awful it is and no matter how good OSX is. This is demonstrated by the astonishing rate at which people are jumping ship in what is at this point a mature commodity. The fact that EIGHTEEN MONTHS after its intro, MS is BRAGGING that it is secure and stable is pretty pathetic any way you look at it. And this is coming from someone who doesn't really think Vista sucks any more than XP did - they more or less both do.

 

[kaiwai]

A couple of things:

The first part "see how long FF takes to load on a fresh boot[on a Mac]". I couldn't make the OSX argument any better. See, us Mac users aren't USED to a "fresh boot" because our OS is stable enough that we usually just go in to sleep mode - and when we wake our computers, EVERYTHING is loaded and ready to go instantly. Every Win machine I have ever used goes at MOST a few days using Hibernate(which FYI, takes a ridiculous amount of time to shut down) before the OS gets so buggy and slow it needs a reboot. Just the other day my work machine took 15 minutes for Lotus notes to start up after Hibernate. Feh!

Saying Windows is better because it sells more is like saying Chrysler makes better cars than BMW because they sell more. It's hardly an argument. Windows is entrenched, especially in corporations, so it is destined to have a much bigger market share LONG in the future no matter how awful it is and no matter how good OSX is. This is demonstrated by the astonishing rate at which people are jumping ship in what is at this point a mature commodity. The fact that EIGHTEEN MONTHS after its intro, MS is BRAGGING that it is secure and stable is pretty pathetic any way you look at it. And this is coming from someone who doesn't really think Vista sucks any more than XP did - they more or less both do.

MOSX ignorance is also showing in that he doesn't know what the hell caching does. Both Mac OS X and Windows cache applications so that they load faster the next time. The fact that MOSX is too foolish to realise that the application has to have been launched for it to be cached shows how ignorant he is. A fresh load of Firefox on a fresh boot of Windows Vista will take just as long (if no longer) than a fresh boot of Mac OS X with a fresh load of Firefox.

 

[AidenShaw]

MOSX ignorance is also showing in that he doesn't know what the hell caching does. Both Mac OS X and Windows cache applications so that they load faster the next time. The fact that MOSX is too foolish to realise that the application has to have been launched for it to be cached shows how ignorant he is. A fresh load of Firefox on a fresh boot of Windows Vista will take just as long (if no longer) than a fresh boot of Mac OS X with a fresh load of Firefox.

For more info on the automatic pre-fetching of commonly used apps in Vista, read http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000688.html
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfetch#SuperFetch
to learn about things like:

SuperFetch is a technology that pre-loads commonly used applications into the memory to reduce their load times. It's based on the "prefetcher" function in Windows XP. [7]
...
SuperFetch also keeps track of what times of day that applications are used, which allows it to intelligently pre-load information that is expected to be used in the near future.

So, your claim about the speed of a "fresh load" is wrong - if you use Firefox regularly, Vista will preload it and that "fresh load" will be the same as any other cached load.

 

[kaiwai]

For more info on the automatic pre-fetching of commonly used apps in Vista, read http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000688.html
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfetch#SuperFetch
to learn about things like:

So, your claim about the speed of a "fresh load" is wrong - if you use Firefox regularly, Vista will preload it and that "fresh load" will be the same as any other cached load.

Sorry, I assumed he was referring to the basic 'caching' which Windows has been doing since Windows 95 (although you could set the maximum and minimum sizes in system.ini in the 9x days).

As for the 'prefetching' - doesn't that just seem to be moving loading at boot time rather than having a slightly shorter boot time and a longer application load time.

It reminds me of the intellisense defragging that apparently was meant to improve load times, but the reality is, its improvements were negliable.

As for Mac OS X - I can't work out what people are whining about, Firefox 3.0 (and beta 3.0.1 builds) load very fast on this machine. Same goes for all the applications I have. I can't work out why people are trying to make an issue out of nothing - that the 1 second they save is oh-so-damn-important.

 

[BongoBanger]

Macs are better at some things. PCs are better at others.

So it goes.

Anyway, I was surprised that MS took so long to respond the other Mac vs PC adverts until I thought about it - most of the blogs which were critical of Vista have no kind of swung round to being broadly happy with it. This means the time's probably right for Vista to be marketed. Shame it took over a year though!

 

[AidenShaw]

As for the 'prefetching' - doesn't that just seem to be moving loading at boot time rather than having a slightly shorter boot time and a longer application load time.

From the first link

It's [Vista is] running a low-priority background task that harvests previously accessed data from the disk and plops it into unused system memory.

So no, it shouldn't stretch boot time significantly, or login time.

...most of the blogs which were critical of Vista have no kind of swung round to being broadly happy with it.

I can think of a several things that may contribute to this...

1. With Vista now 18 months old, people are more likely to be using new systems with Vista pre-installed, rather than upgrading older systems that marginally meet the hardware needs (Vista really likes dual CPUs and a couple of gigs of RAM - fortunately, Core 2 Duos and Quads and RAM are pretty cheap today)
2. With any new OS, it can be frustrating when things move or are changed - after a few months you get used to the new setup.
3. The UAC popups can be annoying - but quickly quiet down once you've installed your apps and have "settled" into using the system.
4. Most third party apps and hardware are now Vista-ready, so almost everything that a consumer is likely to buy will simply work.
5. Like OSX, Vista has had a steady stream of updates to improve the product.

The consumer experience with Vista is very different from the experience of large corporations.

When you have tens or hundreds of thousands of desktops and laptops, and need to run the same application set on all - migrating to Vista can be a big problem until both all your apps are Vista-ready *and* those thousands of systems are Vista-ready. (Think about the people who could not upgrade to Intel Apples until CS or some other major app went native.)

Arguing that "Vista is junk because Intel plans to skip it" isn't good logic - Intel's decision is based on ROI for upgrading tens of thousands of systems. It could be as simple as the possibility that Intel's hardware replacement schedule will mean that by the time most of their hardware is "Vista Ready" it will be about time for Win7 - in which case it would make sense to wait for Win7. And, last but not least, Windows XP is a very solid, reliable operating system - businesses are getting their business done on XP.