The Associated Press put out a piece on Windows Vista that was in practically every major paper today. It's a rather ho-hum critique about how the Vista launch isn't anything like the Windows 95 launch. The funny thing is... Vista hasn't launched yet, so it's impossible to tell what's going to happen. Besides that, in 1995 Amazon.com didn't exist. You couldn't preorder Windows 95 and have it shipped to you. And you definitely couldn't download it.
Microsoft spent a HELL of a lot of money advertising Vista and Office at CES. Last year, Microsoft was doling out money hand-over-fist to cover expenses for events, etc. This year, the budgets are a hell of a lot tighter. Where do you think all that money is gonna go? My personal guess would be Vista marketing. Anyway, we'll see what happens next Tuesday.
Speaking of Vista marketing and CES, here is the Bill Gates HP commercial for the HP MediaSmart Server that was shown in Bill's keynote. I personally though it was hilarious. YMMV.
But in other news, the New York Times had a fantastic article about the changes coming in Office 2007. They did a great job talking about the features, as well as the pain points, in the new upgrade. The best quote:
It seems to be the work of the New Microsoft, a company far more concerned with elegance, beauty and simplicity than the Old Microsoft.
I thought Apple had the market cornered in great design? Well, apparently not anymore.
Seen anymore Vista or Office in the mainstream press? Please leave a comment with the link.