Microsoft Draws Line in the Sand with Vista Haters

Looks like Microsoft is finally bringing forces to bear in dispelling the Vista vitriol that I've been blogging about on this site and elsewhere in my personal Give Vista a Chance campaign for many months now. From Mary-Jo Foley's blog earlier in the week:

Microsoft wants its partners and customers to know that it's done letting its competitors and critics walk all over Windows Vista.

"We know our story is very different from what our competitors want us to think," Brad Brooks, Corporate Vice President of Windows Consumer Product, told attendees of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston during a keynote address on July 8. "Today we are drawing a line and are going to start telling the real story" about Vista.

This is a key turnabout, and one that I've known was coming for a while from my contacts inside Microsoft. If you aren't aware, Microsoft has engaged with reknown marketing group Crispin Porter + Bogusky to design a marketing campaign to counter Apple's staggeringly successful one.

Foley continues with news from the Worldwide Partner Conference:

At the Microsoft partner show, Brooks reiterated the same messages that Microsoft has been attempting to get out to the market over the past few months. He acknowledged that partners stopped believing that Microsoft would ever manage to ship Vista and thus didn't prepare adquately for the launch of the operating system. He admitted that many of the feature changes, especially those in the security area, broke a lot of hardware and software apps. And he emphasized that the Vista that Microsoft first shipped nearly two years ago is very different from the Vista that's out in the market today. Microsoft is using Windows Update to ship updates to Vista users every week in order to continue to improve and hone the product, he added.

Brooks also re-emphasized that because Windows 7 won't veer widely from Vista's hardware requirements and core set of features, partners should encourage customers to move to Vista today in so they will be well-prepared for Windows 7. (Windows 7 is due to ship in late 2009, last anyone from Microsoft said.)

Here at Realtime Windows Server (and in those other locations) you've seen me holding the banner for Vista's relevance as a compelling desktop upgrade. Some examples you can use to help others Give Vista a Chance:

If you're a fellow Vista fan, feel free to use any of the fodder in these articles as ammunition against the anti-Vista arguments in your own organization.