Windows 7's biggest threat: Journalists
When Microsoft finally releases its follow-up to Windows Vista and it's time for the business and technology journalists (yes, bloggers are included in that grouping) across the world to decide if Windows 7 is the kind of operating system most people should want to use, Microsoft will be facing a deluge of biased individuals that, aware of that bias or not, won't give Windows 7 a fair shake.
Maybe it's wrong for a journalist to call out colleagues and fill you in on a dirty little secret that occurs across all sectors of this business, but, to be quite honest, I don't think I'm saying anything that should come as a surprise to anyone who follows the news. Regardless of whether you believe in the greatness of Steve Jobs or you choose to use only Velocity Micro machines out of your hatred for Apple, one thing remains: the vast majority of journalists use Macs to write their stories and have a deep-seated love for Apple products.
And although some journalists are expected to be "objective," I'm a firm believer that that's impossible. Aware or not of the language being used, there isn't one journalist in the world (tech or not) that can be undeniably objective at any time. I applaud it, though -- I think objectivity is a crock and doesn't truly reflect the history and time-honored tradition of journalism.
But I digress. When Windows 7 hits store shelves and countless PCs near you, don't expect too many glowing endorsements. Granted, there will be some and I'm sure that you'll find some of the best coverage here on CNET, thanks to a relatively diverse set of journalists that fall on either side of the fence. But across the Web, don't expect too many positive reviews.
Why? Because when a journalist that was (at one time, at least) a geek writes a review about Windows on a Mac machine, which they have used for the past decade, immediately they have lost true objectivity and they're playing in a world that's unknown. In essence, they were raised and continue to thrive off a Mac and now they're expected to comment on a Windows machine?
I don't think so.
Of course, this same form of bias can be found in any journalism topic area. Most people believe Fox News leans to the right in its reporting, while those same people believe MSNBC leans to the left. I'm sure both companies would claim that they're dead center in their reporting and it may even seem that way during news reports, but any astute observer would be able to identify slight differences in story selection and story reporting that tells us otherwise.
The same holds true for the Apple-Microsoft saga that continues to develop in this industry.
When was the last time you saw the entire technology field stop and wait for an announcement from any other company besides Apple? Every few months, Steve Jobs takes the stage and tells the world about Apple's latest developments. Sometimes, those announcements are major and warrant considerable coverage. But most times, especially when Jobs announces new colors for the iPod and a slightly modified design, hardly any coverage is needed at all. And yet, hundreds of outlets flock to Cupertino to hear what a balding old man has to say about a music player that has gone through so many changes, I couldn't care less anymore.
Does Logitech get the same kind of treatment when it makes major announcements? No way. I was at an event last year at CES where Logitech outlined its products for the year and detailed its opportunities for success. Hardly anyone showed up and coverage was extremely limited.
Does Microsoft get the Apple treatment? Quite the contrary. Rarely does the tech journalism field stop to hear what Ballmer has to say and even when Microsoft does hold a major press event, it doesn't receive the praise Apple's does. When Steve Jobs leaves the stage, we're forced to listen to journalists banter about his "stage presence" and his ability to "captivate" a crowd.
Give me a break.
Was Windows Vista an ideal operating system? Not a chance. But without the constant bashing on the part of major technology and business journalists, I doubt too many of those issues would have seeped into the public psyche. And if we believe Microsoft's internal research, most consumers didn't have the kind of trouble that's been highlighted so many times on pages across the Web.
So what do we learn from that? I think we learn that Windows 7 will need to be exceptional in order to be considered "good" and if it's only nominally better than Vista, Microsoft will be forced to contend with an avalanche of bad press that it's ill-prepared to confront.
Now, excuse me while I charge this MacBook, make a few calls on my iPhone 3G, and listen to some tunes on my iPod.
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Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
I for one am excited to see what Microsoft does when backed into a proverbial corner. I'm hoping they come up with their own 'Cadillac CTS' so to speak.
What a short memory you have. The problem MS keeps trying to sweep under the rug isn't that Vista was a pile of crap, it was that it ran like crap on every existing machine at the time it was released. That and it offered essentially no new features but changed lots of familiar items.
For months before the release of Vista, tech review sites talked about the incredible resource needs and the potential impact on businesses thinking about upgrading.
What if Vista wasn't released by MS? Would you still be giving it the automatic thumbs up or would you be more critical? Would you have come to the conclusion that Vista is enough of an advance that it's worthy of junking everything you've come to know and love and start anew?
All MS has to do is produce a quality piece of software that people want to buy. Nothing more, nothing less.
And since when did you have to love Macs to be a Windows hater?
everyone who writes in the Internet, news papers.. claim they are using mac, what kind of a group are they? while over 90% of the population on earth who use computer are using pc. People have to realize the media influence to the public. Majority of people just believe what the news papers say. If they constantly tell you black is white, you have to believe it.
I personally don't favour over any company until a couple of years ago. Since the media player Zune, and Windows Vista. I learned computer science and worked as IT professional for many years. I have worked on a lot of computer system and I believe my knowledge is not a lot less than what the reviewers have. Put it short, Vista is a great operating system. There is nothing to argue about it. I have serious doubt about those journalists, anaylists' intention.
Journalists are people. please respect the fact that you are considered as people. Being honest is the top part of that.
The Toshiba is running Vista Premium with SP1 with nothing in the background except the Symantec Firewall and has a 320 GB drive. The Gateway is running XP Pro with SP3 (finally installed that about 10 days ago) with a lot of background programs (have not got the foggiest what some of them do) and the Zone Alarm Security Suite and has 2 1/2 TB of drive space (I am also running NMAP and a few other toys that Zone Alarm does not really like).
Theoretically, the more HDD and background s/w, the slower a machine will run - or so says a number of sources.
Running PCMag's benchmark programs on both pieces of h/w, I am finding that the Gateway, even though it is a real ***** at boot-up time, tends to run about 30% faster than the Toshiba.
The Toshiba seems to be missing a bunch of drivers and codecs, which I will have to download and install, even though, theoretically, they slow the machine down.
The Toshiba has faster hardware than the Gateway and yet runs slower. This seems to indicate that the problem is with the O/S that came with it.
There are the professional techies who get into the innards of the O/S's who will sing it's praises or talk about all of the problems and will compare one agaist the other. It is true that I am a trifle annoyed with Vista because it gives me headaches because I like to run software from vendors who never paid their due tithes to MS and find that while said s/w runs on my XP box, it does not always run on the Vista Box without having to add drivers (from places that also did not give MS some money) or playing with the registry. Note the XP box (which runs faster, for some reason) has a totally clogged registry.
Needless to say, I am not a totally blind fan of Vista. While XP is somewhat buggy, it seems to run better (for that matter, even NT runs better than Vista).
I have been paid in the IT field for 39 years, though I first got into it about 5 years before that and have worked on just about every platform and O/S on the market, so I do know a little bit about what I am talking about. I have been an on-again/off-again Programming Language study groups like ACM's Sigplan ande even contributed to the syntax of ANSI PL/1 (a long time ago). I first programed the original Wang PC which worked with Holerith Coded paper tape and have kept up with Hardware & software as it has advanced. I do not try a new Windows based O/S until it has the first or second major Service Pack - I learned my lesson back with WFW.
Journalists do have honest opinions and the operative term here is "Opinion". I do not always agree with said opinions, but I have the tendency to keep my mouth shut rather than stick my foot in it (since I do have the tendency to suffer from hoof-in-mouth disease - though at least I admit it, unlike some people I have seen).
My 1 1/2 cents, as it were.
Want to make more money? Cause controversy.
LOL :-)
A problem on a pc that would get huge amounts of attention by the media, gets almost no mention when it happens on a mac.
Mac has made some great innovations; however, Windows has brought a lot of things to the table also and has really driven the ability of anyone to have access to a computer and the internet. Additionally, when Mac laptops can be bought for $300 from someone like Dell and be a perfectly workable and usable system then I'll be more than happy. Right now, Windows is driving the price and availability of computing to the world and the world needs to quit being so ready to bash Windows just for the sake of bashine Windows.
My 2 cents!
Other than that though, I agree - it's probably impossible for Windows to get an unbiased review with this release. But I guess that doesn't bother me that much - they've fallen way behind apple on the UI curve, and the closer the market gets to a 50/50 split, the better for us.
1. if "The entire organization is a republican propaganda machine", then saying it leans right is CORRECT.
2. "they've fallen way behind apple on the UI curve", you must be kidding. i don't blame you, since that's what every journalists say.
1. I'm saying to say they 'lean' to the right is a massive understatement :) They're well beyond horizontal at this point.
2. Well, they have. I've got a copy of Vista Ultimate, and sorry, but the sidebar is annoying and unusable, their weird 3D task switcher is far from a substitute for exposé, the start menu is a cluttered mess, the translucent windows are noisy and pointless, and once you drill down past the top layer of gloss, most things are exactly the same as XP, which was also a mess. My opinion comes from using of both OSes. How would you say they're keeping up/beating Apple in their UI design?
There's no such thing as an unbiased opinion. I wish more of them would fess up because frankly, most of them aren't even doing a very good job of faking it.
Objectivity may indeed be an impossible goal, but that doesn't mean those in this business should abandon the use of persuasion and reason when choosing one side or another. And those who consume news should demand that whatever side a writer takes, they should offer some facts to support that stance.
(I have posted too much, looks like i am policing around here, but sorry, this auther has said something I want to say for so long, l believe many people feel the same.)
without going into any details, this is the fact: in a couple of years, almost everything written about microsoft are negative. they trash everything from msft. at the same time, they painted a picture like everything linux, apple, firefox, google do are better and far better than msft. e.g. "windows is crashing", "winmobile the worst mobile os" ... how much truth is there in those articles, you ask yourself. it is so obvious and so intentional. truely objective is impossible, but that is the goal for them because of their career, and because the impact they have on public. if you can do it right, at lease not to go too far.
since the turning of the century, media has been a mess. Paris Hilton, britney spears, lindsy lohan, drugs, rehabs, everything apple, everything google. are those people should look up to?
if you are a journalist, you have a responsibility not only to boost your populiarity, a responsibilty to the public as well.
Tom Krazit, please go troll on your own blogs where you follow the pied piper ( who hands you the press releases you use to "write" your columns on ). You wont be the first or the last technical writer publish articles with titles which seem lifted from Apples own press releases, i.e. "Apple adds 8,000 retail employees in 2008", "Apple profit soars". It's not hard to believe that you have time to throw stones elsewhere. Way to go.
Instead of chasing press releases, Don writes about the things that we all are thinking about, but arn't writing about. I come back every day to see what he writes about, and more importantly to read the comments left by the community. I dont know how many times I've read one of his articles and in the comments section there is a NEW registered CNET user that says "I've never commented but I just had to say something". His articles encourage dialog and create a topic based community. THAT is something that old media doesn't do as well has he does. So how good is Don at writing articles that encourage dialog. He got to you post a comment, didn't he?
I'm posting this article from Vista, of which I have no problems with, it runs fine for me (I also don't try to run it on a pocket calculator from 1997). Windows 7, if the performance claims be true will be wonderful. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the adoption of the ribbon as a standard (I hate the ribbon). There are already people who are declaring Windows 7 a bloated failure before even having seen it. That's proof enough for me that they'll be out there blathering louding when it does come out... not because they know what they're talking about but because they hate Microsoft and the Internet gives them a good venue to yell loudely and see if anybody listens.
Billions of people on millions of computers use windows every day. I've been using Windows since Windows 2 and Vista is the best version of windows I have ever used. If you Google Vista and click on shopping you'll see that 85% of the people that bought Vista rate Vista either 4 or 5 stars.
Macs use Intel chips, Nvidia graphics boot Vista to run Microsoft Office? at twice the price. Hey Steve Jobs you?re a PC!!! LOL
The iDiots are out in full force on Win 7?thanks for some balance? I don?t expect much more
?We understand that many journalists use Macs,? said CNet marketing marketer Don Reisinger. ?This means they necessarily suckle at the Satanic rear passage of Steve Jobs. We cannot countenance their bias. Journalists are responsible for all those signs outside computer shops offering to replace Vista with XP. When was the last time you saw the entire technology field stop and wait for an announcement from any other company besides Apple? It?s so unfair!?
Smears and slanders also come from obsessive cat-****-smelling Linux geek troublemakers who run ?benchmarks? and ?tests.? ?It?s horrifying bias from the ?reality?-based community,? said ZDNet marketing marketer Mary Jo Enderle. ?We understand that, just because Vista was 40% slower than XP and Windows 7 is the same speed as Vista, the nattering nabobs of negativism are already writing press releases condemning it to the fiery pits of Hell as ?not enough of an improvement.? It?s so unfair!?
?Mactards are like concentration camp guards,? said Guardian marketing marketer Jack Schofield, ?brutalising ?I?m A PC? users and? [This comment has been removed by a Guardian moderator. Replies may also be deleted.]
?The only reason Vista failed was because Microsoft planned for it to fail,? said Reisinger in an earlier ad-banner troll post. ?It was a fantastically subtle double-bluff! They did the honorable thing in the face of the vile calumnies spread by Apple. It?s so unfair!?
Microsoft will be debuting Windows 7 on a new 17? Asus Eee Ultra-Portable Netbook with 8GB memory and a 2GHz quad-core processor. Battery life is up to 20 minutes in preliminary tests.
Then again, people like to know when the new iPods are out, and I'm typing this comment on a "review unit" Macbook Air second-gen SSD model. I'll be doing a comparison review in a few weeks, when the HDD-based new-gen model comes out.
On the other hand, I'm dual-booting WIndows 7 (don't ask, don't tell) with OS X on my own, first-generation, low-end Macbook Air. Aside from sound issues...well...I posted a bit about it at http://tr.im/r5g. Suffice to say that I'm impressed, especially since this product is over eight months away from launch, maybe even a year away. It's a perfectly usable system with added functionality and performance over Vista. The problems I'm having are driver issues, and in all honesty are you really expecting drivers to be out for an operating system that won't be released until at least school sason of next year?
Then again, I'm not your average "tech journalist". My two Macs (iMac and Macbook Air) both dual boot with Windows, and I'll be installing VirtualBox on both for Windows XP. Windows 7 is running dual-boot on my Air, in a VM on my iMac. I even try out a Linux live CD once in awhile, and I know my way around the terminal enough to get myself hurt...though when Linux meets my iMac it generally falls flat on its face.
I have an iPhone, but it's unlocked. I have a music player that's flash-based: a Sandisk Sansa Express. My Creative Zen Vision:M is back home, as opposed to my apartment a sotne's throw from college. My main phone: the HTC Mogul, complete with Windows Mobile 6.1 and a 4 GB MicroSDHC card purchased off of Woot.
You could say I'm the "Fox News" of tech reporting, in a very small sense...then again, there are a lot of MSNBCs out there...
i commute by the train. every morning there is an elder gentlement, he opens his mac laptop, not really doing anything from my perspective, just listen to music. obviously he just wants to show people he is using a mac computer. that is about the only mac computer i can found in public. some similiarity? i am not going to argue about what is good, mac or linux is not in the same conversation with pc or windows, it just like saying my villiage and new york city, which is better. if you want to talk about your viliage, go talk to your folks, not in public.
- by rupaa62 November 14, 2008 7:02 AM PST
- Problem with Journalist reviewing products they get it all wrong. Also Microsoft has to blem them selves for not promoting Vista and letting Apple and Apple users think they are hot stuff. Well guess what when the XP people who say they love XP and are waiting for Windows 7 and it comes up. Wil be the first complainers because they will need new systems, new printers, need to get new drivers still. While people who have vista will have a sweet time upgrading because Windows 7 is still vista but its on steroids folks. But even when Windows 7 comes out we will hear the same old morons saying that they are going to wait for windows 8 or 9 or 10.
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