The Mojave Experiment

So I finally sat down and went through the "http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/" website, one of Microsoft's many PR campaigns to challenge the "preconceived notions about Vista".

"Mr. McKittrick, after very careful consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new computer system sucks." -- Wargames

Ok so the researcher in me would like to point out a few things about this "open discussion"

1. (Con) They never took a user through the process of an actual upgrade. They didn't show them what it takes to get Vista to share directories, or printers, or how to manage older hardware with a new OS. They didn't take a user through how to switch from XP.

2. As far as I can tell, they never let the user ask questions, or say "hey - how do I do this in Vista"? Show me something real. Show me a game. Show me voice chat with well known programs like Ventrillo or Skype. Show me interoperability by using the main stay of applications everyone uses like Office or photoshop or gimp or firefox. Show me something other than gadgets

3. None of those people in the videos were IT professionals. It's all fine to have regular people in the videos, but where do you think they heard all of the negativity? From their neighbor, or from an IT professional? Somewhere, the information came from a "trusted" source. That means a geek/nerd/it wizard/guru said something to the effect of "this sucks - go back to XP". When you start to have sys admins and security professionals and hardcore it professionals say "yes this is a stable and usable operating system" you will see the negativity decrease. This worked fine when Microsoft got their act together for Windows 2000, and XP. Once they became stable, geeks praised it. Geeks are not praising Vista (yet), now why could that be?

4. They didn't show you how you have to tell Vista "ok" every time you run an application that has not had it's security certificate setup by the manufacturer.

5. They claim that 60% of Vista users are less likely to get a virus or malware infection than those running XPSP2. Really? Only 60%? That is a little better than half. So by upgrading to Vista, you are increasing your chances of not getting infected by (maybe) 50%. Does anyone else feel this is inadequate?

6. They didn't mention also what the 5 different versions of Vista will do? Which one did they show the users in the video? I can almost guarantee you it was Vista Ultimate. Did they explain the tier system? I doubt it.

7. Hardware, I bet you almost anything, they didn't just run down there and buy a laptop from they local store and install vista on it. Did they tell the video guinea pigs what was needed to run Vista/Mojave?

"where's the beef"?

Show me the meat. Instead of hiring Jerry Seinfeld to market to me, why doesn't Microsoft pony up, say hey, yeah we made a few mistakes, here is the fix. XP is an almost 8 year old operating system. We will have to move on eventually. I get that. No problem. I get that the world (for some silly reason) is driven by MS products and that no matter how much I want it to live in a world with OSX at the core, it will probably never happen.

So since I, as a geek, am forced to use multiple operating system, stop making my life more difficult. Geeks are by nature lazy. We don't like "more" work. We like to automate things and do things once. Vista is causing issues in this regard and people depend on us to fix it and make it better, so help us help you for crying out loud.

Gateway refuses to downgrade Vista to XP

I tried to get a laptop downgraded from Vista Home to XP. This is the chat session from Gateway technical support. This was recorded at roughly 8pm CST on 10/8/07.
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James_GWER7961 joined the incident.

James_GWER7961 says:
Thank you for contacting technical support. My name and badge number are James_GWER7961. Please hold while I review your issue.

James_GWER7961 says:
Hi Chris! How are you?

Chris Copeland says:
James I have had better - but thanks for asking

Chris Copeland says:
:)

Chris Copeland says:
I would like to know how to trade in my license of Vista for a license of XP

James_GWER7961 says:
According to your submission and my data, the serial number for your Gateway system is xxxxxxxxxx. Is this correct?

Chris Copeland says:
unless I'm reading it wrong - yes

James_GWER7961 says:
Thank you for verifying your information. I see that you would like to trade your operating system to Windows XP from Windows Vista.

Chris Copeland says:
yes please

James_GWER7961 says:
I apologize but we do not offer trade in for retail products and parts specially software.

Chris Copeland says:
so I have a license to an OS that I cannot use?

Chris Copeland says:
none of my applications are vista ready

James_GWER7961 says:
For us to further assist you with your concern, I need to have your complete address, purchase location of your computer and purchase date.

Chris Copeland says:
I will have to gather the information on the purchase location/date as I do not have the receipt with me, but my address is (removed for privacy) arlington tx

Chris Copeland says:
let me see if I can get the receipt.

Chris Copeland says:
I do not have the receipt, but I know it was the Best Buy in Mansfield Texas

James_GWER7961 says:
Please continue to hold while I register your system.

Chris Copeland says:
Thank you

James_GWER7961 says:
Thank you for holding. I have successfully registered your system under your account.

Chris Copeland says:
thank you

James_GWER7961 says:
My information shows that your computer came with Windows Vista operating system preinstalled.

James_GWER7961 says:
Is this correct?

Chris Copeland says:
unfortunately yes

James_GWER7961 says:
Well, the software that also came with it are Windows Vista compatible.

Chris Copeland says:
yes that is true, but the software I own outside of the bundle does not.

James_GWER7961 says:
So its a third party software?

Chris Copeland says:
yes - and it is not working with Vista

James_GWER7961 says:
Have you tried to contact the manufacturer of the software that you installed regarding this?

Chris Copeland says:
yes. I was instructed to revert to XP SP2

James_GWER7961 says:
You would need to purchase a retail version of Windows XP, Chris. We are unable to replace the current operating system installed to yoru computer which is Windows Vista.

Chris Copeland says:
thank you

Chris Copeland says:
I assume I can keep a copy of this chat report

James_GWER7961 says:
To save your chat log, please click on the "View Live Log" button at the bottom left side of the chat window. It will open a chat log window. Please use the option to "Save log to disk". Keep in mind you do not need a disk or cd. You can simply save the log to your system.

James_GWER7961 says:
I hope that I was somehow able to provide you the information that you need.
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Tried as I did, I was told that I must go buy a copy of XP, retail. So now I have a copy of Vista that I am never going to use, and no way to get rid of it. I simply do not accept the terms of the Vista license Agreement. According to the EULA on Microsoft's site, the downgrade only applies to Vista Business and Ultimate users, not Home Edition (which I have pre-installed). So what do I do about a refund then? I simply do not want Vista loaded, but it looks like I am either being forced to run Vista, or being forced to buy a copy of XP. I want to make it clear that there is currently no operating system on the laptop. The Vista license is not installed on any machine.