It's a joke: In a Linux world without walls who needs Windows?

David M Williams
Sunday, 31 August 2008 17:26

Opinion and Analysis

In recent times Apple played on this rising public opinion through a series of “I’m a PC / I’m a Mac” advertisements. The older, stuffy-looking “PC” gentleman talks about his necessities of virus protection and expertise and tolerance during operation. The hip young “Mac” guy questions the need for any of that and “just works.”

I have no numbers on whether these advertisements legitimately boosted sales for Apple, but if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then there’s no doubt these advertisements became entrenched in popular culture, having been parodied for most all tech comparisons since. Amid the close releases of the Sony Playstation III and Nintendo Wii games consoles you could easily find “I’m a Playstation / I’m a Wii” spoof videos to name but one example.

So it comes as no surprise Microsoft wants to counter the effect these advertisements are having and hence the emergence of the $300 million campaign. Most of the details are still scarce at this stage but what has been confirmed is that Bill Gates will make an appearance as well as various others, with Jerry Seinfeld as the headline act. For his contribution, Seinfeld receives a cool $10 million. Not bad work, even if the continuity is somewhat amiss: after all, Seinfeld actually had a chunky style Mac visible in his apartment in the sitcom and he appeared in Apple’s earlier “Think Different” campaign.

I guess celebrity endorsements have always been with us; after all, William Shatner promoted the Vic-20 over 25 years ago. Thanks to the wonders of YouTube you can even see that retro-ad (as well as the Anniston/Perry Windows ’95 video) along with a host of celebrity computer ads.

More important than who is in the ad is the message of the ad. Here’s where regular readers will be most surprised. Microsoft have gone with the line “Windows not walls.” That’s right; the thrust of the campaign will be that Microsoft Windows removes barriers.

Specifically, Windows removes barriers to communication with the operating system. Undoubtedly this will attempt to tap into the constraints MacOS imposes on expert users. With a Mac you might be able to get up and running quickly but you never ever get the feeling you can tweak “under the hood.” Perhaps that’s one of its strengths, offering as consistent an environment as possible for every person but at the end of the day there’s no doubt Windows offers more customisations and extensibility.

However, the world isn’t just Windows vs MacOs anymore. There is a third force gaining market share, namely the free open source operating system Linux. Through the rise of netbooks – and with Windows Vista turning consumers to seek alternatives – Linux has been increasingly gaining traction. It may not have a large market share, but it has a growing market share and that’s what’s important.

For the Linux-savvy, the Microsoft tagline is beyond belief.

CONTINUED