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XP to W7 and Apple TV commercials

Posted by ctitanic on Oct 23, 2009

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Lets start with one of the TV commercials released by Apple yesterday talking about the release of Windows 7.

Pathetic. That’s the word that came to my mind after I saw the 3 commercials. The first one was talking about Microsoft promising a new OS without bugs and I have to say that that was the stupidest of all 3 because Snow Leopard has been the buggiest of all the releases of Mac OS X. How can Apple talk about bugs when they have not removed yet all the “fleas” from their own spotted animal?!.

But anyway, lets go back to this video. The migration path from Windows XP to Windows 7. How many times we have said and all my fellow IT friends have said that a clean install is better than an upgrade? Millions. Now this is where the whole thing fails. Everybody does not know about Windows Easy Transfer. This program makes a backup of all your documents, emails, programs configurations, etc, from your old XP and restore it back in your Windows 7 installation. Simple like that. After that all you have to do is reinstall your programs. Windows Easy Transfer is a freeware that comes pre installed in Vista and Windows 7 and can be downloaded for XP at Microsoft.

Now, I won’t lie to you, this is where the thing becomes a really mess if you are not a very organized person and you do not keep track of your serial numbers. But come on! You can’t blame on Microsoft for your own problems. You have paid for most of those programs, that’s like an investment so you should keep or your serial organized in a document kept in a CD or somewhere safe.

I understand that many people buy pre configured computers because they are afraid of installing anything. For those people the message is simple. Do not be afraid. All those big programs have a Setup Wizard that guides you during the whole installation process. Every thing is easier than what you think. A lot easier than switching to Apple, a new completely world for you. And a closed world I should say. A word where everything comes from Apple and should be approved by Apple, in a single word, a Dictatorship . What are you going to do with your freedom of choosing from millions of programs every time that you want to buy a program? Or… what you are going to do when you want to find a freeware for something that you want to do and you find that there are not that many options in the Apple World. And let’s not talk about games!

I’ll tell you how you are going to end. You will end like the 85% of the Mac users out there that still have a PC or have installed Windows in their Macs in a sort of virtual machine.

This commercial like all the other commercials of this series is just a lie. And if you think that I’m too rude when I said that let me rectify. The commercial is not reflecting the reality. The switch from XP to Apple is not a lot easier than switching to Apple. Oh, by the way, where is the part in the commercial that says that Apple does not allow you to install Mac OS X in your PC and that means that all your hardware investment is useless and you will have to buy Macs that is a lot more expensive than your current PCs.

The next time that you see on of these commercials from Apple in your TV remember me. They are the last thing that you can use as a reference or research if you are seriously thinking about to switch from Windows to Mac. I have not seen one in the last few years reflecting the reality in any grade.

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ctitanic (762 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook


Working as IT Professional since 1994. IT Manager since 1999. Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in Tablet PC/UMPC since 2007. Owner/writer of www.ultramobilepc-tips.com . Published many articles in todoUMPC Magazine, www.todoUMPCmagazine.com, the first online magazine all about UMPCs. Maker of Tweaks2K2, a registry hacking tool for Pocket PC devices (www.tweaks2k2.com).

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    • Roberto
      My ctitanic, sorry you're stuck so deep in the windows word, but I understand your preference as you making a living working on them.

      I have both Mac's and PC's and I enjoy them both. I particularly enjoy working on the PC's that I invariably get from friends and coworkers after they've been infected with Trojans, Hijackers, and various other pieces of crap that render them pretty much useless.

      This is not an unusual occurrence but one that I am experience on an ongoing basis. If its not a virus or trojan than its the usual complaint of system slow downs to the point of them being rendered useless. Although, this is still a better situation than the millions of pop ups that used to plague Window's users till SP2 came out...

      As far as the Porsche / VW analogy goes, well, the Mac will be better in the long run, I still use Mac's that are 5 to 8 years old or more and they still churn along just fine. Windows machines have a much shorter lifespan.

      The bottom line is, if you're on the internet the Mac is a better choice, they're safer and a bit easier to use for a novice user. I've converted at least a dozen friends and coworkers and I've never heard of anyone of them going back to the PC once they've purchased a Macintosh computer.

      Merry Christmas... Have a donut...
    • Johnswhite
      This is a great product and for those who bought it after reading and learning about it, you will also be pleased with it's performance as I am. Have a great day.

      r4 dsi
    • Roberto
      I'm a happy Mac owner and have been since 1998 but I love Window's machines. I usually have anywhere from 5 to 8 XP or Vista machines at my house that are in dire need of technical support. They are usually all mucked up with trojans, spyware and viruses that they are rendered unusable. I have a small group of people that I support regularly and there is always someone in that group that is in need of assistance. I also work on Macs and the fact of the matter is that most of the Mac related issues are hardware, usually bad RAM chips from third party vendors or hard drive directory issues (very rare) and easily repaired. Windows machines are now and always have been vulnerable and problematic. Not to mention Vista was as slow as a giant sea turtle compared to OSX...
    • Name
      PCs are for people who don't know the difference between a VW and a Porshe, its simple and true
    • PCs are for people who don't know the difference between a VW and a Porshe, its simple and true

      The only thing "simple" is your analysis. Did you ever consider that people do know the difference and don't need or don't want to (or can't afford to) pay for a Porsche?

      Two things are apparent, though. First, you don't know the difference between Porsche and "Porshe" (or "it's" and "its", for that matter). Second, it must be nice in your elitist fanboy world.

      Steve
    • The Mac world actually is quite nice. You should try it ;).
    • Name
      I am too new to computers to give a preference on Macintosh or Microsoft. Too old and somewhat of a dinosaur I guess. I am trying to learn enough to see if a purchase is in my future. My comment is on the article, itself. I have been tainted by the comments in this article because of the mispellings and grammer. I had to read it twice because I felt I was too distracted by the article itself that I could not focus on the intended information. You lose credibility when your task is to convey information and you wind up looking like a teen ager trying to text on a cell phone. And yes, "misspellings " and "grammar" was a joke.
    • I generally feel the same way about spelling and grammar -- if the person is a native English speaker. Frank, however, is not -- I think Spanish is his native language. He is, however, a Microsoft MVP, so lots of people have found his advice helpful.

      If one person on the Web using poor grammar or spelling is enough to "taint" your opinion of a product, chances are you won't find any products that aren't tainted. ;)

      Steve
    • McDave
      Well done! You lasted 3 paragraphs before the U-Turn. I'm one of the 85% of Mac users who also has a PC - because I have to. Unfortunately our IT Dept have assumed that role of dictator you were talking about and I'm afraid (like most) their arrogant & inept assumptions as to how I need my systems to work falls way short of Apple's insightful design. Better to be locked in by excellence than locked in by ineptitude (& before you do the standard thing and blame the user - the Mac showed me it wasn't me)

      Geeks should upgrade to W7, Consumers should pick the only consumer-viable option out there - Apple!

      McD
    • If you have a PC at work, I wouldn't count you in that 85%, because that was about households. If you have a PC at home required for work, I'm not sure whether that was counted or not, but we'll assume it was for sake of discussion.

      However, most IT departments don't restrict you to PCs because they're "arrogant" or "inept"; they do it to keep costs down. Having to train techs to support both PCs and Macs would increase their budget; only having to support one system (whether it be PCs, Linux or Macs) is cheaper.

      As for the Mac showing you that it wasn't you, I think you may have misinterpreted that. If you couldn't figure out how to use a PC, but the Mac made things simpler so that you could, it sounds like it was you -- you can use "simple" things but not "complex" things. (That's not an insult -- some people's brains are wired differently, just like some people are good at math while others aren't. It doesn't mean that you're stupid; as you alluded to, it just may mean that you're not a geek.)

      Steve
    • McDave
      "They do it to keep costs down". That statement assumes they have the ability to understand the full impact of their decisions and hence the full associated costs. They don't, like many back-office functions, they'll never really understand the business to which their technology's being applied or what business productivity really is so the whole concept of cost/benefit is way out of their field of understanding.

      I couldn't agree more, people do have different capabilities & aptitudes in different areas. Some people are able to grasp real-world concepts and generate results, others are good with simplistic logical translations. Why would corporate IT management (or executive management for that matter) place the complexities of the former in the hands of the latter?

      As far as platforms are concerned I think I'd rather have the fluidity of MacOS & the design regimes of it's applications than the needless, convolution of Windows software (a result of the geeks being too 'arrogant' to listen to people capable of real design & providing countless, pointless options instead). But hey, that's just an opinion based on using both.

      McD
    • "They do it to keep costs down". That statement assumes they have the ability to understand the full impact of their decisions and hence the full associated costs. They don't, like many back-office functions, they'll never really understand the business to which their technology's being applied or what business productivity really is so the whole concept of cost/benefit is way out of their field of understanding.

      As you mentioned, it has to do with cost/benefit. The benefit of letting just you use a Mac probably isn't enough to justify the cost of training people to support the Mac. Can you justify that the savings generated by your using a Mac outweighs the costs to IT? Or, scaling up, that the cost of supporting Macs across the organization justifies the costs to IT?

      I couldn't agree more, people do have different capabilities & aptitudes in different areas. Some people are able to grasp real-world concepts and generate results, others are good with simplistic logical translations. Why would corporate IT management (or executive management for that matter) place the complexities of the former in the hands of the latter?

      Probably because business people don't understand IT, and the IT people tell them supporting multiple systems fails the cost/benefit test. (Or maybe IT people are just lazy and don't want to learn something more. :D)

      As far as platforms are concerned I think I'd rather have the fluidity of MacOS & the design regimes of it's applications than the needless, convolution of Windows software (a result of the geeks being too 'arrogant' to listen to people capable of real design & providing countless, pointless options instead).

      Out of curiosity, what is one business application where Windows is so convoluted that using a Mac would justify additional IT costs? I can accept that a Mac might save a user a little time each day, but what application would really benefit from that in a big way.

      Steve
    • McDave
      Now remember, not all of us in business are 'cost centres', some of us actually generate the revenue and it goes a bit like this; if my Mac's smooth integration & fluidity save me "a little time" say half an hour per day that's 5% of a 10 hour-day that's lost time which I could have used to make money. I'm one of 700 revenue generators within my company which produces around $200m of gross profit per year. 5% of $200m is $10m per year!

      I would say that because that's gross (not net) profit that reduced cost efficiencies in IT relating to new platform adoption would translate less of that profit to the bottom line but with OSX having no CAL charges, the actual desktop costs not being far off their enterprise PC equivalents (if there are such things) and even the MacBook Pros having two spare 9-cell batteries built in easing the Opex even further we'd have to refute the old wisdom - if it ever existed.

      As for business not understanding IT - there's me thinking the latter existed to assist the former - silly me!

      The biggest cost saving we can make is to run apps through a real business performance assessment, switch off the servers & send the staff home but we'll have those Macs installed first.

      McD
    • jimtravis
      Apple attacked MS for the upgrade process from XP to 7. If I have a 2005 era XP machine, it may take awhile to upgrade from XP to 7, but it is possible. Let's see, is the upgrade track for a 2005 era Mac easier? Heck no, not possible since no PPC based machine can be upgraded to Snow Leopard.

      Concerning an earlier post about cheap parts etc. in low cost PC's All my hardware failures have been with Apple hardware, usually just after AppleCare expired. My $500 "cheap" PC's have been more reliable, and have lasted longer than my alleged "well built" $2500 Macs with similar levels of use. Also, all required OS re-installs have been with Apple equipment, no re-installs necessary with Windows.
    • Phonascus
      I knew ctitanic was going to rant about these. Next time I need to put some money on it.
    • Just like we can bet that Roughly Drafted/Apple Insider will diss pretty much anything by Microsoft (Windows Mobile, Zune HD, etc.).

      Steve
    • If you are going to accuse Apple of distortions, is it really ok to make them yourself?

      Snow Leopard may have some bugs, but it is nowhere near the buggiest version of OS X, and I doubt that anything will ever be as buggy as 10.0 (10.1 was actually a free upgrade.)

      And this Apple dictatorship that you speak about? I guess that you are talking about the iPhone? (How is that different from the Zune HD, by the way? Having fun finding cool apps and stuff for that?) But please explain the closed world for Macs, where everything comes from Apple? Are you suggesting that there are no applications for OS X that do not come from Apple, or are not approved by Apple? This seems to be what you are implying. (It's an incorrect implication, or a distortion.) You also imply that Windows is better because there is a larger software catalog. That sounds like a familiar argument that I hear about phones on this site. No, wait, that's right - a large software catalog means nothing because all of the applications are fart applications, right?

      As for this: "Oh, by the way, where is the part in the commercial that says that Apple does not allow you to install Mac OS X in your PC and that means that all your hardware investment is useless and you will have to buy Macs that is a lot more expensive than your current PCs."

      You did know that this was an ad for Macintosh COMPUTERS, right, not OS X? You do not have to make a useless investment if you are going to buy a Mac - because you are already buying the Mac! And moving to a Mac is pretty simple. I was able to manage it myself, but for neophytes you can but One To One membership for a year for $99 and they will move things over for you when you buy a Mac. Probably comparable to what a BestBuy Geek Squad or something will charge for the same when going from XP to Win7. But, compared to moving from one Windows computer to another, well, it's just as easy. Or hard, whichever you want to think of it.

      As for the extra cost, whatever. I'm willing to spend a little extra for something that is better. What I see from low-cost PCs these days doesn't excite me - cheap parts, cheap cases. You get what you pay for, I guess. (Plus a load of pre-installed crapware.) Whatever floats your boat. But you can get started on a Mac for as little as $599 (a bit extra if you want to add an Apple keyboard, but you can use your old PC keyboard, mouse and display if you wish.)

      I've tried the W7 RC, and I think that it's fine. Overpriced, but worth the upgrade, based on my use of Vista. W7 is that much better.

      Also, as for the ads, I posted this elsewhere, but, paraphrased:

      "I think that the Mac ads are not targeted at the typical person who is a member of [mobilitysite]. The general public 'knows' that Vista was bad, and, to them, these ads will probably be effective. Microsoft can say all that they want that Windows 7 is great (and I agree that it is), but the very people who are probably most at risk of malware issues, slowdowns from the install of the massive crapware that comes with most consumer Windows PCs, the people most likely not to have updated anti-malware apps, are the people who will be most tempted by a potential switch. Technophiles will not be fooled, but they are not the ones being targeted."
    • Good points, but there's one minor error.

      The switch from XP to Apple is not a lot easier than switching to Apple.


      That second "Apple" should be "Windows 7", right? ;)

      Steve
    • The earlier Mac versus PC ads were mildly amusing and entertaining, but the one I saw last night was, well....it was just obnoxious. If I ever had a desire to buy a Mac (and I really have never had a desire to do so), the ad I saw last night would have changed my mind. It was was just low and petty.
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