Now to get a little bit technical. When you look at an operating system (which Microsoft fails to tell that they sell in this commercial) the first thing you should look at is the kernel (basically the link between hardware and software to put it simply). Now, the kernel is supposed to be hardware-specific, which is why Apple develops their operating system on their hardware only. Now Microsoft doesn’t develop their own hardware so they try to make a one-size-fits-all kernel. That is why PCs get frequent blue-screen, which is windows’ kernel panic (when the kernel literally doesnt know what to do anymore and :panics”) Anyone with extensive knowledge of computers and a little common-sense should know that macs are far superior to Microsoft’s lame excuse on a computer. Microsoft is like Nike and Apple is like Prada or Gucci or something, yea Nike is a lot cheaper and they do most of the basic things that Prada does but Prada will last much longer, looks better, wont break as quickly, and has much better customer service.

As a recent switcher who spent 20 years on homebrew desktops and Black Friday notebooks, I regret spending so little money on computers for 20 years. My priorities were out of wack.

Switching to Mac has made the work I have to do much, much more pleasant—and for someone who spends 6+ hours a day in front of a computer, that is worth $400 extra every four years. And I would encourage almost anyone (especially the technologically illiterate) to do the same.

My argument to you and everyone else. This is from experience and over 9 years in this field. PC’s truly are more affordable and can do just as much as a mac can. Granted hardware has gotten significantly better. Like Haxcid says, inside they are all the same.

Pe@ce out… To answer your question, yes I am 1337.

Foist of all, Apple is pretty in pink. Micro is pretty in anything. The end!

Oh yeah one last thing, all you kids need to get laid.

I have friends that love their Windows. Enjoy! I don’t like the clunky operation, the graceless file explorer, the arcane system preferences, the confusing network settings, the cumbersome security models, and the inevitable blue screens.

I want my laptop to just work. I want my contacts to seamlessly sync with all of my devices. I want to hop on to a wifi network just by saying “join”.

And I want to do all of this without needing to pass the MSCE (if its still around).

Windows=basic transportation, Apple=luxury car with a price to match.

Meh. I’m just happy to see Microsoft forced to compete with Apple on a value message. Everyone knows the weak economy has hurt PC sales, and hardware bundle licenses are Microsoft’s bread and butter. They probably had pressure from Dell, HP, Compaq and friends to launch this ad campaign.

You can talk all day about how Microsoft operating systems are just as usable and stable (they aren’t) and how much more software there is for Windows… but nobody ever has an answer for why I’d want six programs that do a task poorly instead of one program that just does it, and does it well. Games? That’s what consoles are for. Just to nip it in the bud: why would I pay thousands for a decent gaming PC when I can get a console that plays damn near everything for $300? Isn’t that what this is about? Price?

Let us use your car analogy properly.

Hi we are apple/bmw

Hi we are MS/bmw, mercedes, ford, saturn, audi, volvo, saab, chrysler, nissan, lexus, infiniti…
Pick a car maker. We work with them.

See where I am going with this.

Anything you can do on an Apple, I can do on a PC, with a better hardware and software selection at a lower cost, and then the things apple can’t do that windows can, like certificate based security computing… Used in corporate security models…

Our Hero Steve Jobs…
“When Jobs had his own illegitimate child, also at the age of 23, he too struggled with his responsibilities. For two years, though already wealthy, he denied paternity while Lisa’s mother went on welfare. At one point Jobs even swore in a signed court document that he couldn’t be Lisa’s father because he was “sterile and infertile, and as a result thereof, did not have the physical capacity to procreate a child.” He later acknowledged paternity of Lisa, married Laurene Powell, a Stanford MBA, and fathered three more children”

Liar and a douche bag… what a combo… He will never get a single dollar from me or my business.

MS tech support is not based in India. You can’t blame MS because the hardware maker elected to use foreign tech support.

Please state what hardware did not work. Broad statements like this are often found to be BS. Everything I ever installed Vista onto works perfectly. Of course, I know what I am doing and I was not trying to use hardware that was cutting edge 10 years ago.

Please be specific. What was the hardware? I would like to know.

Hi, I’m a Mac, and I am a PC…

No you are both PC’s. You are both, other than a very minor chip difference, running the exact same hardware. I can run OSx on my Dell D630. I do not choose to but I can.

Apples commercials were far more disingenuous as the information they attempted to present was not 100% truth. They made solid attempts to blur the line between hardware and software.

As for the MS commercial, what they show is the truth. Grab yourself a $1000 dollars, goto the apple store and see what you bring home for a laptop, not a 17″ multimedia laptop. There is nothing disingenuous about that. It is fact. Walk into any computer retailer. Heck go to BestBuy’s website and look at the laptops, sort them by price, $600 – $899… 50 different choices. 8 of them with 17″ screens.

*puts on tinfoil hat*
apple fanbois are just scared of windows 7….

So why do I love the commercial? It puts Microsoft in its proper place. Microsoft is low cost, low expectations consumer computing. They are Ford or GM to Apples BMW or Mercedes.

Apple costs more and you get more for your money.

I think it’s a shame that Apple can’t find a way to stretch out to the mass market but they don’t seem to see that as a part of their business model at this point in time.

So kudos to Microsoft for embracing its role as the Walmart of computing.

You nerd elitists just don’t get it do you? Most people do not judge their personal worth by what logo is on their computer. For the vast majority of people, a computer is just a thing they use to check email, browse the web, and maybe edit the occasional document. Sure, we all probably spend obscene amounts of money on our computers, with TBs of storage, maxed out RAM, and video cards that cost more than any entire computer on the shelf at Best Buy (or at least I know I am guilty of that). But if most people have any serious work they have to do on a computer, then their company pays for it, and they don’t have anything to do with the purchasing decision, as some tech guy tells them what they need.

I am getting so sick of this dismissive attitude that anyone who would pay a paltry $1,000 for a notebook must be some broke loser who probably has to live on food stamps, and would get a Mac if they could afford it. Did it ever occur to you that there might be someone of means, who decided that instead of blowing thousands of dollars on a notebook, they would take a trip to Europe or Japan, or maybe get a nice suit, or maybe some nice shoes, or a new lens for their expensive camera, or new school clothes for their kid, or a new couch?

A couple thousand dollars can buy you a lot of nice stuff, and for some people it isn’t a matter of not having the money, it is a matter of having much better things to spend the money on than a computer, which will only impress unemployed college students. I know plenty of people who will spend a few thousand on an outfit for a party or important meeting, without even thinking about it, yet would balk at spending thousands on a computer.

You just don’t seem to get it. To a great many people, a computer is like a blender or rice maker. It is just an item you use to do something, not a badge of your geek status. It is not a fetish object that they spend their days condemning or defending. They don’t dislike people because they have a different sort of computer, and they don’t think their choice in computer somehow defines their social standing. Most people don’t have anything to prove when it comes to buying a computer, and as such just get whatever machine will do what they want. Those are the people who this ad is targeting. The ones who “aren’t cool enough to be Apple people.”

The average household in this country makes over $50,000 a year, which means they could all afford your precious luxury Mac just as easily, if not more easily, as can the cool actress/writer/waitress down at the Starbucks working on her screenplay. The point isn’t that they are too broke to afford the Mac, or too uncultured, or unrefined, as special as it might make you feel to believe that, it is that they have more important things they would rather spend their money on. How hard is that to understand? It seems to be a completely alien concept to most people commenting here.