so they took a group of people who just "use" xp and said "here's a new os". they didn't spot that it was vista (and so clearly have no idea about such things) and unsurprisingly people said "that looks pretty, i prefer it". excellent piece of research
B@Th*nG
I think you've missed the point of what they've tried to achieve.
The majority of users that bash Vista seem to hate it simply because it has become "the norm" to hate it. Similar to what happened with XP's initial release although Vista has come across much worse IMO. They're specifically targetting people who haven't used Vista simply because of the bad press it has got.
If Microsoft can get these users who simply hate Vista because of the reputation that it's got from Press and "tech" people whilst never using it - to actually use the OS, and actually get them to say they like it... Then it's mission accomplished.
You forget that the main core of Microsoft's market is not the clued up geeks, it's Mom & Pops at home who... if the media say something is bad, or they hear from their friends/relatives that something is bad... they'll automatically say it's bad themselves.
Microsoft have convinced people who would normally never have thought of using Vista simply because of the name/press, to use it, try it and they enjoy using it.
Personally, Vista is a very good OS, yes it's nice and it's shiny but it's also very stable and is a welcomed change from XP and I can count the number of issues I've had with Vista on one hand.
