Will the real Windows Vista please stand up?

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This is another of those "in case you haven't seen it" posts....so in case you haven't seen it I would recommend taking a look at http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/.

What is it? A number of people who were very skeptical of the value of Windows Vista - but had never used it - were told that they were getting a sneak peak at a brand new operating system from Microsoft called "Mojave". They loved it - they saw how fast it ran, how easy it was to use, how useful it was and gave it a big thumbs up.

They were then told that Windows "Mojave" was in fact Windows Vista. Their reactions are great, here are some of my favourite quotes (remembering that these are people who hate Vista but have never actually used it, and have just found out that the operating system they've been looking at is in fact Windows Vista):

  • I need an upgrade and it looks like everything I would need
  • I had no idea you could do all this with vista
  • Actually it's totally different to what I heard it would be like
  • It just seems so easy
  • Now I know Vista I like it

And there are plenty more, that's just a sprinkling.

Whatever your opinion this is an interesting experiment in perception versus reality. For us I think it's a good lesson in just how powerful advertising and the Press really can be in setting people's expectations and their perceptions of....well of just about anything.

To me the important thing here is to start challenging many of the so-called truths I have that are based on something I've heard rather than something I've experienced. And I'm not just talking about IT-related issues, I mean anything that I believe, where my opinion is based purely on information provided by someone else.

Maybe I'm just slow in picking this up. But almost everyone has a vested interest and it's worth bearing that in mind whenever you hear or read anything. It cuts both ways of course - I would expect people to apply the same principal to everything we say too.

And you can be sure that includes the things you read in blogs :-)