Nice article on Win7 from Gizmodo...

Quoted: Like Elvis in '68, Microsoft is itching for a "comeback," and Windows 7 is the perfect excuse. In fact, this week in LA at the Professional Developers Conference, Windows 7 officially shoved Vista aside. Having suffered through the often deserved criticisms of that ill-fated OS installment, Microsoft's people are thrilled to tears to be able to talk about something (anything!) else. On Sunday, they took journalists through a lively 7-hour orientation on Win 7, then handed off a Dell XPS M1330 loaded with pre-beta Build 6801.

Quoted: Thankfully for the overworked, underappreciated developers at Redmond, it's surprisingly stable, and its look and feel already puts Vista to shame.

Some of my favorites comments...

Quoted: Looking good, probably will upgrade.
Quoted: so they finished vista, it took them long enough
Quoted: ALL of this should be in Vista SP2. Now another $300 upgrade
Quoted: Vista!!!! Clever you changing your identity, still trying to get into my pants?
Quoted: Looks like a slightly upgraded Microsoft BOB OS.microsoft Windows Walkthrough Boot Video and

Interesting comments and perspective from Brad Brooks. I like the "i" way vs. the "you" way juxtaposition. Windows "without walls" is an effective campaign against the walled garden Apple offers. Still, it's hard to compete in certain scenarios with the elegant, reliable and deterministic Apple experience.

Quoted: Ahead of what many expect to be the introduction of cheaper Macs, a top Windows exec says Apple users pay hidden costs.

Quoted: There really is a tax around there for people that are evaluating their choices going into this holiday season and going forward. There's a choice tax that we talked about, which is, hey, you want to buy a machine that's other than black, white, or silver, and if you want to get it in multiple different configurations or price points, you're going to be paying a tax if you go the Apple way.

Yep.

Quoted: Microsoft confirmed Tuesday that several services currently found within Windows XP and Windows Vista will be dropped for Windows 7, and replaced with similar versions of its Live services.

Quoted: Starting with the next release of Windows – internally known as Windows 7 - Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Contacts, Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker will no longer be available in the Windows operating system," a spokesman for Microsoft said in an email on Tuesday.

Quoted: Similar functionality for email, contact, calendar, photo and movie making will be available for free from Windows Live, removing the duplication of functionality for our consumers between Windows and Windows Live," the spokesman added.

This guy is an idtiot. Apparently he missed the whole idea that "PC" means "personal connection". So yeah Dvorak, these people don't really think they are pieces of plastic with chips and circuitry.

Quoted: These dingbat Microsoft ads kind of miss the point. The people don't symbolize anything. They say who they are and that they are a PC, which makes no sense whatsoever because they are not PCs. They are people. They use a PC, but they are NOT a PC, unless they are mentally deranged.

Here is a pretty positive take on the latest Microsoft ad starring Gates and Seinfeld...

Quoted: The second installment of Microsoft's Seinfeld campaign launched Thursday night during the reality TV series Big Brother. Like the first commercial in the $300 million campaign staring the well-known comedian Jerry Seinfeld, the spot didn't discuss Windows.

Quoted: While some are still confused, others are giving Gates two thumbs up. Dave Racine of MindSpike Design loved the new spots. He called them offbeat and irreverently fresh as Gates and Seinfeld are obviously "connecting" with real people.

Quoted: "Finally, a commercial that actually entertains me -- and keeps me engaged for longer than a blip. The weirdness about it is what is compelling, along with the talent of Seinfeld and the unexpectedly good acting of Gates," said McVey, president of S3. "Happy to see someone doing something different and effective in the TV ad-spot world."

Quoted: The commercials give Microsoft and Bill Gates humor and some personality, according to Jason Mudd of Axia. The past public perception was of Microsoft as a cutthroat company seeking to destroy or buy out any competition, he noted, but business executives are talking positively about the commercial, and that's what Microsoft wants.

Ok, I'll admit... I laughed a couple times during this one. Unlike the first where my mouth was just agape. And according to this popular blogger, if it made me laugh just once, then the ad was successful. You know, he may be right.

Quoted: Microsoft aired the second in its series of new ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, and unlike the first ad, we finally discover that the pair are trying to find out what life is like for the average person.

Quoted: Since Gates "lives in a moon house over Seattle" and Seinfeld "has so many cars he gets stuck in his own traffic," the pair are living with a stereotypically average family in order to "connect with real people." Thus the theme of the campaign: "perpetually connecting." PC. Get it?

Quoted: The ads are not intended to sell Windows: They're ads to sell The Windows Brand. Think of it as The Soul of Windows. If, by the end of this campaign, we only think of Microsoft as the company with the weird ads, then Microsoft will have saved Windows' soul.

It's about freakin' time Microsoft did something to improve their situation at retail. I've written before about how depressing it is to walk in to a place like Best Buy only to see just about every PC in some embarrasing condition of disrepair. There is usually some kind of error dialog, or 'can't connect' or security warning on the screen.

Best Buy has also started baking blatant ads in to their Wallpaper, and even more recently putting strange orphan windows with movie trailers or something else that conjures images of another kind of 'trailer'... specifically the double-wide kind.

Compared to the retail experience at the Apple Store, if the Apple Store is like Nordstrom, buying a PC is like shopping in the 99¢ store.

Quoted: NEW YORK - As part of its new $300 million marketing campaign and image makeover, Microsoft Corp. plans to deploy its own customer-service representatives at retailers like Best Buy and Circuit City to help people with their PC purchases.

Quoted: These gurus will be answering questions about PCs and Microsoft products, as well as giving demos of how the company's products work together — help designed to get them thinking Microsoft.

Quoted: The move is more likely to strike up comparisons with the rival that has portrayed Microsoft as unhip and out of touch — Apple Inc., which runs "Genius Bars" in its stores to answer questions about Macs and iPods. The Genius Bar also offers technical support on already-purchased products, which the Microsoft reps will not do.

There was criticism of the Seinfeld choice before the ads even came out. Now the 1st bizarre ad has only fueled the critics.

Quoted: Faced with Windows Vista’s image problem, Microsoft has been working for more than a year to change the experience of buying and using computers that run its software.

This is a glimmer of light for Microsoft marketing... finally something that should resonate with people and help public perception.

Quoted: People have been talking about Microsoft’s “Mojave Experiment” all day. What did they do? They demoed a “future operating system” to end users, got their feedback, usually positive, and then told them it was actually Windows Vista.

Quoted: This is the first marketing in some time that made me think Microsoft’s marketing department had a clue about how to deal with its perception problem. Amazing to me that it took so long.