great, now it's pc and mac fanboys.

Novell.... frankly few linux supporters would be willing to admit they even like Novell.

Microsoft's commercials are missing something... what is it... what is it. I know... it's called finesse. As usual, MS takes the same approach as they have for the past couple of decades: "Hi. Buy me or you won't be running with the herd."

@ MS' anal retentive answers to humour:

And here we can see Bill Gates after being fired also from MS ads, enjoying a typical retiree hobby:

Are you sure Vista didn't *try* to bring up a blue screen o' death, but when the security module asked it to either accept or deny, Vista kernel was unable to respond?

That Linux ad was corny!

They are pulling in a billion/year promoting the adoption of linux solutions in enterprise environments. If anyone is doing something to actively undermine windows and microsoft it's them. Granted their patent agreement has created a lot of controversy but they work hard to convince people that linux (or at least, novell-linux) is up to snuff for serious, demanding applications.

Quite the bold challange: spout some specific specs of a three year old computer and tell us to match them. How about this: give us a current Mac and we will find a cheaper alternative. Just in case you were planning on using the size of the Air, ours may be just a little heavier, but it will have a media drive.

The point is, with Windows (and Linux) you have options of competing hardware. Prices are lower, and for that matter the generally low prices of computers is thanks to this competition.

As always, Microsoft is in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation here.

They have long been criticized by PC users for not responding to Apple's false advertising. I started wondering myself if Microsoft even CARED that Apple was taking market share away from them. I am happy as hell that they're finally starting to make a move. If I had to live in a world where I was forced to use OSX instead of my Windows machines, I would probably just switch to Linux. But now that Microsoft is trying to advertise a little more, they're getting criticized as well. They're in a lose/lose situation.

The fact is that the ad agency behind some of the most successful ad campaigns ever created is also behind this particular campaign. And this is just the beginning. People are really talking about this and they're still trying to make some sense out of what these ads are all about. (Frankly, I can see if you don't quite understand the Jerry and Bill commercials, but if you don't get the ones in the OP, you're absolutely lost.) That, my friends, is the whole purpose of these ads. The internet is buzzing about it, people at my job are talking about it, all the tech websites are talking about it, hell there have been several threads about it on VGChartz!!

Whether or not you like the ads is immaterial. The very fact that you're even talking about them is proof that you're paying attention to them, and that's all that matters to the ad agency. In other words, the ads are doing their job. I guarantee you that down the road more in this I'm a PC campaign, you will start seeing some things more specifically targeted at the people who think you can't burn a CD on anything but a Mac (I've met several), or who think the only kind of MP3 player that exists is the iPod (which I categorize more as a hard drive with a GUI that puts DRM on all your music).

It's no longer a question: These ads are doing what they were intended to do. They're getting people talking. Because they're replacing the first couple ads with these I'm a PC ads, people think that they canned the Jerry and Bill stuff. If you had read any stories about this back when they first started running those, you would know that it was ALWAYS the intention to replace these with more straightforward ads.