Steve Jobs was able to make it very clear that the most notable features of Vista were in OS X first. I was at the WWDC where Tiger was introduced and the posters said things like "Redmond, start your photocopiers", and "Introducing Longhorn" (Vista's previous code name).
The brilliance of the Mac vs. PC adds is that it has been pounded into the subconscious of the consuming public that innovation happens on the Mac first and is eventually picked up by Windows sometime in the future. This means that the PR burden has now shifted to Microsoft to demonstrate that they actually can offer functionality that's not already available on a Mac.
Which is not to say that PR can exist in a vacuum. If Apple didn't have some legitimate claim to being ahead of Microsoft in technology, the ads mocking PC would not be effective.
(ps The long version of PC's country western song is brilliant. I especially like how they were able to work a rhyme of "Control-Alt-Delete" into the lyrics.)
"the PR burden has now shifted to Microsoft to demonstrate that they actually can offer functionality that's not already available on a Mac."
This doesn't seem compelling. What is wrong with MSFT simply copying Apple while maintaining compatibility and familiarity for its users?
Consider American retreads of Britcoms (a longstanding tradition, I recall watching "Three's Company" religiously). The value proposition is simple: All the laughs of "Robin's Nest," with an accent you can understand.
So why must MSFT "innovate"? What is wrong with going to their user base and saying "All the nice features of OS X, with backwards compatibility and rewritten to be familiar to you"?
This may not be sexy to me personally, but it seems like a legitimate business strategy and like something many Windows owners would want.
"What is wrong with MSFT simply copying Apple while maintaining compatibility and familiarity for its users?"
I didn't say MSFT is doing something immoral by copying Apple. My point is that Apple has shifted perception such that MSFT, and specifically Vista, is now the butt of a joke. They have had external help, for sure, but Apple's relentless advertising campaign has certainly also contributed to making it so.
So my argument is that, empirically, in the minds of many consumers the burden has shifted to Microsoft to prove they do not deserve ridicule. Whether or not that is "fair" is a separate matter.
Vista DOESN'T search inside files, or if it does, it does so very very badly. I spent half an hour trying to do a very simple search for one keyword in a folder with php files, and trying various tricks from the net when it became obvious I can't do it on my own, with no luck.
That was probably the first major flaw in Vista I've run into.
You can make it do that. You can have different search domains for different shortcuts. With how I customized it, I hit apple+space to do normal stuff, option apple space to use it to access tho menu bar commands, etc. You could set one shortcut to do normal stuff and another to customize.
Compare Vista plus any app you want with it. If search is your priority, quicksilver is better. I don't have a horse in this OS race (but I think Apple is generally brilliant and Microsoft lacks vision). Plus, it's free.
