Microsoft has just launched a new advertising campaign, the “Mojave Experiment.” The idea of the new campaign is that a bunch of computer users who have negative impressions of Vista, but who have never used Vista, are shown a future version of Windows, codenamed “Mojave.” They are given a tour of this “new” version of Windows, asked for their impressions, and then told that “Mojave” is really Vista.

I applaud Microsoft’s marketing department for finally getting started what has the potential to be a very successful advertising campaign, but at the same time I would like to point out that the “experiment” is heavily rigged. As others have pointed out, when you have someone whose job it is to make you like what you are being shown and that person gets to control every almost everything about the demonstration, it is really hard to not be impressed.

This gave me an idea. What if someone did the “Ubuntu Experiment.” All they would have to do is get a few people who have never used Linux and tell them they are being shown “a new incredible operating system.” Then just show them Compiz Fusion, tell them they don’t have to worry about viruses, tell them it comes with a replacement for Microsoft Office, show them how easy it is to install new applications, and so on. I almost guarantee everyone would be impressed.

This would certainly be amusing and it might even take some of the momentum out of the “Mojave Experiment” while bringing attention to Ubuntu. If anyone out there wants to do this, feel free to take the idea.