Windows Vista was released to consumers in January 2007 and has since fallen victim to an ambush of attacks by critics across the globe, particularly for its lack of compatibility. However, it’s not the software based issues which continually deteriorate the sales of Vista, it’s the consumer’s perception that Windows Vista is problematic before they have tried it, or so Microsoft would like to believe.

Microsoft thinks that Windows Vista has had a bad wrap and the word has spread despite only a minority actually having substantiated complaints about it. The Mojave Experiment is all about dispelling this rumour. Microsoft has seen this trend of Chinese whispers and is attempting to break the chain – slowly picking at the Linux, Mac, and predecessor Windows (read: XP) links. In doing so though, they seem to be spreading a few misconceptions themselves.

The Mojave Experiment in full can be found here. The validity of this experiment has been criticised by many in the I.T. industry, often concluding the experiment to be ‘flawed’ or ‘inaccurate’. It’s a case of missing the point.  The Mojave experiment is an attempt at promoting consumers to have an individual analysis of the Vista OS – instead of relying on the numerous bad reports lying around the internet from armchair computer experts. As the motto says, “Decide for yourself.” In doing so though, Microsoft is promoting similarly flawed perceptions, just of a more positive nature.

The Windows marketing team seems to be trying to pull the wool over the eyes of non-computer experts with the Mojave Experiment. People who aren’t tech savvy will see it as a humorous ‘gotcha!’ against the Mojave testers. It’s unlikely that they themselves would want to be in the position of the testers.