Can't Believe the "Mojave Experiment"? See It for Yourself

Mark Edward Soper — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:41:21 -0500

The results of Microsoft's Project Mojave, in which Microsoft demoed Windows Vista under a code name for 120 Vista skeptics in the San Francisco area, are now avaiable online, the Windows Vista blog reported today, and also explained some test details:

The focus group took place over three days in San Francisco and was conducted earlier this month.
All participants were either Mac, Linux, or users of versions of Windows that came before Windows Vista.
Respondents were chosen from the focus group organizer's database, called at random, but then selected based on having a low perception of Vista (<5 rating on a scale of 1-10).
The participants were given a demo by a trained retail salesperson - geared towards the experiences they seemed most interested in following a series of interviews. While the retail salesperson drove the demo, it was geared by the interests and direction of the participant.
We did not use some geeked out or custom built PC. We used an HP Pavilion DV2500. It had 2GB of RAM and was running an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz. The OS was a 32 bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate.
Of the 120 respondents* polled, on a scale of 1:10 where 10 was the highest rating, the average pre-rating for Windows Vista was 4.4. After they saw the demo, respondents rated Mojave an average of 8.5.

*84% of respondents use Windows XP; 22% use MacOS; 14% use versions of Windows before XP; 1% use Linux.

To see the interviews for yourself, head over to the Mojave Experiment website.

After You Try Mojave, We'd Like You to Try Our Coffee...

If this experiment reminds you of the legendary Folgers' Coffee hidden camera taste tests, you're not alone. Wall Street Journal tech blogger Ben Worthen also noticed, but that's not surprising. Earlier this month, Worthen suggested a variety of ways for Redmond to fight back against Apple's snarky ads, including a blind taste test (Worthen suggested the equally legendary "Pepsi Challenge" as a model). Interestingly enough, CNet's Crave did a side-by-side Zune versus iPod "taste test" last year - and the Zune won.

So, now that you can see the actual interviews, what do you think? Drop by the Mojave Experiment website, watch some of the interviews, then give us your thoughts.

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Can't Believe the "Mojave Experiment"? See It for Yourself

After You Try Mojave, We'd Like You to Try Our Coffee...