Microsoft has recently conducted an experiment, called Mojave, in an attempt to quantify the users' true perception of Windows Vista. The results are shedding some light on people's biases and misconceptions related to Vista.
120 people, Mac, Linux and non-Vista Windows users, were invited to an interview to talk about their perception of Vista and rate the operating system on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the best. Most people gave a very low rating to Vista, with an average of 4.4.
Some of the people impressions about Vista were:
"I wouldn't touch that thing."
"It's horrible, you have so many problems."
"I heard nothing but bad things about Vista, really."
"So, you gave Windows Vista a zero" says the interviewer after the interviewee drew a big zero as his rating for Vista.
The experiment continued by showing people the "next generation" Windows, called Mojave. After watching the presentation of Mojave, they gave much better ratings for the new OS, with an average of 8.5. Then came the disclosure: Mojave is actually Vista. People had all sorts of reactions:
"Really?"
"This is a good eye opener as far as perception vs. reality."
"Why is it faster?"
The Mojave Experiment reveals how biased people can be towards things they have just heard about, but haven't used or seen.