Dear Santa,
We need to talk.
Here’s the thing... I have to admit I was pretty upset the other day when I found out that in the spirit of festive cheer, a selection of bloggers got given an Acer Ferrari 5000... and I wasn’t one of them.
I started off thinking: “I’m a blogger. I’m not too bad. I write tech stuff. I was a good girl this year (although maybe not as prolific as I could have been). Why didn’t Santa bring ME a Ferrari 5000?”
And then:
“Sweet. Those Ferrari 5000 laptops are pretty cutting edge. Maybe Santa is on his way. Maybe my chimney was blocked. Maybe Santa lost my address. Maybe he got confused with the whole Australian timezone/daylight-saving thing. Maybe, if I had gone to the mall and dropped some hints (although I always thought it’s a bit dodgy lining up for Santa if you’re over ten), he might've remembered I should've be on his good list.”
And then the disappointment set in. Why didn’t I get a present?
And then I went back to my information.
Oh.
It turns out because I’m... well, not overly Microsoft friendly in my blogs, my name probably wouldn’t have made it to that list.
Because these little gifties were only sent out to Microsoft friendly bloggers. And I guess I wouldn’t have been ANYWHERE on that list... I wonder if it has anything to do with my disdain for Steve Balmer?
Anyway, Santa, I’m totally over my disappointment. I even feel like I got the last laugh.
Because it turns out that these laptops came installed with Vista.
Tee-hee-hee!
I mean, really Santa, it’s not exactly popular opinion that Vista is great. Infoworld reckon that even though Vista has been available for a month for enterprise and industry users, people are pretty reluctant to make the switch. Maybe that’s because there are some pretty crucial Microsoft products that aren’t compatible? And that’s only one problem.
I have read some blogs about how good Vista is... but then... there is the little matter of you delivering laptops to bloggers as a little reward for propaganda well done. And who knows how many there are? I don’t know that many are brave enough to admit it. There’s nothing that destroys blogging credibility like accepting a bribe.
So Santa, I’ve decided I’m not that disapointed. I get to keep my credibility, and I get to feel smug about how I’m not the sort of person that Microsoft thinks deserves a reward.
On the other hand, I guess my stocking will be lacking in hardware courtesy of you and Microsoft next year as well?
Maybe next year I’ll ask for something totally unrelated. Like a car or something. But I’ll tell you what, if those “bloggers” all get another Ferrari and I end up with a twenty year old Chrysler...
I’ll still have my smug sense of satisfaction. Even if it does drive an old car.
From Bridget.
Comments
Appropriate "Bribes"
Personally, I'd be happy with an OpenMoko phone or OLPC laptop!
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Bridget, shouldn't FSM bloggers be first on the list for the laptops? If you got one, maybe you'd have an epiphany about the joy of owning and using the latest and greatest proprietary system, including the feature of hardware devices that stop working at Microsoft's discretion. (edit: Had a posting mishap and forgot to add my other thought that FSM could evolve in to Encumbered Software Magazine.) :-)
I'd like to read a post from one of these bloggers that never boots the thing up in Vista but instead wipes it and installs GNU/Linux instead. If there are truly no strings attached, that should be ok, right?
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