Microsoft has a secret new operating system they’re showing to XP-using Vista haters, reports Cnet’s Ina Fried. Codenamed “Mojave,” over 90 percent of the focus groups in San Francisco loved it, with at least one moved to effuse, “Oh wow,” while using it. When can you get hold of this wondrous new operating system? Right now. Mojave is actually just plain ol’ Windows Vista.

Cnet has already seen the footage of the focus groups lovin’ it, and Ina suspects the video might go public as part of the campaign to tell Vista’s “story” as early as next week. While the whole thing is ultimately a marketing campaign, it does raise an interesting point—how much of the Vista hate is really just sheeple bleating what everyone else is? Chen and I use it everyday (though I use it three times as much as he does), and it’s really not Microsoft’s most epic fail ever. It’s got problems, but what OS doesn’t?

Still, it’s interesting that the crux of Microsoft’s giant campaign is telling everyone that they are wrong, like the-sun-revolves-around-the-earth kind of wrong. I mean, they might be. But it still seems like a weird way to convince people to buy your product. [Cnet via Ars]

Source: Windows XP Users Actually Love Vista… If They Think It's Something Else [Windows]