Windows, Not Walls? How about Bullshit, Not really an OS?

Microsoft is starting a new advertising campaign starring Jerry Seinfeld. Matt Asay, in a column on CNet.com, analyzes the details:

Microsoft is about to embark on a new advertising campaign designed to make people love it again, and not merely endure it. With Apple showing that people will pay for beautiful, functional, and fun technology, Microsoft is playing catch-up with comedian Jerry Seinfeld. There is rich irony in Microsoft opting for a comedian to help pitch its products, but I won't go there. No, I'm more interested by its marketing theme: Windows, Not Walls. People close to Microsoft's campaign suggest that "the point is to stress breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting." If this is correct, let me suggest an alternative tagline for a similar message: Build bridges, not toll roads. Through closed standards, aggressive patent FUD, and proprietary Office file formats and SharePoint repository, Microsoft has effectively declared war on the very idea of "breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting"...unless you happen to be using 100 percent of Microsoft's software to do the job. One of the biggest trends to knock down barriers to true interoperability has been open source and the open standards it espouses, yet Microsoft has sought to impose a patent toll on open source. For those interested in connecting with Microsoft's technology, Microsoft is glad to oblige, but only on its terms, with Microsoft firmly in control. Open source, however, believes in a very different kind of interoperability... Microsoft can do better. Whether it wants to, however, is a very different matter.