The Microsoft notebook giveaway situation

[Thank The Cheese]

Many may have heard about Microsoft giving away top of the line Acer Ferrari notebooks with Vista installed from A list bloggers to lesser popular bloggers. The gift has been masqueraded as a review unit, but they are not required to give it back.

"you are welcome to send the machine back to us after you are done playing with it, or you can give it away on your site, or you can keep it."
-Microsoft

This is a disgraceful, transparent move on Microsoft's part in my opinion. It is especially shrewd of them to give them to bloggers -- especially the less popular bloggers -- as they are less bound by journalistic integrity as professionals. Not that there aren't bloggers with plenty of integrity, but there are many, many others who are less than professional and can be easily manipulated.

After all, if you're a blogger who writes as a hobby in his/her own time after your day job, a gift like this is unheard of, and very exciting, whereas a professional tech journalist would be used to these things.

what do others think? Was this a move to ensure good reviews about Vista and other MS products, or just another review unit?

 

[Sunnz]

I would take it and blog about installing Linux on it.

 

[nixgeek]

Yeah, I heard about this. There was also a stink about one blogger taking the laptop and donating it to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. After that, MS decided to rescind on its offer of laptops and even asked for some of them back if I remember correctly.

 

[Sunnz]

So much for "no string attached"!!

 

[Rhisiart]

All's fair in love and war.

For me a free PC notebook is like a fish on a bicycle.

 

[symphonix]

I don't think it'll really make much impact at all. Bloggers are *very* opinionated and they're not likely to change their viewpoint so easily.

 

[Sunnz]

AFAIK they have been giving away Zune as well...

Sometimes I wonder, could they just 'buy' the market?