A guy with a black t-shirt and mullet walks into a computer store, and talks about how the HP has a V8 engine and bigger exhausts, and unlike the pretty looking Apple machine, is a real mans computer that offers better value.

You could say the HP is a V8 Commodore vs say a VW Jetta or similar mid size model.

To be fair though, as much as I dislike the individual parts of the campaign, the overall strategy is borderline brilliant.

Microsoft Australia’s Nick Hodge doesn’t like that I highlighted in a post Microsoft’s failure with the Windows 7 beta launch.

I don’t know what else to call it though. Lets see: Microsoft says you’ve got a day to download 2.5m copies of a 3gb program, and the servers crash.

That’s a fail.

The problem going forward is one of economics. I understand from a PR perspective why Microsoft has now opened it up for 2 weeks with no cap on downloads (it’s a smart move PR wise), but the net result is possibly tens of millions of people with Win 7.

Oh, but it’s a time release, and expires August 1 is the response.

So what.

The sort of people downloading Win 7 are going to just as easily crack the time code when in the coming days someone releases a crack, and in effect Microsoft has just basically supplied the next generation of unauthorized copies of Windows. I’d say pirated, but lets see….they were given the copies by Microsoft itself.

Will some go out and buy the real thing later? maybe, but I’m betting it’s not a majority. Word of mouth may come into play, although the Win 7 reviews are mixed so far; some love it, some pointing out it’s just Vista with some interface improvements.

Microsoft has an opportunity to convert people back, and what better way than giving it to them. Better still, open source it, and then charge for support/ upgrades/ patches etc.

Millions of people are interested in Win 7, how much better would it be if Microsoft tapped into that community to make the product even better.

The gates open.

Here’s some choice questions from the ABC’s Ticky Fullerton. I can’t embed the video unfortunately, but if I find a copy I’ll add it later. Full transcript here.

Opening question
TICKY FULLERTON: You are in Australia, of all places, during US election week. What will an Obama government do for corporate America?

WTF? You’re interviewing the CEO of Microsoft, and you ask him about Obama???

TICKY FULLERTON: The next stage for business users in particular could be Cloud. What is Cloud, and won’t it cannibalise some of your existing products?

“Cloud”???? Oh, THE CLOUD….just bizarre. Ballmer responded extremely well

TICKY FULLERTON: Microsoft Outlook has become the lingua franca of communications; you captured the world with it really.

How are you going to keep that loyalty, when you now have companies like Skype, like other telcos going for the customer and going for the directory?

Ummm, Outlook has a 27% market share, and recent numbers show Hotmail is used just as much in business. But comparing Outlook to Skype and telcos? WTF x100???!!!!!

TICKY FULLERTON: Yet you say nothing is given. I mean, looking forward we’ve got voice, we’ve got face and expression, handwriting recognition, and what they call the new wireless direct neural interfaces.

Where do you think the drivers of value will be in these spaces and how is Microsoft going to grab the drivers?

I just don’t get this at all. Looking forward we’ve got voice???

TICKY FULLERTON: How much of a threat is open source code? I know it’s been around for a while. I think the Queensland Government is looking at it now.

But in this time of global meltdown, could we see emerging markets like China and India looking at the free alternative and being a threat to Microsoft?

I think she means Open Source software….or maybe it’s just random parts of free code

TICKY FULLERTON: The other battleground is the mobile. Windows mobile is growing rapidly as the market grows.

Do you accept the criticism that perhaps once again you haven’t been listening to the end customer as well as say Apple, in terms of functionality and simplicity?

Windows Mobile isn’t growing, and it’s still a small player, unless she’s talking about a specific country. talk about slanted facts though.

TICKY FULLERTON: Back to Australia and the long awaited broadband tender, which seems awfully laboured. Do we seem very troglodyte to you?

WTF WTF WTF WTF. Some Australian angst thrown in with something Ballmer would no little about. He responded like a gentleman though.

If this is the current state of reporting at Aunty….well, OMG