My friend downloaded IE8 last week. It exploded his computer. He immediately switched to Safari 4 Beta and is a happy camper. Yes, Apple’s BETA software kicks Microsoft’s released versions… Go figure.

So why not just give ‘em the $1m and be done with it. This whole “we’ll be generous if you use our product” isn’t philanthropy, it’s leverage.

I find it distasteful, whoever’s doing it.

Sounds like someone lost an obscure lawsuit…

I’ll try IE8 if MS pays me to.

Oh Dear. What’s next? ‘Use our browser or we will kill this dog?’

Hahaha…. completely tasteless. “We’re only charitable to good causes for people if you’re charitable to bad causes with your computer.”

pathetic

Oh Dear. What’s next? ‘Use our browser or we will kill this dog?’

That would be another idea they took from someone else.

My friend downloaded IE8 last week. It exploded his computer. He immediately switched to Safari 4 Beta and is a happy camper. Yes, Apple’s BETA software kicks Microsoft’s released versions… Go figure.

LOL a Microsoft BETA is also known as a final release.

I think the funniest thing is that Safari 4 was downloaded 11 million times in 3 days, yet Microsoft needs to give away $1 million to get 869,565 downloads ($1,000,000 / $1.15 = 869,565 ). ROFL!

Fanboy cynicism + liberal cynicism = comedy gold! It also equals marketing gold. Let me point out the obvious. The $1 million dollars that Microsoft is giving Feeding America is approximately $1 million dollars more than any of you are giving Feeding America.

And now the not so obvious… If Apple did the same with Safari, you guys would be unintentionally inseminating your MacBook Pros.

And now the math… Reaper, you might want to check out May browser share stats by version. You’d find that IE 8.0 was within a point of the sum total of all version of Safari. They don’t need to do this promotion. It raises awareness about the browser and Feeding America and gets Feeding America $1 million. Most people call that a win-win.

P.S. I’m not even a fan of IE8. It’s lack of support for HTML5 goodies means I will continue to be double busy with what should be easy web development tasks for another two years. I’m still suffering from having to support IE6 because educational users are stuck on stupid, er IE6, (mostly to support expensive legacy apps) at rates much higher than the general public’s 16%.

The $1 million dollars that Microsoft is giving Feeding America is approximately $1 million dollars more than any of you are giving Feeding America.

I am not a zillionaire, but perhaps percentagewise I am giving more to charity than MicroSoft.

Fair enough Harry if that makes you feel good. However, charity does not thrive on percentage of people’s income. Charity thrives on dollars. Microsoft is giving Feeding America $1 million. Snark at that all you want, but it’s still roughly $1 million more than any of you are giving Feeding America.

Oh, and marketing people who come up with these kinds of arrangements… They count on snarky criticism from corners such as this. When your opponents (or competition) is questioning your motives as you give $1 million to a charity rather than pony up cash of their own, you look like a saint to regular folks. Like I said above, “marketing gold”.

I do my donations elsewhere, thank you.

Charity thrives on dollars. Microsoft is giving Feeding America $1 million. Snark at that all you want, but it’s still roughly $1 million more than any of you are giving Feeding America.

Right Bosco, charity thrives on dollars. 200,000,000 people give $10 and MicroSoft gives $1,000,000 and writes it off on taxes.

/snark

Fanboy cynicism + liberal cynicism = comedy gold! It also equals marketing gold. Let me point out the obvious. The $1 million dollars that Microsoft is giving Feeding America is approximately $1 million dollars more than any of you are giving Feeding America.

This gets my vote as the most asinine comment of the day.

New flash: M$ will not donate one red cent without willing participants for their marketing ploy. I would love to buy into your misguided guilt trip about not ponying up my own money for charity Bosco, but unfortunately I don’t have crapperware to push on people in exchange for doing a good deed.

In my opinion: in light of Microsoft’s billions in cash reserves, the paltry million they’re offering with the IE 8 requirement does more harm to their image than good. Why not just donate to the charity with no strings attached??

Compare Microsoft’s Download our stuff and we’ll give a tiny bit to charity with this promotion from Target
http://feedingamerica.org/partners/corporate-promotions/target.aspx
Yes Target’s name is all over it but they don’t demand anything in return. They’ve been doing this sort of thing for years. Quietly donating to Feeding America (back when it was Second Harvest) and lots of other charities. Even when some religious group protested their support of women’s health organizations Target stood their ground because it was the right thing to do.

Target is a good corporate citizen. MS is a wannabe poser.

And yes I’ve donated to the food banks. For a number of years we ran a holiday food drive that went to Second Harvest. So Bosco, what have you done?

The bot censored my reply. geoduck, I never asked what you donated or did. I don’t question your charity. It’s none of my business. Nor is what I donate or do any of yours.

My parents raised me to be thankful for whatever anyone gives. When a company gives $1 million, even if you must question their motives internally, it’s just classy to be thankful for the contribution. If you must publicly question their motives, you need to be ready to match the contribution. If people heed xmattingly’s plea to not participate in this “marketing ploy”, guess who loses? Hungry families who are the recipients of Feeding America’s good deeds. I guess they’re just collateral damage in the jihad against Microsoft.

Stay classy Mac fanatics!