CNET’s Ina Fried put out an article today on Microsoft’s upcoming website called ‘Windows Vista Compatibility’, an online tool that will enable Vista users to determine whether certain bits of hardware or software will be compatible with Microsoft’s flagship operating system, Windows Vista. With this effort, Microsoft is presumably making its database of products that are certified to work with Vista publicly available.

There’s an update to this story below.

As a faithful reader of CNET, I was astounded to witness Fried’s feat of bad journalism. While an opinionated piece is allowed to lack a certain degree of objectiveness, it obviously expresses bias towards Microsoft. Windows Vista sucks, Microsoft is useless, along with everything it does. Yes, we know the story.

“It is July 2008 and Microsoft still finds it necessary to show customers that plenty of hardware and software works with Vista, which has now been on the market for more than 18 months.”

– And that’s a bad thing, huh? Showing and reassuring your customers that a certain piece of hardware of software is compatible with Vista, by means of a simple website, is really a horrible thing. There’s no need to puke on everything Microsoft does, people.

I’m sure non-technical people will value a centralized compatibility database to ensure their investments were worthwhile. Or am I seeing just things..?

The rest of the post discusses how Microsoft failed to launch the site by the promised date. I agree it’s silly to set a date if you can’t make it. But it’s not the end of the world. I don’t think too many noticed, either.

Following in on common prejudices won’t make you popular, per sé. Certainly not when taking advantage of a common target like Microsoft.

Update July 10th: Apple was supposed to release MobileMe today, but failed to do so. Ever since, .Mac has been down and inaccessible. I wonder where the outrage is now… Oh, I know, there won’t be any. Of course, it’s Apple. See