Normally I think it would be pretty hard to argue with numbers, but when I read articles with titles like ‘Vista Use Grows While Mac OS X Stays Flat‘ by PC World, I feel compelled to speak out about just how ridiculous such phrasing is. I mean why don’t they just come out and say “Despite What You May Hear to the Contrary: Windows Awesome, Mac Sucks”?

OF COURSE MICROSOFT VISTA USAGE IS GROWING – it’s the upgrade to by far the most dominant operating system in the world (Windows XP) and it was released just a few months ago! Such an article headline makes it seem like their was question whether Vista would ever rise above 0% market-share. Ha. Yes, Windows Vista usage is growing – guess where all the users are coming from? That’s right: Windows XP, which, not surprisingly, is shrinking. Isn’t it odd how that works? It’s called an upgrade.

Guess what is going to happen come October when OS X Leopard comes out? Market share of Leopard is going to soar, but do you think PC World is going to have the headline “OS X Leopard Market Share Soaring While Windows Vista Market Share Growing Slowly”? No, of course they won’t.

Yes, the article goes on to (kind of) compare overall Windows-use growth rate versus that of overall OS X growth, but having such a manipulative headline I think borders on propaganda. I mean sure if a boat is sinking you could choose to phrase it like “the water around the boat is rising”, but who would do that? PC World apparently.