How would you answer if at a crowded conference someone asked you outright why Windows Vista is better than Windows XP?

Or for that matter why Office 2007 (formerly 12) should be preferred to Office 2003?

Mini-Microsoft, Redmond’s rogue blogger, asks how “If your non-techie friend or financial advisor or Mom asked you that question, what are you going say?

“I only ask because recently I was watching a video of a speaker at Microsoft. During the Q&A, he asked that question of a lady Microsoftie in the audience. Not only could you tell her brain was momentarily frozen (uhhhhhh), you could feel that the entire crowd hit a panicked brain freeze. The lady then came up with an almost apologetic answer saying the Vista is more stable, safer, and faster than XP.”

This is clearly an important response which ought to be instantaneous for people who actually work for Microsoft, he thinks

“I do think Vista is great, but even I can’t come up with a 30-second knock-it-out-of-the-park reason as to why anyone would part with their hard-earned money to upgrade to it. Which I feel bad about and I’m going to work on it. I figure everyone at Microsoft needs to have an honest answer as to why our two cash cows are worth upgrading to.”

Hmm, whenever were snake-oil salesmen stumped for such a reply? Maybe it’s a sign of honesty at Redmond.