obviously, my opinion here is necessarily biased but i think the point of the ad is not to highlight “passion” but to illustrate how Windows has reached a larger, more diverse population (no easy feat) and in so doing has enabled these people to do things far beyond what they could have hoped for prior to the advent of computing.

i think the ad/move is a good one since there’s no way to outdo apple in the “cool” department. then again, while there’s nothing in Excel to get consumers excited compared to itunes, it has done (and continues to do) more good in more places. i think this is the “peace of mind” the ad intends to create: not to make me feel like “it’s alright” but more like “there’s no limit to what i can do on this machine.” of course, i didn’t design the ads nor can i pretend to understand their true meaning.

i admit MS shouldn’t take too much credit in this arena, but it sure as hell has done more than apple in spreading computing to the masses. of course, as an original apple fanboy, i will finish by saying that apple deserves all the credit in the vision.