Has Microsoft Disavowed Vista?

Has Microsoft Disavowed Vista?
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
2008-01-28

It seems that Microsoft is already giving up on Vista and is setting up
business users to switch from XP to Windows 7.

Technically, Vista is pure misery. It eats system resources like an
elephant does peanuts, Windows applications break and its so-called
improved security is a joke. I know it. You know it. Even Microsoft's
most devoted yes-men know it--although they won't admit it--and perhaps
Microsoft knows it as well.

What else can explain why Microsoft is now leaking news about Windows
7, the next version of Windows? Oh, officially Vista SP 1 is still the
big upcoming news, although I think most businesses are actually more
interested in XP SP 3. The simple truth is that no matter how Microsoft
and its partners like CDW spin it, Vista is not being picked up by
corporate users. Even Bill Gates' vaunted 100 million Vista users
number should be taken with a large—very large—grain of salt.

Most of the information is dripping out of the blog, Shipping Seven.
But, it's more than just Shipping Seven, which may, or may not, be
real. Microsoft is hard at work, harder than one would expect, with
Vista just over a year old, in getting its next desktop operating
system ready for action.

As Directions on Microsoft analyst Michael Cherry recently told eWEEK's
Peter Galli, "I don't think Vista is as bad as Microsoft has convinced
people it is." What should Microsoft do then? Cherry recommended that
Microsoft "discuss the next version of the operating system, currently
referred to as Windows 7, and what it will do."

Could Vista have missed its shot? Yes, yes, I know, how can I say this
when there are tens of millions of copies of it out there? Easily. It's
one thing to drop copies of Vista Home Basic and Premium on Best Buy
customers who don't know any better. It's another thing entirely to get
CIOs and IT managers to spend—or should I say waste?—billions on Vista.

For now, whether Microsoft likes it or not, XP, and not Vista, is the
Windows those businesses will continue to use. And the companies that
want to move on to a truly better operating system? They'll be moving
to Linux or Mac OS. --
http://www.eweek.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=45979&Itemid=28&limit=&limitstart=&mosmsg=Thanks%20For%20Your%20Vote!

--
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