At this week’s conference, one of Microsoft’s newly found resolutions involves a campaign set to demolish the general perception that its Windows Vista release was a failure. Brad Brooks, Microsoft’s VP of Vista consumer marketing let it all out at the annual Worldwide Partner Conference, saying: “We broke a lot of things. We know that, and we know it caused you a lot of pain. It got customers thinking, hey, is Windows Vista a generation we want to get invested in?” The answer thought by many of the people present there and the ones reading these lines could be ‘No,’ as since its release the company has received numerous complaints and negative feedback about many of Vista’s features.
Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 will be released in January of 2010. Are you waiting to upgrade, or do you think the date will get pushed back? Join the discussion.
A thank-you note from Linux to Microsoft? Some readers think that Vista’s problems have driven adoption of Linux, but others say that Linux isn’t ready for wide adoption. Share your opinion. XP is being put out to pasture. Is this a good thing or a tragedy? Let us know what you think.
Bill Veghte from the Windows group at Microsoft sent out a nice big memo to those who still haven’t installed Vista in their enterprises and are waiting for some real improvement before they even consider it. His advice? Windows Vista offers significant advances in security and productivity and we recommend that enterprises that have not yet deployed it should absolutely evaluate its benefits. If you looked at Windows Vista previously and had concerns, the combination of Service Pack 1 and improvements made by our partners probably fixed many of the issues you were worried about and we encourage you to take a second look.
It seems like a straightforward question. However, in the aftermath of the Vista debacle, where many systems that were certified as “Vista Capable” proved to be anything but, the process of vetting new Windows-compatible hardware has taken on new complexity. You simply cannot count on Microsoft to provide an honest assessment of Windows system requirements. And as the “Vista Capable” experience has shown us, Microsoft’s vendor partners are no better.
Sure, the obits have been posted and the requiems are being sung. The fat lady has already packed up her girdle and gone home with a bucket of KFC. Yet it seems XP — like Bill Gates — is still alive and kicking, at least in some form.

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