[philthomas]

The question now isn't "Is Vista Dead?" It is. The real question is: Can Microsoft get Windows 7 out in time to save its desktop domination? I think Microsoft "could" pull it off. Here's how.
Vista is dead.
That's not what Bill Gates said at a seminar on corporate philanthropy in Miami on April 4, but it might as well have been. What Gates actually said, according to the Reuters report, is that he expects that the next desktop version of Windows, Windows 7, would be released "sometime in the next year or so."
Goodbye Vista. It has not been fun knowing you.
I predicted that Microsoft was giving up on Vista in January. It seems I was right. Microsoft's own top brass had hated Vista when it first came out, why should they expect anyone else to like it?
Vista SP1 has proven to be a painful upgrade and its performance still lags behind XP SP2 and, the still unreleased XP SP3. Worse still, from a Microsoft executive's viewpoint, Windows is actually losing desktop market share to Mac OS X and Linux. Microsoft never loses desktop market share. But with Vista Microsoft is finally losing customers.
I think Microsoft saw the handwriting on the wall early on. The company started playing up Windows 7 as early as July 2007. Now, Microsoft's business plan is always to get its customers to upgrade to the next version. It's how they make their billions. But, in this case, Vista was barely out the door.
Can Microsoft actually make a Windows 7 that can ship by 2009 that will win customers? Vista was infamous for its blown deadlines. Windows 7 must not only replace the failed Vista, it has to convince Microsoft's customers that Windows 7 will really be better than XP.
That isn't going to be easy. I find it more than a little telling that Microsoft has given XP Home a new lease on life for UMPC (Ultra Mobile PCs). Still. I think Microsoft has one card up its sleeve that just might keep its customers happy and make it out in 2009: Server 2008 Workstation ...............

Full story here : http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Mic...s-up-on-Vista/

[redden137]

To be honest when vista was launched last year i decided to stay with xp for as long as poss for two reasons
1 All my apps/hardware where 32 bit and i didnt want the hassle of waiting for the drivers to catch up as alot of them arent windows, i.e. my printer,modem.tv card, sound card, etc and at the time they where pushing the 64bit version SO much i didnt want it,
2 A new launch of windows is always " The safest,the most secure, reliable,best user interface etc.
only to find out six months down the line it has security holes a cow could get through, or is flawed in places,unstable when combined with a certain m/b or ram or graphics card or just generally crap until the first service pack comes out
So i wait awhile still using xp,hoping for good news on vista,
Then i here how so many people are going back to xp, how many pc supplers are again offering xp and not vista on there machines and then i read that microsoft are launching a new windows in 2009 its only rumour but i decide to wait a bit longer,
and now this post,
well i think ill stick with xp for just a little longer, maybe long enough to by-pass vista altogether and jump straight into the new windows 7 with sp1 of course

[thingie2]

Redden, it was the same for me, I thought I was going to go to vista soon after I get my new computer (a month or two) so that I can play games in DX10, but otherwise, I would have stuck with XP. But now it seems I won't be getting Vista at all.