In hind sight I take my hat off to microsoft. In all honesty Vista is not really needed for atleast another 2-3 years IMO.
Reason being is that Vista is not about what it ships with. Its got more to do with what it is capable of wrt to WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), WF(Workflow Foundation).
With the advent of Web 2.0 ajax etc... The new tools developers have at their disposal going forward from here are a huge and radical difference both in UI and back end design and development. what you can achieve now with .net fx 3.0, dx10, WPF, WF, etc... You could only dream to achieve in the past. Although Win XP has the capablitlies to achieve such things... It required more upgrades and updates to go with it. Vista will set the benchmark going forward for new Web Applications, Multimedia Web Applications, etc...
Think about it like this. Microsoft develops a platform that dominates 95% of the home computing industry or there about. They then release a Software SDK in whatever format, web, win, etc... And ppl go out and develop games, applications, etc... To date there are probally 100's of millions of applications out there just for windows alone.
Now picture this. Web 2.0, ajax & wpf. Whats capable with this technology is a DSTV, SKY, Video On Demand Web Application that looks like Flash on steriods and has access to all your S-Video, 40"Widescreen format, HDTV format, 7.1 surround sound system, etc...
Vista is not about what it launches with. Its more a case of what it is capable of going forward into the next 5 years or so. I am very excited to see what comes out of the woodwork in the 5 years especially surrounding the WPF technology and the new web stuff.
For those that dont know wpf think of it like this. Currently if you wanted to develop a win application u'd open a Win App Project in Vs2003/5. And if u wanted to develop a web app u'd open up a ASP.net Project in Vs2003/5.
With WPF you create 1 Application and say where its used. Win , web, mobile, etc.. Develop 1nce use everywhere. Which is very interesting.
The technology is a little immature at the moment and will take some time to gain market buy in. But its inevitable. The only hurdles we need to overcome hopefully is our Telecoms Industry nonsense coz without decent broadband we'll be left in the dark. And obvioulsy they need to start coding more dual core, quad-core, multi-core applications to all the hardware to do more of the work then the software.
At this moment in time I wont switch to Vista purely coz it breaks most games. I have used it and it is quite stable. I will also wait for Dx10 to go mainstream and wait for nVidia's/Ati's next version of their dx10 cards. i.e. after 8800 series. By that time Vista would have probally been patched to SP1. Office 2007 is fantastic. Nice new design and easy to use once u get use to it.
Other then that I dont get why the whole world is bashing Vista. Come 3 years from now they'll be praising it. After all Robert Mugabe never built Microsoft, Bill Gates did. So give the man his due. He knows what we dont.
