> In the end, Microsoft will sell up to 3 OSes for 1 PC bought today.

Canuck, I don't think I really buy your "conspiracy theory" version of
Microsoft's Vista marketing tactics - selling you a crap OS so you have to
upgrade once or twice more. I think Vista is below par for three reasons:

1/ The current code base has "gone critical" - much of it is top heavy,
messy, riddled with legacy workarounds and compatibility bodges, and has
become almost unmaintainable (although see my next note).

2/ MS abandoned the development program for what would have been XP's
successor in 2003, after having already invested a few years of development
in it. The reason was Microsoft's belated realisation of the serious
security flaws in their current OS architecture. In fact Vista was begun
again, almost from scratch - based in no small part on Server 2003 code. So
basically Vista was knocked together in a real hurry.

3/ I get the impression that some of the key, top personnel may have moved
into different roles, leaving the Vista development team somewhat less
competent that it should have been. For instance, although the UI is better
than XP's (in my opinion), it is riddled with inelegancies and
inconstencies, suggesting it really wasn't properly thought through. And
the file copying debacle is a classic example of incompetence: at RTM is was
bloodly hopeless, and even now, after SP1, it's still not as good as XP.
They "fixed" something that nobody thought was broken.

The first two points are easily confirmed just by reading various insider
blogs. The third is mostly just an impression I've got by reading between
the lines, and using Vista myself since it came out.

I don't think MS would deliberately release a below-par product, intending
you to pay again to get a fixed version. I don't think they would take such
a risky strategy now that there is significant competition in almost every
area they play in.

The best way to keep customers - I would suggest - is to do what Apple do.
They release a product which everybody thinks is superb, and make the next
product even better, and so on. By doing that they build up a committed
customer base who thing Apple walks on water, and who keep coming back for
more. I bet MS would like to do that if they could.

I think Microsoft's OS team has lost the plot - no more, no less.

SteveT