could m$ have reduced negative image of vista?

[acfreema]

my roommate and i both purchased new laptops about 6 months ago, and each one only has drivers available for vista :whomp whomp:

anyway, i spent some time with the default 32bit... and found it to be unstable with several programs and even experienced a couple of bsod. my roommate has been having bsod issues since... day one? anyway, i switched to ultimate as soon as i couldn't find a 64bit linux with wireless drivers and i haven't been (too) disappointed yet. finally, last week, my roommate started using ultimate, and he has no more issues.

my musing is this: could m$ have maintained a better image if they have released vista as a 64bit only os?

forget the N different flavors, just something like xp: one with features that "power users" may use and one without. it seems to me that the plan was to have vista be only 64bit, but m$, in their finite wisdom, saw that the market wasn't ready and spent extra time preparing a 32bit variant.

instead of pushing vista on everything, just the upper tier of systems. by doing this, m$ would have given vista some amount of snob appeal. leaving xp in place for all of the people that are more interested in what they know. spend several years slowly phasing out xp, or just continue with both product lines, win/win situations for m$.

as much as i dis/like to think, xp is here to stay, no matter what m$ wants. it's a (somewhat) reliable platform that is ubiquitous in the world and known by nearly every pat, kelly and sam (i intentionally chose gender neutral names). forcing sheeple to learn a new environment and demanding manufacturers/developers to follow new standards exclusively is just an invitation for failure.

thoughts?