I run XP x64, which I think is a fine OS. But as support for XP wanes, support for the 64-bit version disappears even faster. Vista has some good features, but most people are somewhat disappointed, especially those who saw what it could have been.

Microsoft used to know how to turn the crank on big systems, better than anyone else in the industry. But they are making mistakes. Internally, they have underminded the testing organizations by trying to force them to program and automate testing instead of the good old fashion sleuthing that a good tester used to do. In general, there has been a breakdown of their traditional culture three-way checks and balances among developers, testers and program managers (who advocate for the user).

Executives lack the tradition technical knowledge that used to pervade Microsoft's management. A bad idea, like Avalon, gets sold to Alchin while the developers groan and roll their eyes. Then it gets yanked when everyone realizes it won't work, and the whole project gets delayed. That kind of stuff is what caused Vista to be so late.

There is some good work in Vista. The new device driver interface is great, the kernel refactoring project was almost finished and should be done for Win 7. A lot of the most impressive engineering in an OS goes unseen by the user, but it does ultimately improve his experience.

Hopefully MS has realized that it made some mistakes. Ballmer has more or less admitted that, but does he know how to fix it? Maybe the most important thing he could do is restore that old Microsoft culture under Bill Gates, where a developer could go to a meeting and tell a vice president "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!". Today, he'd get fired for that.