I doubt it. Windows 7 was planned three years after Vista, which would be in 2010... at the soonest, late 2009 if your very, very lucky.

And thus, someone exibits one of the Five Stages of Windows Acceptance...

There is nothing horribly wrong with Vista. Sheesh.

In the meantime, Apple stores are jammed with folks who have had it with XP and see nothing in Vista which is an "upgrade".

With all this scurrying & dithering at Microsoft, Apple is licking its chops.

Actually you are partially correct. Corporations buy thousands of PC's. Now I suppose you think they install the software one PC at a time? Get Real!

It's called imaging. At the plant where I work, all 330 PC's connected to the network have the same basic image. It takes one of the IT interns about 30 minutes to check out a PC, load the image off the network onto the PC and it is ready to set on a desktop. It has Windows 2000, Office 2000, the custom written Stores/Maintentance/Purchasing/Accounting software, Lotus Notes and other software, all put on a once. The PC on my desk has an XP sticker on it, but that's not the OS it has. It actually has Windows 2000. If I go to another machine in the plant, I sign on and my settings are downloaded from the network and I can access and do anything from that machine that I can do from my office.

BTW - the company has started rolling out Vista to all 3,000 odd PC's at more than 70 locations along with Office 2007. Office 2007 will be a bigger learning curve than Vista. After all, it's the applications that do the work not the OS. The OS just enables the application to run and interface with the PC and access the I/O functions (discs, network, display, keyboard, mouse, etc).

On a daily basis, in the office environment once you boot up the machine and open the windows to the mainframe, Lotus Notes, Excell you never give the OS a thought because it's in the background. And since corporate machines don't change applictions very often, (we got Office 2000 with Windows 2000) the systems are very stable.

Scunnerous - the Apple stores only seem jammed because they are so small and busy selling iPhones and iPods. Macs are selling so well their market share has increased by a whole percentage point. I'm sure that gives Bill sleepless nights.

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rgreen4, I see no reason for your little rant against RNR19952. He never said that the OS would be installed any other way than by the deployment of images, as in any largish corporation. There are many people who do more than Word or Excel and the odd canned corporate app, and the roadblocks put up by Vista to make productive use are no recommendation for it - so no, it does not disappear behind the applications for everyone.

As for Apple stores being jammed, I suggest that you try visiting one to see/hear the action - the stories are monotonously the same: "I'm fed-up with XP, I need an upgrade and no way will I consider Vista". Oh and Aplle does have other distribution channels; in fact the stores are just as much a venue to umm, prod the goods as much as anything. Your 1%, BTW, is off by a factor of 3 at last count and if you think that Ballmer doesn't get concerned over market share loss of even 1%, you have no conception of the paranioa which is a daily part of life in Redmond.

WOW Imaging! I never heard of that? how does that work?
They would not be able to buy a NEW copy
I guess me and the other 89% of businesses are wrong ...Vista is the greatest thing ever.. ROTFLMAO. Let me know how that rollout goes...If your putting Vista on hardware more than 1 year old..I would love to see that.
Why the Lotus notes and not Exchange?? FYI that settings thing from the network...you mean roaming profile??? "The OS just enables the application to run and interface with the PC and access the I/O functions (discs, network, display, keyboard, mouse, etc)." Is THAT what the OS is for???HMMM....
You have a mainframe?? What year is this?
I think you will soon miss your Windows/Office 2000 when your dealing with headaches instead of getting your job done.

Don't be so silly, Gates is very aware this is WindowsME all over again, otherwise he would not be touting the next version already.

Thanks;)