if what we're all seeing is correct, the patents VCSY owns are holding Microsoft at bay while Adobe surges forward and the companies adopting their technology and building platforms (even while in Beta for evaluation, mind you).

If you can read the 7076521 patent and then explain how Adobe Apollo is NOT reflected in that patent, then your assertions might make sense. But, so far, you sound just like all the Microsoft wishful thinkers who cling to the past like a tiny root growing out of the side of the cliff while many others are moving forward strongly using web technology... not desktop and server technology as Microsoft is offering.

You can make all the wishful claims you want but without some kind of information refuting what's appearing on the industry now, your Microsoft future is still stuck in "want to" with no delivered capabilities to pull you out of the mud.

Joe,

Those studies seem spot on to me. Again, I haven't any scientific data, but I'm hearing extremely negative sentiment against Vista from colleagues, my night-school computer science students, and the SW engineers and corporate IT folks at my Fortune 100 day job. In another post I related that my wife, also an adjunct CS professor, got a new notebook with Vista pre-installed. She immediately wiped the hard drive then installed XP. Her comment, "Ballmer isn't going to tell me what I can play on MY computer. I'll never use that spyware."

Microsoft had a vision for Vista. Part of that vision was to become the family media center. To achieve that vision, MS believed that it should "jump in bed" with the big content providers, RIAA and their ilk. Thus, MS bet heavily on DRM in Vista. MS bet wrong. Consumers are revolting against the formula, packaged pabulum being produced by the major labels. Smaller, niche artists are finding audiences on the web, myspace being a good example. Sales through traditional channels, i.e. CDs sold at record stores, are declining.

Other visions included a new, completely proprietary file system. Though this feature did not make it into Vista, MS desired it as a lock-in strategy. With a patented file system, Linux systems would not be able to access Windows content (arguably, you might be able to if a legal Windows system was present and Linux used the Vista drivers - i.e. no reverse engineering).

Given MS licensing terms, it seems clear that part of Vista's playbook was designed to shut VMWare out of the market in favor of MS proprietary solution. Other lock-in plays were to favor MS proprietary anti-malware solutions.

There are some Vista features that corporate IT might find attractive. A lot of granularity has been added to Active Directory. For example, with Vista, corporate IT can now log, ban, or restrict use of USB drives to read-only. This feature is not available with XP. But the broken compatibility and heavy hardware requirements are major issues for corporate IT.

MS customers want a rock-solid, secure operating system that enables them to run best-in-class applications. MS delivered a less-than-solid OS that broke many existing applications. (FWIW, I agree with you that they should have gone farther in changing the OS and applied virtualization technology for backwards-compatibility). So, for home users, MS bet wrong on the big content providers. For business, MS bet wrong on compatibility and large footprint. MS may be shipping Vista, but anecdotal evidence and surveys are saying that neither corporations nor consumers want it.

The fact of the matter is Corporate is staying with XP and home users are going back to XP or Linux and some buy a Mac.

I'm sorry I can't provide you with any charts, because I wrote this in Vi. ;)

Joe, that was a very neutral article, sort of just the facts article. Nicely done, BTW. One thing I would ask though,of the "88 million copies of Vista sold figure," does that include in the 88 million, the "42 million, PCs licensed under volume-licensing contracts for Windows Vista?" If so then the real number to consumers is 46 million? And how many of those licences were really xp licences? Would it be 28%? How many could downgrade with their business or ultimate versions, and wouldn't we like to know how many have.

The figures from links I posted in the past have stated about 25% of businesses/users, wiping Vi$ta off the hard drive and replacing it, most likely with XP, or possible Linux.

Here is an article titled: Vista sales slow despite record MS profit

http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/10/26/vista.sales.rate.slowing/

Quotes from the link: "The sales rate of Microsoft's Windows Vista is gradually slowing down as the operating system reaches the one-year anniversary of its release to businesses, according to the company's latest financial results. The Redmond, Washington-based company shipped approximately 28 million copies of Vista in the latest quarter ended September, or 9.3 million copies per month. Though the Windows developer pointed to 27 percent growth in business licenses and noted that many home users were buying the more lucrative Vista Home Premium or Ultimate editions, the rate represents a decline from the 10 million per month reported early in summer."
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Somehow, there is just too many things wrong with Vista. Karl in his comments points out the crippling DRM that has been embedded intensely into Vista, causing it to be a performance dog. Businesses with critical applications cannot seriously consider an OS that self destruct because of the protections of WGA and DRM built into the system.

Finially, there is the terrible application breakage in Vista for everyone, including businesses. Although, I think MS did some of this on purpose, to sell new apps. I would not put it past them, after all, were they not telling software companies how Vista would help them sell software? Another factor is that MS is looking at declining market share, thanks to Vista. From Joe's other article we learned that 44% of businesses are planning to leave Microsoft Operating Systems. And why not, each upgrade cycle cost a fortune in 3rd party apps alone, after the cost of a new computer and Windows.

Consider that Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and their colleagues/friends, the ones with most of the ms stock, are getting older now. They are wanting to extract as much money in the short term as possible from the dinosaur that is Microsoft. How would you do it in a declining market share?

Shorten the upgrade cycles, which means release new versions of Windows faster, which is exactly what Steve Ballmer said they were going do. Also raise the price, by using the strategy of different versions. Nobody really wants Basic, it will not do even what XP Home did. Ultimate at $399 is a price increase people.

Chips,

I have to take exception to your last comment around Vista Basic. I've used it and Ultimate. First of all, yes it does as much as XP, and more. Basically Vista Basic (VB) is more like an XP update, but I would say a good one overall. You get the added security, and also the new task scheduler and many of the new utilities, most of which can run from the command line. My experience with VB is that it is has quick as XP Home. That said, there are compatiliblity issues, mostly due to the new security.

Compare that with the behemoth that is Vista Ultimate. I run this beast as well. It takes twice the memory and does not deliver twice the productivity. Indeed, I would say it slows things down. Most people prefer this version for the pretty interface and some added applets, but honestly it isn't worth it.

All this said, I do agree with your assertation that Vista is a dog. There is not cutting edge technology, or even mild innovation. I won't discuss DRM because there are many untrue rumors about it on the net with regards to Vista. Still, Vista's performance is terrible. At a time when hardware manufacturers are trying to reduce power usage, Vista is sucking down the juice off the grid. It's the 21st century version of the American car in the 70's, or the Hummer of today.

Yes, thanks guys for taking care of this. Much appreciated :)

VCSY patents are much more valuable than many want you to believe

http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_M/threadview?m=ts&bn=12004&tid=1317553&mid=1317553&tof=2&frt=1
(more at url)
If Microsoft were able ... they would...
...if they could.

Again, I ask the Microsoft shareholder, what's up with Microsoft technology?

Those of you who consider this "spamming" the Microsoft board forget what Microsoft has done to so many smaller companies. They "embrace and absorb" because they are so large. That strategy works as long as the smaller company dies and is no longer strong enough to fight Microsoft.

You should all know VCSY has sued MSFT for patent infringement. Microsoft seems to want this to play out in the courts so they can use the stab and wait principle to gain access to the technology represented by the two software patents.

What does VCSY want? Beats me. I have no inroads to anyone with VCSY, but, I would think VCSY wants what every small company would want; to be able to market their technology publicly without having to fight against the "muscle and mob" tactic that's another favorite of the Microsoft legal staff.

Some like to act like Microsoft has a choice in the things they do in the industry and market. They say they're "afraid" to field their web products because they will be copied. Well, Microsoft obviously knows what it feels like to have your hard work "copied" but we would all think Microsoft is strong enough to use the US legal system to gain a remedy against those who "copy" Microsoft stuff. But, perhaps the legal system takes a little too long for remedy to Microsoft's taste.

Well, now they know what it's like.

November 23, 2007
Microsoft wants you to buy Vista, now
By Jonathan Schlaffer

Rather than have 90% of businesses and IT folk wait to deploy Vista, Microsoft would rather have all of them do so now or sooner than later. That's not going to happen, besides the cost to upgrade existing hardware, there are migration issues, hardware and software compatibility and the usual ills that come with a Microsoft operating system.

However, Vista is quite ready for home users and shouldn't present too much of a problem on that front. Businesses, on the other hand have quite a few things to consider before rolling out a new operating system.

Eweek reports that many IT professionals are simply put off by Vista and the issues associated with migrating over to it, I can't blame them one bit.

All this just amounts to what has been said since Vista released but Microsoft is still betting on the success and release of Vista SP1 some time next year. If that's not enough, ITBusinessEdge reports on some tools provided by Microsoft to assist in migrating over to Vista.

As far as businesses are concerned, Vista is just a prettier and ever so slightly more secure version of XP, if more annoying, for most users the first thing that gets turned off is User Account Control (UAC) one of the touted security features of Vista.

Microsoft has also given the impression that Vista SP1 is supposed to improve performance but as a pre-release candidate has been circling around, shows that it does little to nothing except improve the reliability of Vista, mainly problems related to USB devices and hibernation.

If Vista is performing poorly on your system now, SP1 is not going to help you. While the company may not admit in so many words, many wish Vista could just be swept under a rug and forgotten. As one of my colleagues pointed out, why else would word be spreading about Windows 7 which is still two to three years out.

Vista is the ME of this generation, Windows 7 will likely be the XP of the next generation.

I stand corrected, there are some people who see some worth in Vista Basic. Gary, I would even say there is some logic in your point.

Linux desktops grow and grow and grow

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/11/23/linux_desktop_survey/

Quote: "Use of the Linux operating system on desktop machines is continuing to grow with small and medium business showing the most enthusiasm for the open source software."
----------------------------------------------------
small and medium business, could that be the 44% that is moving to alternative Operating Systems?

Joe there is a big difference between today and the day's of W2K adoption.

a) What did you have to look back to then? NT? Hehehe. Or better yet Win98? Blahhh!

b) Linux and Mac are strong players today particularly in emerging markets and overseas (as is the case for Linux).

c) There is a larger installed software base (home made apps) coded for XP's necessary architectural deficiencies.

The numbers might look the same, but the scenario is quite different.

I-Man: I followed the link you gave us to the Yahoo message boards, then then looked up the valuable VCSY patent #6,826,744.
I and one other person created an application presentation framework that incorporates many of the claims of this valuable patent. We designed and implemented this framework in the years from 1989 and 1991.
And yet, VCSY didn't file their valuable patent application until 1999, and didn't receive the patent until 2004.
I think the USPTO's search for prior art consists of some low-level droid yelling down an empty well, "Does this patent application describe prior art?" And when no answer comes back, the prior art is deemed to not exist.
Well, maybe they actually use a search process that is different from the one I described. But it is not any more effective that the one I described.

everything that's been done in these conversations have been speculation based on teased out views of capability and current technology state and possible technology implementations.

Verizon put NOW Solutions SaaS platform to the test. We know that from various sources.

That SaaS platform would necessarily need to have elements of patent 521 at the very least as emPath appears to be specifically built to glue applications together (interoperably integrate) in order to run them all as a unified application or "framework". 521, however, would allow the interoperated data store locations within that framework to be transactionally expressed on the web using http protocol and standard XML for data and commands.

Now, that combination alone (emPath and 521) could be used to fashion SaaS as emPath would handle all the unification and integration of applications sitting on the servers (server-side automation) while the client/local machine operations including off-line service (enabling users to continue working with applications during periods of disconnet with the web) would be handled by 521.

So, that works if you're going to do one-off frameworks each going to individual users.

Now, look at that same one-off framework operation compounded by attempting to provide that integrated framework to ANY usrs on ANY platform. Hair-raising, ain't it? Imagine trying to field a single framework (unless you want to build a specialized framework for each new user having something different in their hardware and software use requirements) out to all those multiple platform and multiple application and multiple content and format and functionality users... by hand...

Can't be done, little children. Not enough people could fit in the framework just to provide the service in a timely and accurate manner.

Sooooo... what do you do?

You use 744 which can fashion arbitrary (equally useful) frameworks (as many as you need) using arbitrary application frameworks (any number of empath/521 integrations) syndicated to an arbitrary user pool (any user requirements on any platforms).

Now, if you can find another set of technology properties that can provide that (Plan9/Inferno? Please. Don't insult the reader's intelligence. If Plan9/Inferno could, they would have long ago - it's an attempt at a proprietary approximation), please (anyone - this has been my request for 8 years) please show that and I will eat the VCSY certificates.

So, will you make money on this? If you own VCSY shares you will. Verizon has the neatest niche out of all them. Here they are a phone company acting like a software manufacturer and platform provider. THAT's innovation. THAT's competition. And THAT's being done in Europe where the EU commissioners will see what true agnostic competition can be provided instead of being forced to rely on Windows excllusively or Linux exclusively or any possible application exclusively.

Read it again: virtual and arbitrary hand in hand provide an elegant way to present and manage and govern all applications on all platforms for all users.

And also note, that all that could be made available to Verizon through NOW Solutions without putting any other subsidiary of VCSY at risk or entangled. Plus, VCSY subsidiaries could apply that same capability to other vertical customer bases (who all use the various off-the-shelf applications and operatingn systems of any kind) without anti-competition and as a support/infrastructure construct open to all users. Thus, no monopolistic structure as all you will need is a license to emPath/521/744 and off you go to build whatever kind of system you wish.

NOW Solutions is the testbed. That's what Wade was saying years ago when he said all VCSY technology would be developed along with emPath.

AND emPath can be repurposed (note what repurposing says: same application framework repackaged with different content and format for a different industry use) and affiliated so the amount of work to move from one framework to the next is cut to a minimum. That's the SOA concept in a package.

So Verizon/NOW Solutions is simply an entry point for VCSY even though the potential for just that teaming alone can mean a huge future. There are many many more possibilities.

Looks like Micro$oft is trying to spin their Vista marketing disaster. As someone pointed out, M$ bet on the wrong stuff. Now they are paying for it.

The funny thing is that M$ focused too much on marketing considerations, and in the end they blew it with Vista. if only M$ had focused on real innovation, and redesigning their OS from the gound up (they had 5 whole years to do it), they would have had a better product and better market adoption. But M$ didn't focus on innovation, and they have a dog of an OS.

Oh well, better luck next time. But if they company sticks to the Bill and Ballmer playbook, history will repeat itself. The company should move forward and forget what those two dinosaurs think. But it can't do that. At least, not yet.

Maddog, you be right that the direction at Micro$oft is not going change until the dinosaurs are without shares of stock. This is not going completely happen.

Vi$ta, however, is a finical success, but as far as desktop and business market share, its a failure. Windows had something like 95.3% of the desktop market share when Vi$ta was released a year ago. Since then Linux has more than doubled, the Mac is going gangbusters, and now, surveys point out that 44% of businesses intend to switch to "alternative Operating Systems." I calculate that so far M$ has lost between 2.5 and 3% of the desktop operating system market share so far since Vi$ta was released.

And the future is less rosy, as these 44% businesses will be the catalyst for their employees to learn how much better their linux systems run at work, and soon they to willing switch at home. This is not the end for Micro$oft, and its not the being of the end, but it looks to be the start of the long slide downhill for Micro$oft Windows on the desktop. And M$ Office cannot be far behind that slide either.

Don't expect Windows Seven to save the day for Micro$oft either. Although the talk about the winmin kernel sounded positive, its just most likely Vaporware. You know, a product that M$ will never release, but they know people want, so they announce they are working on it, to keep users from trying something else out, vaporware, MS is famous for it. After all, Windows $even, is supposed the minor update to Vi$ta. Vista being 6.0 and Seven being 6.1. Only with M$ do you get the fussy math 7=6.1. All the DRM will still be there people. M$ is counting on faster hardware being out there to run Seven when its released. Unlike Joe Willcox, I expect Windows Seven to be rushed out, to replace Vi$ta and the revolt its starting to cause.

chips,

It's a race. "Google" Wharton School of Business', Bulte and Joshi's paper, "New Product Diffusion with Influentials and Imitators," (posting a link will cause my post to go to the spam bucket) and review the seminal Everett Rogers 2003 book, Diffusion of Innovations.

In the "very short" version, "Innovators" and "Early Adopters" compromise 2.5 and 13.5 percent of a market, respectively. Once these segments have converted to a new technology, a "Tipping Point" is reached. Then, the formerly unthinkable "sea change" occurs. The new technology goes "viral" as "Early Majority Adopters" and "Late Majority Adopters" fall in behind the opinion leaders.

Windows is demonstrably losing desktop market share. Current indications are that Vista is ME 2, a product no one wants. Microsoft needs to get Windows 7 out the door and customers need to find it appealing. Currently, however, and estimates differ, it seems very safe to say that Windows still has better than 95 percent of the desktop market. The interesting question is, can Microsoft stop the bleeding before the 16 percent tipping point is reached?

I think we'll see two things. First, Microsoft will continue to extend support for XP until Windows 7 SP1. Why? Because if Microsoft does not, a critical ten percent of customers might switch to a non-Windows alternative, thus reaching the tipping point. Second, Microsoft will make every effort to deliver Windows 7 as soon as possible. We'll see the typical Microsoft vaporware, hype, and decreasing feature set as the release date looms. However, the bottom line is that Microsoft needs Windows 7 to have a compelling feature set and to be sufficiently reliable when delivered. If Vista is ME 2, Windows 7 needs to come quickly and be a winner for Microsoft to survive.

Funny.

Should be:

... "Innovators" and "Early Adopters" comprise 2.5 and 13.5 percent of a market ...

Though Microsoft may prefer to think these are "compromising" the market. :)

Karl Says:
"(posting a link will cause my post to go to the spam bucket) and review the seminal Everett Rogers 2003 book, "Diffusion of Innovations."

"Opinion leaders exert influence on audience behavior via their personal contact, but additional intermediaries called change agents and gatekeepers are also included in the process of diffusion. Five adopter categories are: (1) innovators, (2) early adopters, (3) early majority, (4) late majority, and (5) laggards. These categories follow a standard deviation-curve, very little innovators adopt the innovation in the beginning (2,5%), early adopters making up for 13,5% a short time later, the early majority 34%, the late majority 34% and after some time finally the laggards make up for 16%."

Karl, some well reasoned points in your comments. However, I would point out that MS has already lost 2.5 to 3% of the desktop market and is now down to 92 or 92.5%, which is still huge, BTW. Mac is making most of the early gains, expect more this Xmas season.

I agree with your statement that they will have to continue to sell XP till Seven or Seven SP1 comes out, to not do so, will acelerate the downword spiral for MS. But even if Seven was to turn out to be a stable, and virus free type OS, it has two major problems facing it. 1. By the time it arrives, many people will already have converted. 2. The cost, which is one of the main reasons that 44% of the businesses are planning to switch over to alternative Operating Systems.

Also back to XP, to not continue to offer it for sale, will be to give Linux free reign on low end new machines that OEM's want to sell. These low end machines will be a hot market that OEM's cannot afford to miss competing in. Micro$oft will be forced to offer reduced priced XP operating system for them, in order to compete at all. Most people will not want advertisingware either. The embedded advertisement system in the OS that MS patented. And the $3 XP starter edition is Crippleware, M$ will have to do better, and lower the price.

chips,

Good points, particularly regarding low-end machines.

Are you, like me, positively drooling to get one of those cute ASUS EEE PCs? I'm forcing myself to wait until the next generation comes out with more storage and a better CPU (predicted release is next spring). The current version ships with a customized version of Xandros preloaded. After pressure by Microsoft, ASUS announced that a version will be delivered with XP pre-loaded. For web surfing, pics, e-mail, skype, IM, ... that these EEEs will be used for, Xandros is great and with a much smaller footprint than even XP. But, you're right, Vista's footprint is way too huge to ever run on the little EEE.

I'm curious to see just how small the Windows tax will be when XP is pre-installed. ASUS expects to ship millions of these cute little toys. I'll bet Microsoft is practically giving away XP to ensure that millions of people don't become comfortable with Linux.

In answer to your point about Windows desktop market share, I think they'll have to lose 16 percent to one technology -- not all other technologies combined. Much as I like Mac, I think that if the tipping point is reached, it will be Linux -- and, for the reason you pointed out -- it runs on low end machines. There's a lot of interest in small form-factor, quiet, ubiquitious, even fan-less PCs. Vista is a non-starter in this market. Windows Embedded? Perhaps. But it's hard to compete with "free" in a commodity market.

Quote Karl:
"SUS EEE PCs? I'm forcing myself to wait until the next generation comes out with more storage and a better CPU (predicted release is next spring). The current version ships with a customized version of Xandros preloaded. After pressure by Microsoft, ASUS announced that a version will be delivered with XP pre-loaded"
----------------------------------------------------
Karl, if this is the case, that XP will be on the EEE next spring, then MS has already admitted that XP will still be an OEM OS next spring, well past the June cutoff date.

Myself, I like the EEE laptop, but want a cheap 17" 64 bit dual processer cpu, without windows on it. It would also need to have a dual head video card in it. Mostly to replace the old desktop computer. I refuse to buy any new computer with Vi$ta on it, no matter how cheap.

I beta tested Longhorn, gave up when I seen it wasn't going anywhere, and went to testing Linux distro's. Work on Windows computers, repair, mostly spyware, viruses, trojans. Very little networking.

Quote chips: Karl, if this is the case, that XP will be on the EEE next spring, then MS has already admitted that XP will still be an OEM OS next spring ....

Wow! That's an important thought!

Joe,
I believe that MS intends a customized version of XP for the ASUS EEE. Chips asks a scary question. How long will they support it? Think you might get a response to that from MS?

n0neXn0ne : Nice one :)
... but it depends if Joe is around when you post or not. Sometimes my posts with URLs come out a day or so latter. For explanation, see Joe's post at: http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/desktop_mobile/one_year_and_600_posts_later.html

Quote from referenced post, "There is no censorship at Microsoft Watch. However, the blogging system automatically puts posts with one URL into a holding queue; any comment with two or more links goes into a Junk folder...."

Its nice to see MS Vista get the reconigition it deserves:

Vista makes the top ten worst products in history list by CNet.

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49293700-10,00.htm

Quotes from the link: "Any operating system that provokes a campaign for its predecessor's reintroduction deserves to be classed as terrible technology. Any operating system that quietly has a downgrade-to- previous-edition option introduced for PC makers deserves to be classed as terrible technology. Any operating system that takes six years of development but is instantly hated by hordes of PC professionals and enthusiasts deserves to be classed as terrible technology.

Windows Vista conforms to all of the above. Its incompatibility with hardware, its obsessive requirement of human interaction to clear security dialogue box warnings and its abusive use of hated DRM, not to mention its general pointlessness as an upgrade, are just some examples of why this expensive operating system earns the final place in our terrible tech list."
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I repeat, TRAIN WRECK.

The adoption numbers, which are low, remind of Windows 2000.
Bear in mind that Windows 2000 was not marketed as a replacement for Win98SE and it's predecessors. It was only marketed as a business/enterprise solution.

Joe;

Excellent article, loved it and congrats on the promotion on the official banner on the main page by the way. I have been evaluating and using Vista Ultimate for some time, and have been inputting my two-cents worth. Over time, getting used to the system and reading up all that I can primarily from third party books, and one by Microsoft, I can safely say, with the good and bad, I grabbed the CD Installation disk of XP Professional with SP2 and melted the main had drive down the the ground.

I've been evaluating and using Vista for a year now, and after installing the latest patches and drivers for my sweet high end system, I can say my machine is twice as fast as applications such as Photoshop CS3, Dreamweaver CS3, and Media Player 11.0 all going the same time (as usual) on my dual displays. I also noticed so many changes (former annoyances) like my color and HD settings don't get lost on any reboots and this could of been a glitch with the nVidia software for Vista Me.

I also like the fact that I have (much) more control of my machine rather than spending time researching and disabling the Vista annoyances. On my machine in XP and using the same software minus the Vista "Me" Ultimate, the system memory is about 28% versus the 48% (4 gigs) of Vista sucking it up, dribble, dribble...

It's not all Vista's problem, one could say that it rests with third party apps and drivers. This in some (fair) degree is true. My latest build of XP Professional that I dubbed as "The Titanium" build just simply out performs anything that I tried in Vista, and I tried Vista for a year.

I love the idea, I can run my third (non microsoft) products and yes, Vista has its own automatic shedualed disk defragger, but really it pales in comparision to DiskPro, and that stinking Vista backup doesn't hold a candle to Backup Genie 8.0 with Disaster recovery -- Paalleesssee!!!

I wish that Microsoft, in the OS itself would only create a clean operating system that is independant and free from MS wanna-be crapware such as I hinted, and of course, no browser built-in.

Hey Microsoft, why don't you just concentrate on a OS without the BS -- Oh wait, you did, it was called Windows 2000 Professional.

If we can get a "New" operating system that refrained from so much MS control and allowed users to have far more control over their computing needs like you did with W2K without that GPU taxed eye-candy crap, that would be wonderful.

How about a clean fresh user-friendly orientated look without the Fischer-Price crap. I use the Zune Theme on my PC's and love that look, but it's a tweak I fancied.

I saved not only memory, but miles and miles of disk space and CPU cycles. Man, if Windows 2000 had Cleartype -- Which those devil-pricks at MS don't back-port I would of gladly stayed with W2K SP6. All my new stuff works great on that, well except for Office 2007 -- Shucks, so having said this, I am sticking with my old friend, XP Pro until the bitter end.

I put the Vista Ultimate DVD back in its fancy case and sits right next to the Microsoft Me box I bought (seems) so long ago.