Past Was Guide for Changes to Windows Development

At the time, it was clear Vista was not going to be the great success Microsoft had predicted, as many of the company's critical business customers were beginning to reveal they would wait for the next release of Microsoft's client OS instead of upgrading corporate desktops to Vista.

Among questions posed to Microsoft that day were how the company could have gotten Vista so wrong after five-plus years of development, and how much longer Microsoft could justify putting out major software releases that needed substantial bug fixes before they were fit for enterprise deployment.

It has long been the mantra among IT professionals not to "go out and buy that first release" of Windows, but "wait until the service pack comes out because there are so many bugs and issues," said longtime Microsoft partner and customer Scott Noles, director of technology and education at Microsoft customer Kinex Medical, a medical rehabilitation center in Waukesha, Wisconsin.