Admittedly, there’s some cool technology in there that would make developers’ lives easier and applications richer.
The most important effect of the disastrous Vista development cycle is that ISV buy-in with regard to their new WinFX platform is hovering just slightly above zero, a nonstop ticket to Itanium-like ROI. Why is MS devoting so many resources to these two unwinnable battles? Because they already lost the battle they should have won: the development platform. Vista’s UI will not be as nice as Mac OSX’s, and Vista security won’t hold a candle to either Mac OSX, Linux, or really any other viable desktop OS. A key difference between business and politics is that in business, you’re better off attacking your competitors at their weekest point, whereas in politics you want to attack your opponent’s strongest point.
