Numerous governments throughout the world have abandoned Windows in favor of UBUNTU or some other free, out-of-the-box-functional distribution of LINUX. The key has been the fact that there are MSOFFICE-compatible file processing tools with a look and feel similar enought to MSOffice tools, e.g, EXCEL and WORD, that they can exchange files with other agencies that use Windows or don't without the incompatibility issues that once troubled everyone when these tools were new, back in the late '80's. Now that they can use LINUX, which is quite transparent to computer scientists, unlike the totally undocumented and relatively unsupported Windows, they don't feel that they've been "painted into a corner" with a sole-sourced product.

The reason M$ has released Vista now, is because they want the money in order to hit their Wall-Street targets. Once they start slipping in that area, it will become apparent to everyone which way they're headed.

I've said it before, M$ is leaving the computer-using public twisting in the wind in favor of a game box market that's still growing at a tremendous rate. Once they see themselves succeeding in that area, I'd guess the Windows project will come to an end.

RE