[CoffeeShark]

i like Dvorak, cause he's a grumpy old man, and distributes his hate evenly to everyone.

1. overpriced. of course it was. of course, 90% of people won't buy Vista off the shelf, or they'll buy OEM.

2. release delay. normal crap for any software, including Leopard. you can't release it if there are major bugs (major, not billions of minor ones).

3. too many versions. absolutely. one version with everything in it would be fine. or, at most, one ultimate home and one ultimate business.

4. Scuttle Vista. ridiculous suggestion. and they have already started with a new reduced core for Windows7, so his suggestions are pretty dumb in this area.

I still only have one copy of Vista Home Premium, and I won't be buying another until/maybe Vista gets a good service pack (the first one is okay, but not enough).

Let me tell you what Microsoft SHOULD do:

1. Enable a gaming/quick mode on the OS. This has been done by 3rd party coders, so I think MS could do it. Either a one-button touch, or a boot-up option.

2. Updates. Get the team to release major updates every 30 days after release, and make it very obvious what is fixed (pop-ups, emails, messages) and how it benefits the user. Being vague doesn't help. If shit is broke and you fixed it, say it. If you improved something, say it.

3. Do away with the marketing-speak. "WOW"? idiots. Advertising is about value, not cavemen or lizards. A simple commercial showing the product and why you should upgrade. Hell, maybe if the product team STARTED with this value-based concept...

4. Embrace the community. Get developers involved with things like gadgets and lots of downloadable content. People love lots of unique things, not 10 of the same things. Developers love seeing their programs on other computers and seeing their download counter increase. They've done a little more of this with Home Server, but not enough.

5. sell a Microsoft computer package. i know this goes against their vendor agreements, but with the next OS release, sell a package of computer/laptop, printer, and other peripherals guaranteed to work, like Apple can do. Use some sweet ass hardware, and sell it for a sweet price, so the vendors can undersell it easily. You saw how little vendors cared to write drivers for Vista, which was available to them in plenty of time before its release. and yes, MS sells hardware, it's called an Xbox, so I don't want to hear that argument.

7. Hire me at $420k per year as a consultant.