The Buzz: Vista Delayed, Again

Microsoft delivered some not-so-shocking news Tuesday: there will be no Vista until 2007. While many had expected this, the company had been steadfast in its assurance that the next generation operating system would ship this year, even up until days before the announcement.

Here's what pundits and bloggers alike had to say about Vista's seemingly neverending delays. What do you think?

"Today, I wonder if Vista will ever ship. I don't mean a product called Vista. That's a near certainty that sometime in 2007 something called Vista will come out of Microsoft. But it's certainly not going to be the product that Microsoft described years ago when it was called Longhorn. Key features have been removed and the product has still slipped several times."
- Michael Gartenberg, Jupiter Research

"This could really put the chill on the PC industry, which has been counting on a Vista driven upgrade cycle. They say that the corporate version of the OS will ship on time. I wonder if that really means anything, given that corporate buyers are notoriously slow upgraders. What I find highly amusing, as pointed out by Paul Kedrosky, that a week ago Steve Ballmer was claiming Vista 2H 2006. What happened?"
- Om Malik, Business 2.0

"Microsoft has delayed the shipment of Windows Vista to consumers until after the holiday shopping season. It's a smart move, given the products' importance and longevity - but disappointing and harmful to PC manufacturers, Intel, and retailers expecting a Q4 lift in PC sales. However, Intel gets an unexpected bonus: the opportunity to make Viiv the digital home brand that matters in 2006."
- Paul Jackson and Ted Schadler, Forrester Research

"I can't imagine why any PC manufacturer wouldn't want to have Windows Vista systems to sell for the holidays. For if nothing else, they lose the benefit of massive Windows marketing, let alone a brand, new operating system to dress up PCs."
- Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Monitor

"I've learned that dates in the software industry are likely to slip and I'm glad that our management is still paying more attention to product quality and customer and partner feedback than trying to meet some date. Yes, it's painful. Yes, it's embarrassing. But we have been through product slips before and I'd rather have a slipped date than a cruddy product."
- Robert Scoble

"It certainly sounded like Microsoft leadership committed to us, our customers, our partners, and our shareholders that Vista would be out in 2006. Slip! We should have asked for more details around the "or else" part of that commitment. People need to be fired and moved out of Microsoft today. Where's the freakin' accountability?"
- Mini-Microsoft, Web log of an anonymous Microsoft employee