Summary: Vista 7 delays, Windows lawsuits over WGA, and Windows Mobile difficulties

AS the release of Vista 7 is approached, Vista gets thrown into a basket somewhere. In the past week, there have been 0 mentions of "Vista" in news headlines which we found, in comparison to 20 with "Windows 7" in the headline. But to make things a little uncertain, Vista 7 preinstallation kits are now being delayed, which reinforces the suspicion that Vista 7 -- just like Vista -- is released prematurely.

Microsoft has delayed the release of Windows 7 OEM Preinstallation Kits (OPKs) to system builders and has not given a specific date.

The FSF's campaign about Vista 7, which we wrote about in [1, 2, 3, 4], ought to have emphasised some of the technical failures of Vista 7, of which there are many. Instead, the FSF chose to concentrate on ethical issues, or "Sins". It is a reasonable decision because criticism is then morality-driven rather than what some would call "FUD". It addresses people's consciousness rather than instilling fear and uncertainty,

Speaking of the ethical consequences of using Windows, here is a timely report about Microsoft getting sued over WGA, just as it was sued repeatedly for China's black screens of death.

A case started in a Washington district court suing Microsoft over its Windows XP Genuine Advantage program.

The class action alleges that the WGA was dramatically expanded in April 2006 and altered the means which the program delivered, "violating the law".

One area where Windows seems to suffer the most at the moment is mobile phones. Here is an explanation of the obstacles Microsoft is facing. Linux is among them.

Windows Mobile doesn't lend itself to seat-of-the-pants development of user-facing apps the way that iPhone, HTML 5, and Flash Lite do. With iPhone, Android, webOS, and Flash Lite, developers can park themselves in front of an integrated development environment with nothing but a good (by someone's standards) idea and let things grow from there. What starts out as a UI prototype can end up evolving, through short steps, into a rich, finished application. Where that spark of inspiration flourishes best and most readily manifests as working code, the greatest number and diversity of mobile apps is found.

With marketing subsided, Windows is really not doing well. ⬆