Courtesy of OSWeekly.com

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It’s been nice to stay informed about Vista by reading the blogs of Windows evangelists and others who have used the OS. The good news is that there have apparently been some measurable performance and stability improvements in the most recent builds, but the same old stories of UI inconsistencies and the lack of any real innovation continue to abound. When you hear established Windows fans in the community talk about switching to OS X, then you know something’s up.

The situation isn’t helped by the fact that Brian Valentine (who was a Microsoft executive that led Vista’s development, and was integral in the final stages of development on products such as Windows 2000) has left the company to take a position at Amazon. The timing of his departure is curious, but then again, maybe he felt like his job on Vista was done, and he therefore thought it was time to move on to greener pastures. Regardless, I’m sure the Vista team will miss his experience and leadership in the final hours of Vista’s development. He worked with them for so long, and then to vanish right before the realization of all of that work was completed must have surprised some people.

When I check the Vista news each day, I sometimes have a hard time believing that any more negativity could possibly be hurled at Vista, but sure enough, more Windows users continue to speak out against it. Keep in mind that this strong reaction has been based solely on a somewhat limited release - just imagine what might happen once Vista sees massive public exposure. Casual computer users probably won’t be bothered by many of the things that the hardcore techies have made an issue of, but it sure will be interesting to see how they react.

I want Vista to be a better OS than it’s been promoted to be, but at the same time, I also want OS X to finally receive the public adoption that it deserves. Now is the time for Apple to creatively promote its Macintosh platform with OS X. This is the critical hour, and if Apple is able to take advantage of the uneasy feeling that many have towards Vista, then they could attract an untold amount of new users.

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