How many times does BusinessWeek need to review Vista?

I think this is at least the third Vista review I have read in BusinessWeek. The reviews were generally tepid. This time, Jay Greene finds the value proposition of upgrading to Vista:

Microsoft has worked with a handful of partners that have developed digital picture frames that connect to PCs over a wireless network.

But Microsoft has made it easy for PCs to recognize the frames on a home network, so all users need to do is turn on the frame to connect with it. Then, from their PC, they can select which pictures to display on the frames scattered around the house.

There you go. Spend $800 for a new machine and upgrade to Vista Ultimate so you can beam photos to digital frames spread across your home. Brilliant.

Vista release date determined by stock market, not by market demand

Vinie Mirchandani wonders why key Microsoft partners were not ready for Vista:

I got this note from Intuit today about Quickbooks incompatibility with Vista. This is not going to make millions of small business owners too willing to move to Vista. Wonder how many other apps will be similarly affected?

Since QuickBooks 2006 and earlier versions were developed
and released before the introduction of Windows Vista,
these versions may be adversely affected when used on
a computer running Windows Vista.

My question is why both did not manage this upfront – e.g. sharing a rebate for QuickBooks 2007 for those who do plan to go to Vista in 2007. They can blame each other but Microsoft did not need this distraction and Intuit could have locked in customers for another few years. Most customers buy payroll and other products from Intuit.

Vinnie – Vista absolutely needed to be pushed before 2007, irrespective of whether Vista was ready or not (let alone their partners). The release date was pushed to assuage Wall Street grumbles as well to boost employee morale. This is a no win situation for Microsoft and, IMHO, they probably handled it the only way they could without further depressing their stock and reputation.