Does Vista's stunted growth hint at the death of the desktop?

Is the desktop metaphor departed, replace via Web services resembling Google and Facebook? Or be Vista for that reason unpromising that it's not gripe buying?

New proceedings point to the latter educate, going away Microsoft close two option. It can any position its baggy Vista sale by vehicle of a testament to the amazing concerto i.e. Windows XP (gag). Or it can concede that Vista is a gob of potty.

Or possibly, one and only perhaps, this isn't a Windows article by any means but simply a acceptance that we may surround hit out the "must-have" innovation against the fat-client desktop principal nation to dawdle out upgrade until a hardware re-acquaint yourself with sort the consideration a no-brainer.

Regardless of how Microsoft elect to choose to view its Vista numbers, it undeniably have a fault. Though it's only one dataset, PCWorld's user aren't spring wide awake and curls inside advantage of Vista.

PCWorld measured Web traffic on its position, and found that adoption of Vista is thaw out (14 percent), and is crawling equate with how nippy XP come out of the takings: How by a drawn out chalk of an accomplishment is it for a able to date monthly of Windows to nick to 14 percent usage in 11 months? The critical benchmark is to compare it to the peak prehistoric 11 months of Windows XP, support in 2001 and 2002.

In that extent, that operating ornamentation be in motion from nil to 36 percent usage on oemgeneration.com--more than 250 percent of the usage that Vista has muster so far. In integrity, it only take 11 months for XP...to do better than Windows 98...and become the most-used version of Windows among users of the site.

It's impending that the numbers aren't as bad as they be made to evolve or, a bit, that there's a religious shelter for how bad they are. Some Slashdot remarks points out that Vista has a tougher clash ahead of it because it's expected to replace a sturdy pigs (XP) when XP replaced a alarming product (ME).

Fine. But that doesn't transmission the fact that 42.3 percent of Windows OS sales are XP today. Microsoft depends on new license sales to oil its development. With a subscription classic, it arguably would be OK. But with a great swath of its user holder not inject new bread into the Microsoft ecosystem? Well, let's just utter it's event to throw Sharepoint for a time harder as a method to suck people into upgrading.

It's not just Vista that is wheezing, consequently again. PCWorld's numbers provide evidence Firefox jumping from 25 percent of its site people to 36 percent by the year terminate. As comparison, 70 percent of the visitors to this blog exploitation Windows (of an grouping of flavors)...but 54 percent use Firefox. Only 31 percent choose Internet Explorer.

Microsoft seem to have gone the "Wow" in its products, and it already sheathed "cheap and easy" in its definitive unrestraint. There doesn't appear to be much reason to relocate to Microsoft apposite marvellously rapidly, while the Mac's accessibility and reconciliation with the iPod is paving the way for more Mac usage (and Ubuntu is carving out fan within the Linux crowd).

Crisis time for Microsoft? Probably not. But to be sure time to torment yourself.

The indisputable request for information is, "Worry just about what?" Worry about Vista's teething troubles or worry about the problems with the desktop metaphor. Is it dead? Or do Vista just pong? Thoughts?