Windows Vista = Over 180 million licenses sold

First, congrats to Microsoft. Despite all the ignorant tech bloggers, pundits, and bad press, this clearly shows that Vista is still the OS of choice. Despite the switcher commericals, despite the improvements of Ubuntu and other Linux variants, Vista still outpaces Leopard and Ubuntu by a large margin. In the era of internet availability and 24/7 news, nobody can say they don't have a choice. Considering how much crap we get from people in here that Vista "sucks", Microsoft and Vista owners have the right to flaunt this. 180,000,000 consumer users and counting cannot be ignored. This clearly shows a pace of 20,000,000 users per month. The question I have is when will Vista quit being percieved as a failure? 200,000,000? 220,000,000? 300,000,000? When? My answer is "Vista was never a failure. Only in those minds who couldn't be objective, was it a failure." Only to those who are ignorant of Windows OS history, those with an agenda to insult Microsoft and dissuade users is Vista a failure. Now I can see if Vista was falling well under XP's numbers, that you could label the OS that. However, I believe Microsoft addressed Vista to fix the security issues that plagued XP. It was done and the ignorant complained. People are never happy, even if you giftwrap something. If you follow any Microsoft OS, this is the pattern. A.) Microsoft releases new OS. Everyone unprepared is caught with their pants down. PC Manufacturers, device manufacturers, and developers complain. B.) Microsoft patches and improves new OS. PC Manufacturers technology and experiences improve. Device Manufacturers finally get around to writing proper device drivers and firmware. Developers finally get around to new OS. C.) Windows sells millions more than the competition. Becomes the number one OS on the planet. D.) Microsoft prepares next Windows. Developers and manufacturers fail to adequitely plan and beta test. Cycle repeats. Its clear that Apple is gaining ground. However, as I said in a previous comment, the OSes each appeal to a different segment. I believe the older, more pragmantic, less wealthy, business oriented, and others prefer Windows. Being that its so ubiquitous in its ecosystem, it would make logical sense from a compatability standpoint. I'm sure many of the Mac and Linux would disagree, but the consumer has said otherwise for 15 going on 16 years. The old adage that the "Customer is always right," still applies.

@robertc "There is nothing idiotic about Paul's criticism's of the so-called "iCabal". They are perfectly legitimate. There is an obvious and sinister pro-Apple bias throughout much of the media" Sinister? Wow, Bourne Identity almost! I'd be interested in some examples of this vast Mac-wing conspiracy! I'll agree the tech press is pretty bad. Enderle. Dvorak. I'll also agree that they are a bunch of lemmings and that when one of them starts saying something they all go "Me too!" However, "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." So, stupidity for sure, but not conspiracy. FWIW, back in 1997, in the days of "beleaguered Apple computer", the tech press could never say a nice thing about Apple. I agree there is some similarity now with Microsoft. What other company can make $60B, ship 200M copies of Vista and be written up as irrelevant? All this said, Paul's recent ravings sound very much like he doth protest too much. Ranting about ranting is, in the end, just more ranting.