Microsoft released RC to their latest effort in polishing Vista, Service Pack 2. Many doubt whether SP2 is a waste of time and energy considering Windows 7 is at the dawn.

But the fact is SP2 is not a waste, and Vista was never a failure, except for those ignorant public.

Releasing a service pack for an old and mostly unwelcomed OS at the dawn of a much better greeted new one means, for Microsoft, they cannot expect too much warm receptions in return, though they truly worked hard to improve the quality for the old unlucky boy, Windows Vista.

For another time, Windows Vista is a great OS, just as great as Windows 7 would be. The only problem that so many people had could all be attributed to the change in business environment nowadays. Windows Vista might be puffy and there exist some kind-hearted annoyance, UAC for sure, but those are not real problems when users learnt about how to adapt or shut down these features.

Striped down to the essence, business world had changed, and not any company, even big and powerful as Microsoft could not get things done alone. They might have readied a great brand new OS back in 2006, but their hardware partners were not that ready. Efforts of the whole market to cope with the radiant changes in Vista were not ready. And reviewing bloggers were not thinking in a good blessing way, who served as the last straw that pulled Vista down.

Actually I believe for Microsoft, Vista’s failure in public is a good thing. For a company big as Microsoft, such failure is always expected and could not easily avoided in a changing time. Microsoft quickly learnt their lessons and changed in a prompt way to be smarter and more committed to market, about which you can find much evidence in the marketing of Windows 7 up till now.

The well welcome received by Windows 7 is largely due to its precedence, Windows Vista. Maybe the world has to take some time before they could adapt to the new time, Vista being the time they need to take. Windows 6.0, or Vista, is a good buffer cache for the world. Now with three years passed, industry finally worked closely with Microsoft to adapt, and the world is ready to embrace the changes, the fate of Windows 6.1, or Windows 7, is set to be one great.

When we WOW for all those refreshes and greatness of the released Windows 7 in the near future, please do not forget where do these WOW truly come from.

The learnt lessons would eventually become sources of success for Microsoft, which are just pending to perform when the economic tide tunes fine again.

Best wishes to Microsoft, and a kiss to Windows Vista, not for farewell of course, but for award it deserves.