Well, we know one thing about the next, post-Vista, desktop Windows. It's code named Windows 7 now, not Vienna, and Microsoft is taking another round of blood oaths about it not taking five years to see market although it already looks like it's been pushed back.

Microsoft says it's "scoping Windows development to a three-year time frame and then the specific release date will ultimately be determined by meeting the quality bar."

Three years, of course, would be 2010 and Microsoft previously suggested it would be 2009. Anyway, the company has started talking about it with folks like its US sales force and its antsy Software Assurance customers, some of whom are bent out of shape over Microsoft's repeatedly delayed delivery of Vista. Microsoft needs their money so it has to make sure they don't jump ship as some have.