When Microsoft sold out to the MPAA, RIAA and similar alphabet soups, it seems to have thought that it could stick the resulting DRM-heavy software to users without regard to its quality and usability. But Vista was so unusable that even Microsoft’s marketing power couldn’t make it stick. As a result, Microsoft may have fatally wounded itself. Users have chosen to continue to buy Windows XP, and in doing so empowered themselves to resist Microsoft’s aura of inevitability.

What’s really important about this is not so much that Vista is manifestly such a dog, but that the myth of upgrade inevitability has been destroyed. Companies have realised that they do have a choice – that they can simply say “no”. From there, it’s but a small step to realising that they can also walk away from Windows completely, provided the alternatives offer sufficient data compatibility to make that move realistic.