Something I wrote awhile ago about FUD, but I think it's relevant here as well. The delay tactic is just another manifestation of it, only this time it's aimed directly at their customers instead of their competition.

ALL ABOUT FUD
First, let's be clear about one thing: MicroSoft is NOT in business to make software and they never really were. They are in business to make money, and always have been. Software is just the vehicle they drive to the bank.
Now, there's nothing wrong with Capitalism - if you make a good quality product that keeps your customers happy, you will make money.
Heck, you might even make a LOT of money ~ Good for you.
This doesn't become a problem until you begin to measure your success at your bottom-line instead of your level of customer satisfaction, which is a lesson that MicroSoft should have learned around '98, even if they *were* the only OS available at the time. Unfortunately, their concern for their bottom line caused them to shift their focus from producing better software, into the frequently delusive paradigm of increasing sales through aggressive marketing and proprietary extensions. This is the easy way to make lots of money - the Tobacco industry and Crack Dealers do it all the time. This is delusive not only to MicroSoft customers, but to MicroSoft as well, since they now identify their Profit as their end product, while their OS rots away on it's death bed of failing customer support. They have no other choice than to seek additional revenue streams, but this will not be enough for them to continue with their "Business-as-Usual" attitude.
MicroSoft lovers can contend and cajole all they want, but please consider one simple fact - With little more in the way of marketing than Word-of-mouth, Linux is on the mind of almost EVERY computer user in the world - Even those who have never touched a computer before - and MicroSoft spends MILLIONS of dollars fighting against it. They are waging a campaign against a growing opposition who has an endless supply of free ammunition, and the end result is predictable.
All the FOSS community needs to do is be patient, and stand clear until the dust settles.

Randall, at work we have been speculating the exact same thing. No facts to back it up, but it sure feels that way: MS wants to give Vista SP1 some 'breathing space' because as soon as XP SP3 ships there will be a huge wave of comparisons and Vista will suffer.

This is actually hurting us as we are planning for both XP SP3 and Vista SP1 and all our vendors are saying "we won't officially support our apps on XP SP3 until it's publicly released".

Why can't Microsoft be satisfied with offering two operating systems? XP and Vista can both be for resale, but Vista will come default on new machines and continue to emphasize it. I don't see why that plan is so difficult as Microsoft makes money either way.

Microsoft outsources their help desk support anyway, so whether it's XP or Vista, who cares? It's not costing them any more.

I just don't understand corporations I guess. There's a win-win for Microsoft and customers. The only other industry I can think of that doesn't care if it's customer want to buy it's products is the RIAA, and that's not exactly working out well for them either.

Maybe if Microsoft had actually developed an OS with business value, they wouldn't be in this boat (code name "Titanic"). Instead, they give us a poor excuse for an OS, burdened with unnecessary and CPU-hogging DRM, along with some additional CPU-hogging stuff to make it look pretty (Aero, etc.). Most businesses are in the business of staying in and conducting business -- they're not in the business of performing upgrades and replacing hardware just because Microsoft needs something new to feed the cash cow.

www.mepis.org

Good call! I've been running Simply MEPIS for a few years now, and I can't understand why it's not at *least* as popular as Ubuntu. Don't get me wrong, Ubuntu is a good distro, but it isn't the *only* newbie friendly one out there - Far from it. There's dozens of distros designed especially for people who have no experience with Linux, and nearly all of them can be run live to try them out before committing to installing them.
People looking for an alternative to Windows shouldn't stop with Ubuntu just because it's getting all the attention from the media. It's just the tip of the Linux iceberg!