Windows Is So Slow, but Why? - New York Times

Thumbtwiddling at Microsoft

I'm not one to give advice, because there are very few things that I'm sure of. There's one piece of advice that I am very comfortable giving: don't get into a game of "thumb wars" with a Microsoft employee. Last week Microsoft announced that it's upcoming version of Windows, called Vista, will be delayed, and it will not be released until January 2007. Since this is not the first delay, even that date is anything but assured.

The current version of Windows, XP, came out in 2001. This means that it will be 6 years between updates. If Microsoft were a 1-man operation that would be understandable, but Microsoft has 64,000 employees. Windows is the bread-and-butter, flagship product. If these 64,000 employees can't get a new version of Windows out the door in six years, what are they doing. They must be twiddling their thumbs. They must be building up thumb muscles of Barry Bonds proportions. Therefore, it would be a suicidal act to get in a thumb war with a Microsoft programmer. Don't' say you weren't warned. Oh, ixna on the addleballpa also.

Windows Is So Slow, but Why? - New York Times