---
title: "Early thoughts on Microsoft Vista"
url: https://campbell-online.com/blog/2006/06/11/early-thoughts-on-microsoft-vista/
description: "I have a spare laptop of recent vintage around the house, and had some time on my hands this weekend–Carrie was working; I, uncharacteristically was not–so I downloaded."
published: 2006-06-11
updated: 2006-06-11
---

# Early thoughts on Microsoft Vista

Published 2006-06-11

June 11, 2006 · [Knowledge work](https://campbell-online.com/blog/category/knowledge-work/) · [Tools and techniques](https://campbell-online.com/blog/category/tools-and-techniques/)

I have a spare laptop of recent vintage around the house, and had some time on my hands this weekend–Carrie was working; I, uncharacteristically was not–so I downloaded and installed the [public beta](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx) of the much-delayed and rescoped “[Longhorn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_vista),” the operating system that Microsoft is now calling [Windows Vista](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx).

I’ve also installed the [public betas of the Office 2007 applications](http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/getthebeta.mspx) (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) plus Visio and Project.

My initial thoughts on Vista are all stock market-related.

- If you own Microsoft stock, strongly consider selling it now.
- If you don’t own Microsoft stock, but have a margin account with your broker, strongly consider shorting (at least) a few hundred shares of it before the public release of this abortion (currently slated for November 2006 for business editions, and January 2007 for consumer editions.)
- Go long on Apple. Their new Intel Core Duo-based machines, which can run both OS X and Windows, are perfectly positioned to take advantage of Microsoft’s impending stumble.

I am currently evaluating Ubuntu Linux as a potential desktop OS alternative, and am very happy (to say the least) with its performance, but in all honesty, if I go with a Unix-like OS in the near future, it’s going to be Apple OS X.

My thoughts on the new Office applications are soon to follow. One item of note: Microsoft Word 2007 supports a number of common blogging platforms natively.

Related:

- [PC Magazine, Inside Windows Vista Build 5308](http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1930231,00.asp)
- [Ubuntu Linux](http://www.ubuntu.com/)
- [Apple Mac OS X](http://www.apple.com/macosx/)

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