Acer CEO Lanci: Windows Vista Is 'Almost Done'

But on Friday at Acer's Global Press Conference 2008 event, Lanci took a more conciliatory tone when a reporter asked for his opinion of why Vista has become one of the IT industry's favorite punching bags.

"I think Vista, when it was introduced, wasn't 100 percent ready, and wasn't very stable. It was a pain point from our point of view. But now, Vista is quite stable -- it's almost done," said Lanci.

Lanci's comment echoes the prevailing wisdom -- amongst vendors, at least -- that Vista has reached the point where it's feasible for companies of all sizes to deploy, despite lingering negative perceptions that still circle around the OS like a pack of vultures.

But Andy Kretzer, director of sales and marketing at Bold Data Technology, a Fremont, Calif.-based system builder, says when it comes to operating system readiness, half-measures simply aren't acceptable.

"When I buy a meal at a restaurant and it comes out 'almost done' I send it back. If it happens again, I stop going to that restaurant," said Kretzer. "Software companies -- and Microsoft in particular -- have been getting away with this for far too long."

Mark Crall, president of Charlotte Tech Care Team, a Microsoft partner in Charlotte, N.C., says the problem isn't so much that Vista was released too early, but that the industry wasn't ready for it, from the standpoint of updating hardware drivers.

"Both users and hardware manufacturers were comfortable and content with XP SP2. Without pre-release demand by users, I doubt the manufacturers had much motivation to invest in preparing updated drivers for hardware compatibility, [which was] the number one frustration for users after any new operating system launch," Crall said.

Daniel Duffy, CEO of Valley Network Solutions, a Microsoft Gold partner in Fresno, Calif., agrees that Vista shouldn't have shipped until the issues that SP1 fixed had been addressed.

But a bigger issue, in Duffy's view, is Vista's inability to conduct searches on non-indexed files.

"For non-technical users, it may seem impossible to accomplish a simple file search. And for experienced users, it's simply a pain to use since you have to wait for the search to 'fail,' then bring up the advanced search and select non-indexed items," Duffy said.

Added Duffy: "Something as crucial as file search, and as highly hyped as this new functionality, should work on day one, without any extra effort."