[mrcarruthers]

Vista was a necessary evil on Microsoft's end. While yes some things weren't great (Aero), the main issue was always drivers.

Microsoft had to switch the ways drivers work for some very necessary security reasons. This led to many hardware manufacturers just not making new drivers or slapping together the shitiest thing and hoping it worked. Took a few years but eventually everyone had new hardware (with decent compatible drivers), at which point 7 came out which is basically Vista with a new skin.

Hell, at the end its life an up to date Vista was actually pretty decent.

[wlesieutre]

Their other issue was giving in to Intel on lowering the requirements of a "Windows Vista Capable" sticker, so a lot people were buying hardware for Vista that really shouldn't have been recommended, especially at the start of Vista's era.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2008/03/the-vista-capable-de...

[pjmlp]

Also the start of COM everywhere, after WinDev managed to win over DevDiv regarding Longhorn.

So instead of having everyone working together to make an OS where managed stacks take the main role, as Google has managed to push no matter what, regarding Android and ChromeOS, we got Longhorn's demise and its ideas being redone in COM and C++, WinDev darlings.