It’s official. Bill Veghte, Microsoft’s senior VP for Windows business, told an audience of the Microsoft faithful at TechEd that Windows users should not switch to Vista. Veghte said, “If you’re just starting your testing of Vista, with the [Windows 7] Release Candidate and the quality of that offering, I would switch over and do your testing on the [Windows 7] Release Candidate, and use that going forward.”

In short, Microsoft is finally telling you what I’ve been telling you all along: Vista is junk.

Microsoft has actually been doing this for over a year now. First, in April 2008, Ballmer described Vista as a “work-in-progress.” Then, he said users should skip Vista in favor of Windows 7 in October (http://blogs.computerworld.com/ballmer_says_skip_vista).

How many times must Microsoft tell its knee-jerk fan club that Vista was a mistake before they get it.

Now, Microsoft wants you to switch to Windows 7. Except, what a surprise, after the Vista fiasco, cash-strapped companies aren’t eager to try Windows 7 either. Instead, they’re sticking with XP.

Could it be that one reason why desktop Linux is finally grabbing some market share is that, discouraged by Microsoft’s ‘upgrade’ paths and prices, users are finally willing to give alternatives a try? One can only hope.