Cutting and running. A bad idea for chainsaw massacre movie villains, scissors-wielding grade school students and the occasional foreign incursion. But what about IT? At what point does further investment in a platform or technology cease to make sense? Until now, I've been advising Vista fence-sitters to wait for Windows 7. However, last week's "big reveal," in which Microsoft finally confessed that W Cutting and running. A bad idea for chainsaw massacre movie villains, scissors-wielding grade school students and the occasional foreign incursion. But what about IT? At what point does further investment in a platform or technology cease to make sense?Until now, I’ve been advising Vista fence-sitters to wait for Windows 7. However, last week’s “big reveal,” in which Microsoft finally confessed that Windows 7 will be nothing more than “Vista warmed over,” has forced me to reconsider my position. I’m now more convinced than ever that Windows is doomed – at least on the enterprise desktop. What Microsoft’s aging (in the U.S., NT is almost old enough to vote) OS needed was a heart transplant. What it got was a new name, a fresh change of clothes and an A.M.A. discharge from the ER.It’s not enough. The IT community deserves better. Microsoft’s loyal customers deserve better. The folks from Redmond owe us a fresh start; a clean break; a path to the future free from legacy baggage. Basically, they owe us a new Windows. “MinWin” was a good start. Unfortunately, Microsoft executives seem to lack the will to see it through. It’s easier to keep re-warming the same stale bits over and over again, safe in the knowledge that the Windows customer base will lap it up all the same. Monopolization has its privileges.Of course, the secret to maintaining a de facto monopoly is to not push your customer base too far. Every industry segment has its breaking point, a fact Microsoft learned the hard way with Windows Vista. With Vista, they ignored IT, choosing to instead kowtow to big media and the DRM crowd. The result was an unprecedented backlash as angry IT shops spurned Vista and drove the Save XP campaign to international attention.Now we learn that Microsoft’s one chance to get it right – to atone for its sins and perhaps salvage some modicum of respectability – is really just another PR stunt. Windows 7 will be Windows Vista “Part Deux.” Same clumsy, monolithic architecture. Same crippling legacy baggage. Whatever hope may have been sparked by the whole “MinWin” fantasy has now been officially snuffed out. If I sound frustrated it’s because I am: At Microsoft for refusing to leverage its vast technical resources to address Windows’ myriad shortcomings; and at the customer base for agreeing to take each new batch of Windows lemons and make lemonade.When will the Windows community wake up and realize how much power it has? We’ve already demonstrated what can be done when enough of us decide that, hey, we really don’t like lemonade all that much. Vista is a debacle precisely because we decided “enough is enough” – and because a viable alternative (XP) still existed. Microsoft’s response? Try to squash the “rebellion” by pulling the rug out from under us (i.e. XP’s impending expiration date) . Talk about sour grapes!That’s why I say it’s time for the Windows community to take a hard look at alternative platforms, like Linux and Mac OS X. It’s over there, on the other side of the fence, that the real innovation is occurring. By contrast, Windows – including the over-hyped version 7 – is an architectural dead end. We, as a community, need to accept this fact and move on. Software DevelopmentSmall and Medium Business