Ok, Microsoft have made it clear. Application Developers now need to go cross platform to survive. Sales of Mac & downloads of Ubuntu will continue to increase. Cloud computing will also grow. MS committed commercial suicide with Vista and they ain't turning back.

when we can't even get Vista to work properly on our own networks? MS don't fill you with hope when you buy a new machine and have to roll it to Vista just to get it on the network stably.
Woeful

If Windows 7 is really just Vista then I better get it for free.

That's easy for MS to say, but the current Wii development tools don't run at all on Vista and, for some reason, Ninty seem very reluctant to compile them for 64-bit.

*sigh*

I've been trilling Windows 7 to find a lot of my applications and hardware which wasn't recognised or supported by Vista now works under Windows 7, so something has been changed for the better with the new OS. I use a lot of development tools from 'The Game Creators' and they have provided VERY well for there customers moving from XP to develop games on Vista / Windows 7. Its a harsh money making world and we have to keep on top.

I'm sorry, I fail to see what the problem is with this.

If you are developing windows applications and aren't ensuring that they run on the "current" OS, then you need to buck your ideas up. There is no excuse for your apps not running, none at all.

Developers have a responsibility to keep up with the market, it's about time they accepted that responsibility and dealt with the problem. If they don't, then they shouldn't expect the market to come and hold their hand, while they stumble and fall behind.

I'm sick and tired of lazy assed developers like Adobe, who hack their applications to work, instead of "targetting the platform". Flash CS3 still required "compatibility mode" to run properly and still isn't fully compatible with Aero, that's unacceptable for a product costing as much as it does.

When I was working for a mobile developer, if a new handset came out, then we spent whatever it cost to buy that handset, so we had one to ensure our software ran on it.

It's business... you spend, you learn, you adapt and you survive, it's that simple. If you are not prepared to do the first 3 options, then look forward to number 4 not happening either.

@1: I'm sorry, please tell me how the move to a shareware OS (Ubuntu) where the freeloaders expect your software for free, is a good survival option?

If that's where the lazy developers belong, then so be it, but don't expect the dedicated professionals to jump ship, just because there's some work involved. Good riddance to bad eggs I say.

The world is talking about financial reform. Well here is something I am passionate about.

Seeing as it is in well over 50% of homes and businesses worlwide It's about time Windows was seen as a uniformally agreed medium, much as TV signals, stereo sound and VHS videos are. It would offer massive benefit to society as a whole to have one clear defined path along which we develop our communicatons technology which is not subjec to the rough and tumble of the world markets.
It is time to kill off the 1950s sci-fi (progression for progression's sake) obssession that has fuelled a lot of the technical wet dreams that, when coupled with a vicious financial and corporate set up make for a very fragmented technical world that we live in.

It is time that we saw progression as being stability, so that every computer can talk to every other computer anywhere in the world. All file formats can be shared easily across al computers (memory permiting) and all peripherals, hardware and protocols are interchangable and developed around the same system.

Few people would argue that a failry radical modernisation or update of the english language, rendering 1000s of words entirely useless at a stroke would serve any practical purpose at all. Likewise I see windows as a tool for expression, similar to the english language, and it needs to be stabilised in a similar way to allow for maximum utiltisation of it's strengths as a very powerful social tool. To me it has now become a medium like books, TV or stereo music.

Under the current model the only way Microsoft can make money from windows is to force changes for changes sake. constantly fragmenting the huge base of utilities and applications that billions of us now use in our every day lives.

I would like to see certain technical products bought up by a world body so that hey can be freed from the market system and bcome the technical protocols that all of us can work around and build together to pubicly shared targets and protocols.

We have seen in the last 30 years how it has helped television companies to produce better and better screens by all using the same basic protocols of delivery. Why not allow the same thing to happen for operating systems... do we really care if Lynux is sacrificed for the greater good... do us english speakers really care that we don't hear enough welsh on our televisions... no I didn't think so.

The point is that there are many occasions where a free market simply doesnt work... and having mutliple operating systems in this day and age is now one of them. Let's try and modernise our world by losing the sci-fi fantasy with technology, it is really no different to mechanics or architecture... and no-one wants 20 different types of petrol on the market or 10 different conventions for numbering the floors of a building.

@Jon Hare: Are you honestly saying that the world should outlaw all other OSs and declare Windows Vista the only legal OS?
The computer industry already has standards for text, media, networking, etc. (Microsoft doesn't always follow them, but they're out there). Limiting ourselves to one OS wouldn't give us any advantages, only limits.

Ok, I know I'm a bit late here, but anyway...

I think this is a perfect time for developers to look to interpreted languages. I used to code exclusively in C++ (there really isn't anything you can't to in C) but since the release of Vista and subsequent release of 7, I learned Java (it's really easy if you know C++).

Java gives you the opportunity to 'write once, run anywhere (with a small amount of debugging). Also, I think the hassle of packaging the JRE with your application is less than the hassle of customizing your entire application to run on a variety of different OS's. And, Java isn't as slow as people think!

I think it's high time Sun took advantage of this situation...