Is It Possible to Bypass Vista?

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Apparantly, some of the largest companies in the world are trying to do just that; sit this cycle out, so to speak.

Microsoft typically releases a new version of Windows every three years. That being the case, we're 18 months into Vista; implying we have 18 more to go. There's also been much chatter over Bill Gates making a very vague comment about Windows 7 coming out in 2009.

Ars Technica makes a very strong case why we shouldn't get too excited (dare I say, hopeful) about that.

Meantime, General Motors has said its sticking with XP for the duration, for example. Even more shocking, Intel hasn't upgraded to Vista yet and the New York Times is reporting anonymous sources within the company that they have no intention of doing so at all.

Intel, folks.

The other half of the nickname "Wintel", as in Wintel machines (what we used to call PC's at the height of the Microsoft vs. Apple rivalry, before Intel starting selling chips to Apple too).

Wintel is sort of the "Bennifer" or "TomKat" tongue-in-cheek nickname of high tech.

Intel, by the way, employs 80,000 people worldwide. That's a lot of desktops sticking to XP. In the grand scheme of things, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the number of Vista operating systems that are being deployed. But the irony that Intel hasn't made the upgrade must be pretty painful for the folks up in Redmond.

Renee Oricchio

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio