To Delay or Not To Delay Windows Vista

Robert McLaws over at LonghornBlogs.com has an interesting post titled Vista Needs More Time: The Entry I Didn't Want To Write. Which talks about how Vista needs to be delayed just a few more weeks to make it right for launch.

This is an interesting problem in most kinds of development because the product is already delayed, but there is call for a further delay. The problem with a decision to delay it further is that some projects never get launched because there is always something that could be done better with a bit more development time. One of the first things anybody should realise is that the most important feature of any commercial project, is that it must ship. So the choice to delay by even just a few weeks will be a difficult one to make. As in Vista's case there are probably other companies that are going to suffer further because further delays. It is not uncommon for some to go under because of such things.

Microsoft has a reputation of releasing new versions of it's OS unfinished. This always plagues early adopters and the reputation of the OS throughout it's life. I am not sure wither first impressions are the most lasting impressions, but certainly a good out-of-the-box experience helps all products. So in my view Vista is already late so they might as well make it worth waiting for. It's like being late to an important interview. You can either be five minuets late and be unprepared, or be twenty minuets late and have all your shit together. You are already noted as being late so wither that is ten minuets or half an hour might not make that much of a difference.