We're mad as Dell and not gonna take Vista anymore...

My daddy didn't raise any fools and I am an only child. He said, "Boy, watch which way the money flows. Where it comes from and where it goes." Truer words were never spoken.

That is the very reason I read the Wall Street Journal if I can find one that isn't three days old or been used for wrapping fish. Say for example Joe Average invents a wonderous new technology for storing petabytes of data on the head of a pin. Long before you or I have a chance to see it the WSJ will report on whether Joe's idea will be funded for production. If it isn't then no matter how important the invention the technology will not flourish. (Disclaimer: I am sure that there have been exceptions to this premise. Please leave comments detailing them.)

If the WSJ is a good bellwether for new technology then CRN is the compass of existing technology. CRN are the folks who make a point of watching which way the money is going among the people who are in the existing technology business. Value-Added-Resellers, Technology Integrators, IT Consultants, and Solution Providers are all in the 'channel'. This channel is where the money flows.

All of that leads me to...

VARs Ripping And Replacing Vista For XP At Breakneck Pace

By Edward F. Moltzen, Steven Burke, CRN
6:01 PM EDT Fri. Jul. 06, 2007

Dell Computer isn't the only one warning clients of the pitfalls of moving to Microsoft's Vista operating system.

System builders and VARs, however, aren't just talking about it. They are are ripping the much ballyhooed operating system off desktops and notebooks at a breakneck pace because of the problems that come with moving clients to Vista.

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"We are ripping it off systems 99 percent of the time," said Jay Tipton, vice president of Technology Specialists, a Fort Wayne, Ind., Microsoft Gold partner.

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Technology Specialists won't even run the operating system internally on any of its production systems because Tipton does not want his technicians taking time out of their day to "debug Vista." The earliest Tipton sees that ripping and replacing ending is when Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 for Vista. "Hopefully at that time Microsoft will fix all the little gotchas that make the older software not work," said Tipton.

Glen Coffield, president of Smart Guys Computers, an Orlando, Fla.-based retail chain with six stores in central Florida, said his No. 1 service job right now is wiping Vista off sysetms and replacing it with Windows XP.

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Coffield said that the biggest hurdles facing Vista are hardware and software compatibility issues. Clients don't want to replace all their hardware and software to move to Vista, he said.

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The big question looming over the marketplace is what happens when Microsoft no longer allows big brand system makers and system builders from offering Windows XP?

"Customers won't buy PCs or they'll bootleg XP unless Microsoft does something to vendors and partners behind Vista," said Coffield. "It's not going to happen. People don't have to buy a new computer. They can get the one they have now fixed."