"Bowing to continued demand, Microsoft has again extended the life of Windows XP... Three months after Microsoft stopped selling new copies of Windows XP, the software remains a top seller on Amazon.com."
Here are some more details on how and why even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer thinks some businesses might skip Vista and wait until Windows7 is released.

This may prove to be the future of a lot of leisure-time on the net. The idea of micro-payments isn't new, but successful applications have been few and far between.
Here is the article going into a lot more detail on the latest.

This fellow got totally fed up with Microsoft on his office desktop about a year ago. He has documented his experience in switching over to all Open Source.
"This whole "Microsoft free" experiment started when a colleague of mine challenged me to eat my own dog food after reading many of my posts about my dabbling with open source technologies. The next day, after a few blue screens of death and various issues with Outlook, I grabbed a Ubuntu CD and installed it on my laptop..."
You can read the whole thing with links on this link.
Just in case you don't know, I've been using Kubuntu Linux for more than two years. In my case, I very rarely run Punch Home Design and TaxCut under WINE. All the rest of my work is done using Open Source programs.

I'm giving serious thought to killing off all the current files and replacing Nucleous with Wordpress. If there are any links that you might like to save, better copy and bookmark on your own systems.
This major change will probably take place in a month or so.

Microsoft has given the Yahoo board of directors three weeks to respond to their buy-out offer.
"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company would take its case directly to Yahoo's shareholders if Yahoo's directors did not respond by 26 April."
They had originally offered 64% over market value but the Yahoo board rejected it as not being enough.
Is it just me, or is this idea downright frightening?

In this article from InfoWeek, Penn State University is advising students NOT to update to Vista Service Pack 1.

Computer World is reporting many users are posting problems to Microsoft's own blog because of SP1 device driver issues.

CIO Magazine is asking users if they think Microsoft should abandon Vista before they get in any deeper.

This fellow has been working with XP and Vista for some time now.

"While this debate continues, the related question has now arisen of whether even some PCs pre-installed with Vista are capable of running it adequately. Based on my own experience, this is a very pertinent question to ask..."
The rest of the article can be read here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/12/freeformdynamics_vista_downgrade/

Microsoft doesn't appear to be apologetic about the fact that their latest service pack breaks a lot of existing applications.
This CNN article provides a bit more information.
Here's a partial list of the programs that won't work properly if you install SP1.

Here is a wonderful, high resolution world map with the country extensions marked. I didn't realize that .BS indicates a website in the Bahamas.

It seems that even if you have automatic updates turned off, Microsoft is still going to install new software on your system, without notice and without your permission. Am I the only one that considers this just one more reason to stop using anything from this company? The details can be found in this article.

Just as we suspected, the new Microsoft Vista is collecting a great deal of information about you and sharing it with the Borg at Microsoft. There are 20 programs in Vista that collect and share your data.

Here's a pretty good article on switching from Windows to Ubuntu Linux. It pretty much mirrors my experiences, last year, of setting up my Kubuntu systems. Just to avoid confusion, Kubuntu and Ubuntu are versions of Linux that are optimized for Desktop users. The primary difference between them is that Kubuntu uses the KDE GUI and Ubuntu uses the Gnome GUI.

The latest release of Ubuntu / Kubuntu, Fiesty Fawn has been released. This is a really nice desktop system for anyone that is fed up with Microsoft and the Windows monopoly. Check out this review for details:
http://lunapark6.com/ubuntu-704-feisty-fawn.html

Here's a Washington Post column on some of the problems that have been reported with Vista.

Here's an interesting examination of the Windows Vista End User License Agreement.