TechTarget asked me to pen an anti-anti-Vista analysis based on my recent Give Vista a Chance campaign. With this piece I'm presenting the why-you-should-stop-listening-to-the-pundits-and-just-install-it side of the argument. Another author will soon present the counter-point.

In that piece, I continue my argument why I believe in the long run it will be problematic for an IT environment to continue the anti-Vista drumbeat:

First and foremost, much of the blame is misplaced for Vista's initial driver and application compatibility problems. Vista is Microsoft's first desktop operating system fully developed under the guidelines of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Initiative, a focus that reprioritized security above virtually all else in Microsoft's software development processes. If you've hated the monthly patch cycle or have been hit hard by some security vulnerability in the past, the fruits of this focus over the long haul will help you sleep better at night.

But the real problem is with those conflicts themselves. Until the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft's operating systems were unlike virtually every other modern OS in that they allowed access by drivers and applications directly into "Ring 0," also known as the kernel itself. With this access, any application or driver could easily leverage the full power and resources of the core of Windows itself.

This direct access was a boon for compatibility and is arguably a big source of Microsoft's widespread OS adoption. But it simultaneously is the source of huge operating system vulnerabilities, crashes and instabilities. With Vista, Microsoft made the long-range decision to eliminate direct access and align Vista's security model with those of the other major operating systems. The good news is that there is better security, less chance that an application can crash a machine and a more stable operating system. The bad news? Many applications and virtually every driver ever written needed a rewrite.

So with Vista, Microsoft may have kicked off the problem, but the real devil is in the details. Microsoft made known during Vista's multi-year development lifecycle that changes were coming, but many driver and application vendors ignored the warnings. Thus, when Vista was released, we Windows administrators ultimately saw an operating system that couldn't do what we need it to do.

Over the last year, much of those needed rewrites have been completed. And pretty much all managed desktop hardware now has the necessary drivers for a successful upgrade.

Read the full piece and come to your own conclusions at: