"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

That pretty much sums up Microsoft's software development problems. They have a huge legacy of code and software development methods that is breaking down as the complexity of their software increases. Vista is the most complex development Microsoft has tried. That complexity is overwhelming their capacity to manage complexity.

It may not be humanly possible to complete Vista the way they want even with the very bright Bill Gates clones they hire. It won't matter how hard Ballmer et. al. beat on them. Have you noticed how hang dog Ballmer looks in recent interviews? He knows.

I've worked on complex software products (twenty years!). One of them was 1.5 million lines of code for factory automation. I wrote my share of that. There was one bug in there that took me ten years to find so, I can sympathize with the programmers who are trying to make Vista robust enough to release. They need to keep in mind what Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry said; "A man's got to know his limitations."

Albert Einstein to Dirty Harry and both are saying the same thing.