A few months ago I wrote a post suggesting that Windows Vista be scrapped in favour of a quarterly update of code and new features: Windows Vista and the Schleswig-Holstein Question.

Interestingly, Microsoft’s IE blog now informs us that its browser, Internet Explorer 7, will be delivered as an automatic update to users of Windows XP.

More interesting still, escapee Robert Scoble is today admitting that Vista won’t be ready until mid-2007 (if then?). He writes : “it doesn’t feel good enough to release to the factory in October. It feels like it needs a good six more months than that, which would mean a mid-year release next year.”

He even gets tough with his old firm : “If this ships in October, I will recommend not installing it and waiting for the first service pack. There’s no way the quality will be high enough to trust it if it ships early. I hope Microsoft takes the time to do this right.”

There’s no doubt Robert is right, so many other facts and opinions point in this direction. It’s time to adopt The Syntagma Solution :

When SP3 (Service Pack 3) ships in late 2006, change the name of Windows XP to Windows 2006-Q4, and run with that every quarter with a new update of any improvements which work. So in March we’ll have Windows 2007-Q1. What could be simpler? Vista would then be dribbled out in bite-sized chunks over time. I recognize some of the big architectural changes may be difficult to roll out, but aren’t they part of the problem, not the solution? Charge us a yearly fee for the upgrades and Microsoft has re-made itself for the 21st century.

Scoble believes we’ll forget all about the delays once a workable Vista arrives. I think he’s being ingenuous. This should have shipped in 2003, had to be rewritten from the ground up in 2004, and let’s say it, may not make 2007. Great chunks of it have already been dropped, including the central feature of a new file storage and access system.

Why is The Syntagma Solution best? Because you’re worth it.