Editor's Blog: Ever hear the one about the happy Vista user?

I was talking to a friend of mine in the pub after work the other day. And after discussing some of the biggest geo-political issues of the day - Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the global credit squeeze and err… the trials and tribulations of Britney Spears - we discussed work.

My friend rather smugly revealed that he had just got a new laptop from his employer. "Vista", he told me, nodding proudly like a new father, in a way that would no doubt make Bill Gates leap for joy.

Vista: all the coverage...

1. Don't put Vista in schools, says education agency
2. Details of Vista SP1 revealed
3. Poll: Vista gets vote of no confidence
4. Poll: In a fight between Vista, OS X, Linux, XP...
5. Vista: Piracy rates half the level of XP, says Microsoft
6. Vista not grabbing businesses... yet
7. Microsoft still bullish about Windows Vista
8. Poll: In a fight between Vista, OS X, Linux, XP...
9. One year on: XP still outshining Vista
10. Vista - businesses not convinced

Keen to find out more from this happy Windows Vista user, I questioned him more closely about his new toy. Did it run faster than his old laptop, I wondered?

Oh yes, I was assured, much faster. Applications that previously took an age to wake up would now snap to attention faster than keen new recruits on the parade ground, he told me.

Now he had my attention. And of course, feeling some pangs of jealousy at being left behind in the high tech arms race, I quizzed him further.

What about the Windows Aero technology? What about the improved security? What was his favourite new feature?

And so he admitted - he hadn't noticed much difference. He hadn't found a need to use any of the new features yet, either.

Intrigued, I persuaded him to dig the new laptop out of his bag. It was very shiny, so new he hadn't even removed all the extra bits of protective see-through plastic from the case.

And, as he had claimed, there was the Windows Vista sticker, right next to the keyboard. So I got him to boot up, just so I could have a look for myself.

He was right, it did boot very quickly. Except - and it was this that obliged him to buy the next round - it was Windows XP that came up on the screen rather than Windows Vista.

It seems that not every Vista machine sold stays a Vista machine - at least not yet, as companies are still wary of migrating to the relatively new operating system. That's no real surprise.

But if a shiny sticker saying 'Vista' is all it takes to keep some of the workers happy, perhaps it will be some time before companies feel the need to take the plunge for real.