An anonymous reader wrote to mention a TechWorld story about Windows Vista. According to the Gartner Group, Windows
Vista is likely to be the last of its kind.
"The problem is that the operating system's increasing complexity is making it ever more difficult for enterprises to implement migrations, and impossible for Microsoft to release regular updates. This, in turn, stands in the way of Microsoft's efforts to push companies to subscription licensing. The answer, according to Gartner, is virtualization, which is built into newer chips from Intel and AMD, and has become mainstream for x86 servers through the efforts of VMware." Speaking of Vista, C|Net reports that
a new release candidate is on the way. The average tester should expect it by the end of September.