With approximately 40 million licenses sold worldwide, Windows Vista has moved past rival operating system Linux and Mac OS X Tiger when it comes down to market share. Currently, Vista accounts for an installed base inferior only to the universal Windows XP and Windows 2000, but larger than any alternative solutions. And all this in the operating system's first 100 days of general availability. Signs of a strong market performance and a consistent user adoption were illustrated since Vista's first month on the shelves. In February 2007 alone, Vista managed to outsell Windows XP by two to one and serve in excess of 20 million licenses.

With over 3% of the desktops globally already running Windows Vista, the operating system's momentum can only grow. And it has nothing but clear skies and plenty of elbow room ahead, with Linux having failed to move over a share of 1% on the operating system market even in the context of the XP - Vista gap, and with Mac OS X Leopard being pushed back to the end of 2007. Amplitude Research's fourth annual Enterprise Security Survey, commissioned by VanDyke Software indicates that consumer receptivity of Windows Vista is indeed on an ascendant trend, driven mainly by the promise of enhanced security.

"The proportion of the annual VanDyke-commissioned enterprise security study respondents reporting that they are already testing, currently testing, or planning to test Windows Vista increased from 56% in 2006 to 69% in 2007. The proportion with plans to deploy Windows Vista in their organization increased from 48% in 2006 to 58% in 2007," reveals a fragment of the 4th Annual Enterprise Security Survey.

According to the study, 19% of the 300 participants/IT professionals made it clear that they will debut Vista deployment immediately after the end of the testing period. Another 19% will not only move to Vista but also upgrade their hardware, deploying exclusively new computers pre-loaded with the operating system. And over 20% stated that the launch of the first service pack for Vista will signal the beginning of the deployments.