Back on November 6, 2008, then-Windows chief, Co-President, Platforms & Services Division, Jim Allchin, delivered this message: “It’s time!” He was signaling the debut of a new era for Microsoft, the move away from Windows XP, the introduction of Aero, User Account Control, the black screen of death, PatchGuard, mandatory driver signing, Ultimate Extras, the unmentionable Wow, etc., in a word - Windows Vista. November 8, 2006 marked Vista's release for manufacturing and, at the end of the past week, the operating system passed the two-year milestone since the code went gold.

“Today we’re announcing the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Vista,” revealed on November 8, 2006, Nick White, Windows Vista PM. “Yes, you read it right - development of Windows Vista is complete.” Windows Vista was subsequently released to business users, by the end of November 2006, and to the general public worldwide, on January 30, 2007. However, it is safe to argue that Windows Vista's development was not in fact complete until the availability of Service Pack 1, RTM, on February 4, 2008, and its release on March 18 this year. Microsoft is currently working on Windows Vista Service Pack 2, having already offered the first bits to testers. An early release of it is available for download here.

Two years after the introduction of Windows Vista's RTM, the focus has almost entirely shifted away from the operating system, onto a new Windows client. Just ahead of November 8, 2008, Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801 was released to participants at the Professional Developers Conference 2008 and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2008 in Los Angeles.

Jim Allchin was out the door just as Windows Vista hit store shelves, and the new Windows boss, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, Steven Sinofsky, introduced an entirely new development strategy, translucent, yet not transparent. However, all indications point to Windows 7 becoming available long ahead of its official due date at the start of 2010. Reports actually reveal a pre-2009 holiday season availability deadline, with an RTM in mid-2009 for Windows 7.

Microsoft has confirmed, so far, sales exceeding 180 million Vista licenses, and statistics from Net Applications show that the client has a share of no less than 19.29% of the operating system market. The 2008 holiday season is bound to put Vista at well over 20% of the OS market, taking the client over the 200 million sold copies milestone.