Personal Technology -- Vista: Worthy, Largely Unexciting

I think this is the closest Walt Mossberg has ever come to saying something nice about a Microsoft product (this is the no-subscription-required version).

A new version of Microsoft Windows, the world's most popular and important computer operating system, will finally arrive for consumers on Jan. 30. It has taken the giant software maker more than five years to replace Windows XP with this new version, called Windows Vista -- an eternity by computer-industry reckoning. Many of the boldest plans for Vista were discarded in that lengthy process, and what's left is a worthy, but largely unexciting, product.

Source: Personal Technology -- Personal Technology from The Wall Street Journal.