Reactions to the television advertisement, which barely mentioned Microsoft, were mostly negative, and focused on the failure to promote the company’s Vista operating system as a better alternative to increasingly popular alternatives from Apple. However, Microsoft said the public debate over the ad signalled its success.

Microsoft’s $300 million advertising campaign for Windows Vista, starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld launched with a television commercial without much talk of Windows, or Microsoft. That was oddly appropriate, considering that Seinfeld’s eponymous ’90s hit comedy was described as “a show about nothing.”

Dell will continue to offer Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system to customers beyond the June 30th deadline. The announcement comes after CEO Steve Ballmer suggested that Microsoft might change its mind and extend Windows XP if customers asked for it. However, Mr. Ballmer added that most customers were not asking for XP.

The much-hyped “year of the Linux desktop” may still not be with us but there’s no doubting the free open-source operating system has gained significant traction in the last year. One reason for this is, with equal certainty, the mess that is Windows Vista. Here’s how it’s actively driving new interest in Linux.

The attempted image overhaul comes in the wake of Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” ads featuring a geeky PC guy who vaguely resembles Bill Gates being unable to keep up with a better-looking, hip Mac counterpart. Those ads, painting Windows as stodgy and unreliable, have reinforced criticism about Vista’s performance, stringent hardware requirements and lack of support for other software and devices such as printers.

The attacks take advantage of the way Microsoft chose to guard Vista’s fundamental architecture. The new techniques are being seen as an advance that many in the security community say will have far-reaching implications not only for Microsoft, but also on how the entire technology industry thinks about attacks.

Some of the coolest OS features are nowhere to be found in Windows XP or Vista. Here are 18 brilliant features that Microsoft should beg for, borrow, or steal–plus tips on how you can add many of them to your PC now.

Hewlett-Packard’s revelation casts doubt over Microsoft’s claims about how many copies of Windows Vista have been sold, as HP has made clear that although a sale may be counted as ‘Vista’, it may actually be Windows XP.