I’m like a kid waiting for Christmas!! Blog World Expo is my favorite time of year. We’re all about getting involved in the blogging community and meeting up with everyone. We’ve got a bunch of our Bloggers and hard working Channel Editors coming out this year. With everyone working remotely, meeting up once a year at a place like Vegas is really awesome.

Out of the bloggers that are coming, I’m personally excited to hook up with my old pal Jon Rochetti from The DC Traveller. He really knows my style and we are going out on the town. Shea Sylvia from MTV Reality World is going to be there too. After all the time we spent together at SXSW in March, she’s gotta be missing me by now. Lara Kulpa from Dating Dames is meeting up with us. Hopefully she can offer me some advice on my love life (my blue complexion gets a lot of attention, but sometimes I think it’s all just superficial). Even Jason Bean from Microsoft Weblog is coming out! Like Shea, he probably misses all the fun times we shared at SXSW! And Kevin Palmer is coming. Big deal.

The Channel Editors that are making it out include Kelly from the Business Channel. Hopefully she’s not all business!! Of course Mary Jo from the travel channel is coming…she’d go to anything that she could travel to. And Arieanna from Entertainment is coming out…hopefully she can entertain us down there. I know she certainly did at SXSW!! b5’s new Training Manager, and Channel Editor for the Music Channel, Jeanne Dupuis,  is coming out. I wonder if she does music training? We’ll have to find out.

Should be a good time all around…can’t wait to see everyone!! We got some good stuff planned for the weekend we are there, so let us know if you are going to be around so we can include you!!!

There's been a steady amount of buzz around the ‘net recently about Windows Vista adoption, sparked by a blog post last week questioning Windows Vista adoption rates and most recently by some great number crunching by Computerworld. In light of the various claims, I thought I would offer up some perspective on Windows Vista deployment numbers ... and what experienced industry watchers, like Forrester and CDW, are saying about Windows Vista.

First, you've heard us say before that we've sold more than 180 million Windows Vista licenses (40 million of those in the last quarter alone) and that major enterprises like Continental Airlines, the United States Air Force, Virgin Megastores, Charter, Avanade, Eastman Chemical and PPG are deploying seats by the thousands (and in some cases by the tens of thousands).  That's still true. You can read about these and other Windows Vista deployments at Microsoft.com/casestudies.

Consistent with findings from other reputable sources, Forrester Research just published a new report on enterprise OS adoption. According to the abstract: "Forrester's month-on-month study of more than 50,000 of our clients' OS preferences confirmed that users are on track with enterprises' initial Windows Vista deployment plans. IT operations folks are at a critical inflection point and should deploy Windows Vista to: 1) stay current with Microsoft's and independent software vendors' (ISVs') support life cycles; 2) help minimize today's security, management, and productivity challenges; and 3) better position your business to eventually embrace "Windows 7," because Windows Vista investments will ultimately pay off with better compatibility for this next release." Even the Wall Street Journal is picking up on this and in his blog post over the weekend, Ben Worthen includes some nuggets from the report like: "between October 2007 and June 2008 the percentage of visitors running Vista climbed from 5% to 8.8%." Ben also says that "it's pretty safe to assume that the operating system's image problems with the general public will soon be a thing of the past."

What about the guys on the ground who are selling, installing and implementing Windows Vista? Not surprisingly, they're seeing growing demand too. For example, CDW, one of the nation's largest technology resellers and system integrators, found in their third Windows Vista Tracking Poll that Windows Vista is "gaining traction" in the business market, with 48 percent of respondents saying their organization is using or evaluating Windows Vista. That compares with 29 percent in CDW's February 2007 poll. You can check the Seattle Times commentary on this.

The chorus of industry commentators, analysts, partners and real enterprise users confirm what we already knew - businesses are buying, using and liking Windows Vista. If you haven't already, try it and decide for yourself.