As wise companies do after a major product roll-out, Microsoft seems to be engaging in some introspective after-action reports on the Vista development and release process. Mary Jo Foley chats with Mike Nash, VP of Windows Product Management, and reveals what some of the lessons learned were, and provides some additional glimpses of what the next version of Windows might look like.

The post has drawn a lot of commentary as well, mostly as a result of the sea change that this candid admission of errors reveals in Microsoft's PR approach surrounding the product. As has been noted repeatedly on this blog, Microsoft has thus far engaged in a level of spin and stonewalling that would do a political campaign proud, and in the process has lost what little credibility they might have started with in the matter. I think it's a credit to them that they are stepping back and admitting that the product was less than stellar despite the extension of development deadlines, and that they are moving toward more transparent release planning. And as to the contention that Vista today is simply a better product than it was a year ago, I have no doubt; that's how these things work. The only real question is an irrelevant one, which is, why did they bother trying to convince all of us who knew better a year ago that it wasn't the case?

Even so, it's probably worth waiting for Service Pack 1 before taking that second look, and certainly before deploying it in your enterprise.