In my years of retail work, I’ve encountered tough guys, wicked old ladies, and thousands of screaming children.  Yet the scariest creatures are often the mothers of those children, and Steve Ballmer may have seen a hint of that when one woman confronted him over Windows Vista.

Searching the Net to find out more about Microsoft’s oft-delayed, finally-arriving operating system, Vista, sends people where they want to go today; Vista’s creator tops the list, followed by Wikipedia.

The angst of bloggers who admitted to receiving choice AMD laptops loaded with Windows Vista received an injection of drama as PR firm Edelman has now asked for the goodies to be returned or given away after being reviewed.

The WebProNews crew hit the Ziff Davis Media Digital Life conference at New York’s Javits Center and cast some digital media from the opening keynote back to the mothership.

High-level Microsoft executives may be in for more of what they don’t want to hear. After one developer says what many were thinking, those inside Vista development fulfill their own prophecy. Vista’s not ready.

The recent Microsoft news (Scoble leaving, Gates taking a reduced role, Ray Ozzie stepping up) combined with the last 10 years worth of evolution in networking and of the web really got me wondering about Microsoft’s role in the future.

Symantec has sued Microsoft, claiming that it is violating a 1996 agreement with Veritas, which Symantec bought last year for $10.2 billion.

Microsoft has debuted the final names for Windows Vista’s system accelerator features: