Windows Vista may not be D.O.A. but it's future may be in doubt. Microsoft is quietly putting together the third service pack for XP while more publicly creating SP1 for Vista.

The SP3 for XP is supposed to have around 1000 hot fixes and patches, all of which were released by Microsoft over the past three years. (Kind of makes me glad I keep my Windows Update set on Automatic!)

This puts MS in a bit of a quandary because XP is almost seven years old and they want to stop producing retail and OEM packages for it, but Vista has so many problems--real or perceived--that customers are balking and either rolling back their OS to XP or just ordering their new desktops and laptops with XP and eschewing Vista altogether.

Personally, I am sticking with XP until it is no longer available. I have enough on my plate while using the computer that I don't have time to worry about Vista crashing on me. XP is a known quantity and, like I said before, I keep my Windows Update on automatic.