For those thinking "oh, another piece of Microsoft bashing from some Apple / Google / Linux fan" (my own initial thought), look at the byline.

Paul Thurrott's been covering Microsoft, almost always positively, for most of (if not more than) two decades. He's been labeled one of the "notorious Microsoft shills" by Daniel Eran Dilger (http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/01/18/dan-lyons-paul-thur...) -- and that's not far from my own impressions of Thurrott based on some of his earlier Linux commentary.

So -- yeah, the rats are, if not fleeing the ship, talking loudly about its soundness.