In the future, we may look back on next week, and call it one of Microsoft's biggest product announcements ever -- the retail introduction of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office. Microsoft's two most important product lines are being revamped -- and it's been a long time since either of them has had a major upgrade.

		David Radin a business consultant and freelance writer for the Post-Gazette, has been using Windows Vista and Office 2007 for months. You can contact him at www.megabyteminute.com.

The current version of Windows (Windows XP) has been out for six years, and the most recent Office upgrade came out in 2003. Those are long periods for the software world. During the intervening years, we've received interim upgrades of both products -- some of which were substantial. But in general, we're using the same products since first loading them on our desktops and laptops years ago.

Over the years, Microsoft has had a checkered record of quality in its products. Some of it was deserved; some of the reputation was created by people who prefer competitive products -- either for valid reasons or because they don't like the idea of dealing with such a large, powerful company. Much of the reputation was based on security and stability -- or lack thereof -- as perceived by users and IT professionals.

We can hardly say that Microsoft products don't lack features, because the company always has attempted to put in every feature under the sun -- which also has put it under fire for using monopoly power to take over markets. Among the markets that have been assimilated are: spell checkers, screen savers, networking and audio-visual media playing.

With the introduction of Windows Vista and Office 2007, the company has a bigger challenge. How does it persuade us to upgrade when the products on our desktops already are good. I've stated many times that Windows XP and Office 2003 -- the products many of us are using -- are two of the best products ever released from Microsoft.

Remember when Windows used to crash consistently? If you don't, try to remember Windows Millenium, 98, 95, 3.1 and 3.0. That will jog your memory. Since installing Windows XP on all of my systems, I hardly ever have a crash -- and the few times I do, it's usually very easy to recover.

Office 2003 also is extremely stable. It's feature-packed -- with useful features, that is -- and it can be easily modified to meet almost anybody's needs for creating documents, manipulating worksheets, giving presentations and other common activities. I easily can see potential buyers asking "Why bother to upgrade?"

The focuses of the new products are fairly broad. Windows Vista is intended to be more secure, have cooler graphics, be a bit more intuitive to use, and ... did I say be more secure? (It's worth saying twice, because it's a key factor.) Microsoft Office 2007's claim to fame is that it is much easier to discover capabilities in MS-Word, Excel and other Office 2007 applications because of a sweeping new interface.

As usual, there's a lot of hoopla around the introductions. Big meetings in major cities. Computer industry companies releasing new products. For instance, Gateway is revamping its product line to introduce Windows Vista-based products, some with heavy-duty internal configurations, others with heavy duty packaging (scratch resistant, magnesium cases) that complement the upgraded operating system.

You probably already got a glimpse of what's coming, as one of the 100 million people who already received Internet Explorer 7.0 as a download for Windows Vista.

Team it with new interfaces, new features and additional security for the entire operating system. That's what you'd get. Now, you simply have to decide whether it's worth your time and dollars to upgrade. Microsoft is betting a lot of money that you will.