Microsoft is beating the horse to death in the Windows XP vs. Windows Vista debate with Windows XP's Service Pack 3 (SP3) increasing the already-faster Windows XP by more than 10%. In fact, Vista is now 2x as slow as XP (according to this test). Of course, there are so many variables that could be influecing this test, but the PR message certainly looks bad.
Link: Windows XP SP3 Performance Graph
So What Does This Mean?
Luckily for Microsoft, you can't buy a new PC without Vista, reinforcing their near monopoly on the Operating System (OS) market. Without a high level of reinforcement and with their current lack of customer loyalty, it appears that Microsoft would be losing market share if there was a serious OS competitor. Although this is against Apple's ideology of controlling everything in-house, if they released OSX to run on non-Apple computers it would be a prime time to start grabbing marketshare from Windows Vista.
What Else Does This Mean?
One way in which the SP3 of Vista could be a boon is in the very small PC market, such as the Asus Eee PC, where any speed advantage would be helpful. Microsoft doesn't want to have another OS be popular for consumers in any way, if they can help it. They don't want people to have a mental "break" with Windows and start finding other OSes acceptable, and the Eee PC is no exception.
