I don't think they have any justification for releasing Windows 7 as a whole new OS and charging $$$. However, I'm not so nieve as to believe that Microsoft was going to wait till everything is good before releasing Vista. They are too ingrained into the idea of using the user as beta testers. Besides Vista was way over-due and the presure to release something/anything was intense: Vista was a very long a coming, even while dropping big stuff like their updated FS that they touted for years.