To be fair, I think any one of us would be thrilled to move 140 million copies of something. But Microsoft is held to a higher standard, and so Bill Gates's positive comment about Vista sales is raising some eyebrows.

As billionaires go, Gates seems fairly down-to-earth. He appears to understand how real people relate to money, and he's certainly tech-savvy enough to have read all the online articles criticizing Vista. Still, he claimed that 140 million Vista sales represents "a very rapid sales rate," according to Kenneth McCallum.

Never mind that a number of people have tried Vista only to "downgrade" to XP. Or that both individuals and manufacturers have pleaded with Microsoft to keep XP available. Or even that a branch of the UK government advised schools not to use the newer operating system.

Meh. One explanation is that Gates is merely trying not to cripple Vista's sales in any additional way. Gates has previously been quoted as saying that Windows 7 will be presented "in the next year or so," and as that point draws closer, perhaps he'll start admitting Vista's problems. In the meantime, such admissions would either serve no purpose or drive people to seek non-Microsoft alternatives.

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