After a near total rewrite of the Windows Vista code in 2004 at the behest of Jim Allchin, it now seems that Microsoft is to recode up to 60 percent of the operating system. After yesterday’s annoucement delaying release of the consumer editions until January, this must appear like the knell of doom to many retailers and manufacturers.

Smarthouse reports: “Up to 60% of the code in the new consumer version of Microsoft new Vista operating system is set to be rewritten as the Company ’scrambles’ to fix internal problems a Microsoft insider has confirmed …”

The company desperately wants to get this out before the end of the decade and has “pulled programmers from the highly successful Xbox team to help resolve many problems associated with entertainment and media center functionality inside the OS. The team is also working closely with engineers from the Intel Viiv team and it is now expected that the next version of Viiv could be delayed to line up with the launch of the consumer version of Vista at the 2007 CES Show in Las Vegas.”

As Syntagma comments: “However fast you drive or fly towards it, the horizon never gets any nearer. … Syntagma has a solution for all this uncertainty. Rename Windows Vista, Windows Horizon. Then we’d understand … philosophically, at least.”