"Vista passed Mac OS X in 15 weeks": Gates

While everyone’s been focused on driver problems and annoying security prompts, Windows Vista’s installed base has taken just 15 weeks to race past that of Apple, according to chairman Bill Gates.

Delivering a keynote address to 3000 technophiles at Microsoft’s WinHEC event in Los Angeles, the typically reserved Gates wasted no time in talking up the market reaction to his company’s latest OS offering.

“As of last week we have had nearly 40 million copies (of Vista) sold, and that’s happened twice as fast as Windows XP,” he told the enthusiastic crowd.

During the presentation, Gates moved from highlighting Vista’s early sales successes into a wide-ranging look at the technologies he believes will drive market uptake during the next few years.