In an article entitled Vista flaw could haunt Microsoft in CNN Money, author Owen Thomas makes a mistake that highlights his ignorance and a lack of research.
My take away from reading this article is that Owen is telling us that because the RTM (and yet to be publicly released) version of Vista can't run the current version of SQL Server Express, IBM and Oracle can gain some business advantage.
Firstly I would like to point out that Windows Vista is the client operating system, the new version of Windows XP. Windows Vista is NOT a server operating system. Microsoft's current Windows Server 2003 operating system is the server OS. I dont believe any serious high end database (whether from IBM, Oracle or Microsoft) will be deployed and run on a client OS.
Secondly there are a number of solutions around for installing SQL Server on windows Vista. Adam Cogan can provide more details as I heard a rumour he has been working on a paper to explain how to do this.
My third issue with this article is that the author goes on to point out that he is talking about the SQL Express (MSDE) version and not the server product. Well this should be made clear up front, instead the auther makes this this statement;  "Microsoft has a problem. Vista, its long-awaited update to the Windows operating system, can't run the current version of SQL Server."
Knowing he is only talking about the client side SQL Express version, I fail to see how this then effects rivals. How many technology companies are going to migrate their core database technology based on this? I would say any technical decision based on this alone would be a big and costly mistake.
Finally I believe that Microsoft will solve this in a short time frame. There are already workarounds and my expectation is these will be bundled into a KB article and then a service pack pretty fast. The article even points out that "The company is working on a SQL upgrade that is compatible with Vista - called SQL Server 2005 Express Service Pack 2".
In the end it seems that the article is a complaint is that when something changes "It's not ideal, and it's a pain in the neck". Is this a 'Doh!' moment? When so many changes are made to improve the operating system some of the upgrades will prove to involve work.
As I have said many times before if you dont like change you should not be in the technology business. This business is all about change, learn to love it and embrace it. Without change there can be no improvement.