Let me throw the news first. Today I was attending Microsoft Global Briefing 2005, an annual event for worldwide sales and marketing employees, and it was announced that the long-waited next-version Windows, code named "Longhorn," will be officially named Windows Vista!

A cool name! Each of the previous milestone releases of Windows, like Windows 95, Windows 2000, Windows XP, uses a different naming convention. This time is no exception. The name Windows Vista underscores the importance of the product to Microsoft. (Windows Vista will release its first beta version in early August.)

This afternoon, Microsoft announced its Q4 earning results and provided the FY06 outlook. While Q4 result is in line with forecast, and our sales pipeline is building up impressively (judged by "unearned revenue"), Wall Street penalized the stock in the after-market for less-than-expected FY06 Q1 outlook.

While I will keep my immediate-sale practice for my ESPP and Stock Award stocks, and hold on to my employee stock options, today's company meeting really makes me thing Microsoft will have a tremendous amount of opportunity in the next two years with XBox 360, Windows Vista and Office 12 release. I'm pretty much committed to work for the company for another 2-3 years at least, and I'm glad that I have the chance to see Microsoft deliver double-digit top-line growth before soon.

(Bonus: What are in Steven Ballmer's mind as Microsoft's top competitors? Steven confessed today: Linux, Google and Yahoo. Surprise?)