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Microsoft revealed that 140 million licenses shipped during its fiscal 2008 third-quarter earnings announcement in late April. This evening, during the D Conference in Carlsbad, Calif., Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed the 150 million figure. I'm here at the opening night event, which is still underway as I post. This year's conference, the sixth, is simply called D6.

Steve discussed the figure during some pressing questions about Windows Vista. D Conference co-organizer Walt Mossberg asked if the operating system was a failure, or even a mistake.

"Vista's not a failure and it's not a mistake," Steve said. He said that half of enterprises buying PCs get them with Vista, even if they later downgrade. He noted that they could choose Windows XP from the start.

Walt turned the questioning to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, asking if he was disappointed by Windows Vista.

Bill said that no Microsoft operating system, not even Windows 95, was "100 percent of what I wanted."

He continued: "We have a culture where we need to do better." Bill then joked that Vista has given Microsoft lots of opportunity to practice the philosophy.

"There are plenty of lessons out of Vista," Bill later conceded.

Steve acknowledged that Microsoft had made some sacrifices for the benefit of security. Yes, Microsoft might do some things differently in hindsight. Because of some decisions made by Microsoft, Vista was "jarring to the ecosystem," he conceded. To Microsoft's surprise, research showed that the most jarring aspect was changes made to the Windows user interface.