The biggest skeptic about Vista shipping on time has finally thrown in the towel and said it looks like Microsoft will make its ship date. Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund, who previously has said Vista wont make ship date, has backed off, and sent a note to clients saying that Microsoft will most likely hit its November enteprise ship date, and January consumer launch.

I’m not in the least bit surprised. I was a skeptic as well, until RC-1 hit. RC-1 is solid, stable, and pretty much feature-complete, as far as I can tell.

Rumors have it that an RC-2 is in the works, and will ship on Friday. This would be more good news, and a sign that Vista is well on track. Then we can finally start talking about the operating system itself, instead of about ship dates and other matters that ultimately don’t matter.