Ribbon was one of the highlighted features of Windows 7 which was unveiled at the PDC 2008. Looks like the ribbon features are coming to Vista also as Microsoft wants everyone to use it. In a session at PDC, Microsoft outlined Ribbon development and also urged developers to include it in their applications. Windows 7 will have the ribbon features in-built and Vista will get ribbon features through a redistribution package.
Img Credit: Neowin
Windows Ribbon for Vista will be available next year for use within applications too.
This should be interesting. Are they planning on making the updated paint, wordpad, calc etc available for vista too? If they do all of the sudden Windows 7 would start looking like a less attractive upgrade. Because, while it may have lots of under the hood changes its the cosmetic changes that draws attention.