Ummm... Check your facts. The news stories are about the Zune not working with the Vista RTM (Released To Manufacturer) build, not the previous "preview" builds.
Vista is done. It went gold and is now not going to change
at all between now and when it is released in January, barring them finding some huge disaster bug. Many MSDN customers already have the final build installed! It is most certainly available now. (And you'll be able to buy it yourself starting November 30 at CompUSA as long as you buy the "business edition" and at least 5 licenses.)
It is just not going to be sold to the general public until January (there's a big difference).
The time between now and then is for hardware and software vendors to get their stuff up-to-snuff before it is released, and to give Microsoft time to produce and distribute all the physical materials they need to for the launch.
That said... I'm sure Microsoft will fix the problems with the Zune before Vista is released.
But they will fix it by updating the Zune's software, not by changing Vista in any way. What's amusing about the story is that if you buy someone a Zune for the holidays over the next few weeks, and they try to plug the CD that comes with it into their shiny new Vista install next Feb, that it won't work. They'll need to download updated drivers from Microsoft for it to work.
Of course... The same thing can be said for most hardware that's out right now, so I don't think this is the huge deal that some people are making of it.
But saying "oh, that's just silly, Vista isn't even done yet" is quite wrong.