I haven't used WIX a lot so I'm no expert, but I do know that is way better packaging solution than anything else that ships with Visual Studio currently.  Version 3 of WIX had progressed to the point that MS were helping to have it included in the VS 2010 out of the box.  Which is slightly ironic if you know the history of WIX.

However, it appears than plans and people have changed and WIX will NOT ship with VS2010.

This is very sad for us poor developers who are left with little out of box choices for solution packaging.  Sure you will still be able to get WIX yourself but many shops don't like to let developers help themselves to open source tools and are even meaner when it comes to paying for tools.  Inclusion of WIX with the VS2010 release would have moved WIX to the mainstream and finally put a nail in the coffin of VDPROJ packages.

For the full story, read here.

If you think this is a mistake then it may not be too late.  Microsoft always listen to customers.  If enough of us talk about this and express opinions then they may change their mind or at least offer WIX as a Power Tools or some such thing.

If you would like to have your say then either blog about this yourself or send an email to Soma (VP of Developer Division) via his blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/contact.aspx