windows vista

[solaris]

well heres some bits of the other 2/3, many home users will find them to be resource hogs or in 3rd party apps for xp if they want those features, i'm only bashing the fact of how much these features are costing, not anything about it being a bad os, in fact its a nice os compared to xp but its not really different than what you can make out of xp if you use programs like i listed before that do almost everything found in vista.

support for tablet pc's (wow..tablets)
broad IPv6 support,
improved client-side caching of data stored on a server,
whole-volume encryption... (i have a 2 yr old prog that does that)
a revamped synchronization engine....(ooo..revamped)
the ability to support laptops with an auxiliary display
automatic hard drive optimization and a secure boot-up process (i think diskeeper and bootloc already does that)
more outlook security features (do people use this crappy thing whith all the alternatives out there?)
user account protection- (something else to hog resources)
security features for corporate,roaming and mobile environments (cripes theres already a virus for it and why would home users need those extra securities, more resource hogging crap with countless patches that will be needed within a year)
service hardening monitors critical services for abnormal activity (great if your a paranoid antivirus freak but more monitoring, just what we need)
IE7 (nuff said, many will still want firefox)
Network access protection ( everyone will have to use an AV anyway..why bother with this crap)
Firewall with incomming & outgoing protection ( no one will trust this or it will be exploited anyway and use 3rd party firewalls)
A.C.T (most users will still not know how to use this and request help or pay someone anyway)
faster bootup/sleep and better memory management ( great but is that worth $300)
U.I. (avalon) glass and new window animiation ( will get boring quick and you can have all that on XP that also uses your video card instead of cpu)
Virtual Folder (great but again one of few features of any real interest)
winfs (nice but dont expect miracles in performance)
Network projection for mobile pc's (i'm pretty sure theres software on xp for this)
indigo (i'm not impressed nor would i expect to see this utilized to full potential anytime soon)
wow!!!, all those amazing features for only $300, it will be like microsoft throwing a party in your @** with everyone invited. i know i cant wait.

 

[Win2kpatcher]

Hopefully vista will give us a nice stable 64-bit platform that will start forcing software developers to develop many 64-bit applications and games to take advantage of all the PC 64-bit technology that is finally hitting the scene mainstream.

 

[KSoD]

You have to remember that not everybody that is going to use Vista is going to be a computer junkie. So to them it will be worth it. Well maybe not worth it but it is still good. And as far as the other 2/3 you are a bit off. Indigio is in Beta 1 already. Along with Virtual Folders. But thats not the point. There will be other features that are not know to use at this time. M4 has keep hush on a few secrets that they have install for Beta 2. As for an end user (not like us but the common Joe) they dont want to download and run all that stuff. They want to take their computer home, open the box, plug it in, and surf the web and listen to music. Not to mention play games. They want it to look cool and be secure. So for them Vista will be a god sent sinec they wont have to worry about such major problems that XP had upon it release. So for us to have Vista may not seem all that gerat but for the average user it will be fun new experience that Windows never offered before. Dont get me wrong i have had moer than my fair share of run ins with Windows and wish i could find an alternative that i could use as easily as XP with all the support for Apps and Games. But the truth is Windows is it for now. No $300 isnt worth all that its glamed up to be but was XP when it first released? I didnt think so and i waited almost 2 years bofore i got my copy. It looked great but had more holes than swiss cheese. That is why Windows is going thru this exptensive Beta testing to try and stop that from happening again. If it does more people will jump to Apple and Linux than they will want. ( not like they want any but) Like Win2kpatcher said it will take more advantage of 64 bit and make it more worth the while. I just want people to take more time and really look at what Vista can do not just up and bash it as it is right now. It will get better by the official release it just needs some more time. (Not like they havent wasted enough already) But thats just my opinion.