Just adding my 2 pence....
I'm IT systems admin.... I'm used to learning the new OS's and server's....
When 95 came along I hated the layout... put all my icons on the desktop (lots and lots of em)
98 came out, no real improvement except PNP
98SE for me was pants, I kept killing my PC in 2 weeks coz i hammerd it so hard - went back to original 98
ME came out and I thaught it was a god send (most people didn't like ME) Faster boot, BETTER PnP, BETTER games support.... ect...
XP, yes I get ME with security! ok so the've moved a few things a round....
VISTA,
RC1 blue screened after first reboot and corrupted my rarther full 200gb hard drive - not a good start
RC2 installed on my laptop at work... I can't repeat on here what I said when I saw the download for it was 3.7GB and when it finished installing it's 7gb... sidebar is pants at the moment... I can't add my works laptop onto works domain... I can't find all the network setting... no tried games yet (it's works laptop!) made everythin rounded as with messenger live, office 2007, IE 7... ect..... I'm basically completely lost when I boot vista... I have noticed the drive encription which is a nice thing though I bet it not going to be strong enough....
As for DX10, well, if MS wanna release it ONLY for vista then thats one way of FORCING us to buy vista....
Alternates.... macOS but limited on games.... Linux limited on 'normal' games....
games manufacturers really need to stop producing cheep games produced by 'visual basic' style design programs and start to learn C and get some decent coding done... that way they 'could' release the source code (like ID did the linux port for Quake 2)....
BTW, macOS is a 'modified' linux kernel.... (i'll get roasted for that one!).... LINUX POWER!
If games manufacturers gave us the option linux or ms then most gamers would proberbly tell MS where to go....
The only thing I use MS windows for at home is games and MX studio (Dreamweaver, webdesign).... linux has it's free office that can import ms office files....
As for backward compatability, it taked the michael that all my PC's are backward compatable to an 8086..... The IRQ part of the northbridge is still 'cascaded' in the same was it was when they first had the bright idea... same goes for the DMA controller aswell.... (sorry technical bit!)
Thats where MAC's come in, but even so, they still offer 'some' backward compatability.... MAC OS is going to go like windows is....
Linux, yes you can install it on a P1, the kernel supports you compiling for that hardware.... but you don't loose speed with having it.... your only re-compiling the source code with optimisations for new processor instructions (commands)
And now, I'm worked up enough to necesitate the mass slaughter and blood shed in Quake 4.... see you in-server....