Being in IT, when a Service Pack is being bandied about before the OS is released is akin to GM issuing a recall/repair on the new Camaro before it even hits dealer showrooms.
Russ
Yep-you hit that one on the head. So far as I can see, vista won't bring much in the way of new features that average users will consider gotta-haves. However, it will make most computers instantly obsolete, especially if you want to run all the pretty eye candy you pay so dearly for in the most expensive versions of vista. You have to have a fairly powerful graphics card JUST TO RUN THE VISUAL EFFECTS IN THE OS. Want decent performance? Better plan on at least 2 gigs of ram, more if you want to do anything very intensive. And, for what? To make Bill his next billion? No, I don't think so. They're gonna have to do better than that before I cough up much money for it.
Oh, it gets even better. You computer guys know how previously, you could do a fresh install from an upgrade disk as long as you could come up with a valid cd of a previous operating system. Not anymore.
http://www.overclockers.com/tips01098/ (follow link early in article. The article itself is good, which is why I linked to it instead of directly to the link explaining the upgrade change.)
Now, to use an upgrade vista disk, YOU MUST FIRST INSTALL XP. That's right-you can't just put the xp cd in there to verify you have it. Then, after the xp install, you do an upgrade install of vista. Thanks, microsoft. 'Preciate that. Hey, can you use a little vaseline next time?