Chipmaster, you raise some excellent points there. As you implied in your last paragraph, some of the "eye candy" of Vista serves a higher purpose than simply making the interface more attractive. It adds functionality and ease of use; for example, with semitransparent windows, it's easier to see what other windows are behind. The new folder preview thing can help find a file or type of file without hours of digging. The only two things that might stop me from upgrading to Vista within two or three months of its release would be:
1. Extreme bugginess in initial releases
2. Too stringent hardware requirements for my system.

I have the same on XP versus 2000. The GUI changed so much, that making a XP computer secure is a lot harder than a 2K one any day (Simple File Sharing is a risk, only Admins or limited (unless you do extra work in pro), the list goes on.)

Well, I solve that by disabling file sharing completely on my machine, and making sure I have a good firewall set up.

Kerm, you do relize there are always hidden administrative shares always set up. try \\<compname>\C$ on another comp in the same network. Type in an admin username and pass and see what you get.

I have 2000 on almost all of my machines; I didn't like XP's lack of user-freindliness, as it seemed harder to navigate.

its not harder for most people, just for us advanced users who like to play with everything. (that and progman.ext and regedt32.exe are no longer used)

Regarding the fancy GUI in vista, do note, that you ONLY get that GUI if you buy one of the versions above the base level (meaning not the cheapest one). Also, you only get the new GUI if you pass the online windows genuine check (meaning you have to have an internet connection - maybe they will do a phone call in for those without internet, not sure). You also need a 3d card with at least 64mb to 128mb if i remember correctly (this is awesome, as it means all thats cheap comps will now have to actually put in a real graphics card rather than the ultra-crappy Intel Extreme Graphics )

The new GUI does actually have functional purposes besides just looking pretty. As Kerm mentioned, it is easier to see more of whats going on w/ diff windows, but as the entire GUI is in 3d, it will be HARDWARE ACCELERATED! That means no more waiting for windows to be drawn because your CPU is being tied up. It also means you can run games in a window just as fast as you can in fullscreen, as windows won't have to switch back and forth between 3d and 2d drawing.

As for the labels on the front of the computer, there are now going to be 2, "Vista Ready" (or something like that), which can't run the fancy GUI, and another one that will be able to run the new GUI (I don't remember what it was anymore, but you get the idea)

Yeah...I hope it's 64k, otherwise I'll have to do some fun upgrades before getting Vista. I really should do 512-->1 gig anyway...

64k? you mean 64mb?

There is also a performance requirement on the vid card aside from just the memory size (such as memory bandwidth and GPU speed)

proobably something my cards can't handle (two GeForces MX 4000s (they were free and better than what I had))

Not even close. From what I've heard it sounds like my Radeon 9700Pro will barely meet the spec...

Just remember though, that today's high-end is next year's mid-range (which means if Vista stays around for 4 years, by the end of its life its min-specs will be laughably low...)

Excellent point. Hmm, I hope my vid card is PCIe, not onboard Anyway, yeah, I did mean 64m.

Kerm, if you are talking your laptop, it is mini PCI.

I will probably have to wait a while before i get Vista, i would want the 64 bit edition and i doubt my mom will let me upgrade our entire system so that it supports a 64 bit processor anytime soon (the motherboard mainly), so i think i will have to wait until i get my own laptop .

Argh, I always switch those two up. That is indeed what I meant.

I want a comp that can support Vista, but also want a tablet, and the latter comes first.

Erm, those aren't mutually exclusive... you can get one of the new dualcore Toshiba m405 or HP tc-series machines that can probably run Vista quite well...

then you are talking an expensive machine. I want a cheper one.

As the saying goes, you can have any two of the following three features:
>>cheap
>>small
>>fast

right, and size isn't that much of a factor to me (I have a toughbook right now, I can carry a heavy machine)