Now I have yet to try Vista myself (so I really don't know if it's as evil as others claim, although I do have an MSDN subscription to download Vista free through my university, just not in a hurry to get Vista yet), but reading up all the criticisms surrounding the integration of DRM into the OS to the point where "devices such as graphic cards must be approved by Microsoft" (quote from wikipedia.org) frightens me. I have read that same applies to many other devices run under Vista as well (such as sounds cards, dvd-players, etc.).
While I understand that piracy has been a big issue for years, I think the whole "big brother" approach Microsoft is trying to pull off will only hurt them. Already, half of my computer engineering friends have switched to Mac OSX (and Windows has always been the system of choice for many engineers, despite countless debates about how much more flexibility Linux allows). Back in the days of old Macs we used to laugh at them, but I must admit that Apple is doing a really good job lately making their system seem very attractive tot he consumer. The fact that many people who previously hated Macs are starting to consider them does indicate something. Surely it's not just the pretty colors and flashy icons, since WindowBlinds has existed for years.
Now I see Microsoft and NVIDIA designing DirectX 10 with no backwards compatibility, as well as a set of very extreme minimum requirements. This too, in my opinion will come back to haunt Microsoft and NVIDIA in many ways. First of all, Microsoft's own creation, XBox 360, ironically enough, doesn't meet the minumum requirements for the DirectX 10. Why would I want to buy an Xbox 360 now with clearly outdated technology, when Microsoft claims that DirectX 10 will allow the graphics calculations to be performed up to 8 times faster than DirectX 9.0c (wikipedia.org). All this while Sony is emphasizing all the ground-breaking technology of PS3 (9-core Cell processor, Blu-ray, 3.2GHz RAM speed, etc.). Yes, I have read about the issues with PS3 and how it doesn't make the best use of the technology incorporated inside of it. However, compare all the toys of tomorrow PS3 already has bundled in it to the seemingly outdated 360, which can't even support Microsoft's own DirectX 10. Really makes you wonder if the 2 consoles should even be compared to each other, since they're so different.
Another problem with DirectX 10 seems to be that only NVIDIA is using it yet. Now there are 2 ways of looking at it. Perhaps NVIDIA is way ahead of the competition, or perhaps DirectX is losing preference over OpenGL. I have mentioned earlier that a number of people seem to be switching to OSX, and while I don't know if DirectX 10 is currently supported in OSX or not, I know that it didn't work under it before. And as far as I know, OpenGL is the API of choice in OSX/Linux/Unix. Combine this with the fact that Intel chipsets support Crossfire and not SLI, forcing NVIDIA to make their own chipsets, and the merger of ATI with AMD, I'm starting to get a feeling that NVIDIA might get hurt real bad in the near future, partially thanks to Microsoft. And Microsoft themselves might finally be losing in the OS battle.
What are your thoughts? Feel free to agree/disagree, or call me names, just don't throw chairs at me
p.s. After I finished typing this, I realized that it might not really all be OS-related. So if I posted it in the wrong section, feel free to move it. Thanks.