Vista Ultimate is a scam to make more money off of stupid OS enthusiasts that have to have the most ultimate version of all software. Windows Home Premium is all the home user with great hardware needs. The animated wallpaper feature are no big deal. They take up resources and many third party DVD players can play videos as wallpaper.

Yeah, I have to agree that it is very frustrating to see the apparently low level of commitment Microsoft has exhibited since the release of Vista Ultimate. It appears like they figure that they have already sold most of the copies of Ultimate that the are going to, and now are pretty much going to leave us out in the cold. This is coming from a big fan of both Microsoft and Apple.

I'm not sure why there has been this delay.... Surely, there must be a lot of complicated details behind-the-scenes...

It seems to me, with all the time that it took to develop Vista (which I think is a pretty nice OS, by the way), Microsoft would've had tons of cool ideas that they had to place on the sideline or backburner as they streamlined what would make it to the OS.

I would've thought that, once they made the decision to have an 'Ultimate Edition', they would've made sure to have a steady flow of goodies to distribute to their loyal customers. It doesn't matter if they're not even ground-breaking things. PowerToys (remember TweakUI?) weren't earth-shattering, but they really made life easier for the power-user.

I could think of myriad things for Microsoft to release. Here's just a few off the top of my head:

- Sidebar/WPF version of MSN Messenger
- Sidebar integration for Outlook (calendar, to-do, contacts) and OneNote. And I'm not talking about the little gadgets that have been released... I'm thinking real, powerful integration.
- A TweakUI for Vista (although the Stardock version is coming along nicely!)
- A graphing/programmable calculator
- Extensions for the Windows PhotoGallery... like simple resizing options
- Defrag for power-users!
- They promised "unique publications" in addition to software... How about a power-user's guide to the hidden secrets of Vista?
- Sidebar integration of MediaPlayer (so it shows cover-art and other details in the sidebar)
- FONTS! What about the fonts that were developed but not included with Vista? They could give them to Ultimate users!
- Icons, sound packages, wallpapers, avatars, etc.

I could come up with tons of things, easily... And I'm sure they wouldn't be that hard for the folks at Redmond to whip these things up.

Well, although I'm frustrated, I give them the benefit of the doubt. I think they'll come through in the end... if not sooner, than definitely with the upcoming service pack.

In the meantime, thank goodness for Stardock!

I honestly don't know what all the fuss is with Vista. I decided to buy a disc and install. Well, none of my printers or scanners worked, and to be honest, i think its a bit trashy in the sense that its not as clear as XP with its interface wording. Why not multi-boot - thats what I'm doin until Vista comes up to scratch.

what else could they add anyway that wouldnt make it more bloated than it is?

what i did with mine was strip out all the excess using vlite.
then i used tweakvista and objectdock to replace my startbar cause well...its cooler although the new mac osx leapord's launchbar thing is now even slicker than OD but maybe stardock will work on it.

DS doesnt work too well in 64bit vista, when it crashes it never lets me turn it on again, in fact it wont even run personalize menu, when it does the video's no longer work

yep and i remember the same thing being said about XP when it was first released
i will not be upgrading to vista until at least thwe first service pack, becasue as with XP the OS never really hit its straps until service pack 2, so save the criticism until then

@Nimbin: I wasn't criticizing Vista, at all. To the contrary, I think the OS is great, and I'm sure that any service packs released will smooth out all the small issues.

My criticism is with Ultimate Extras, which have failed to materialize. By purchasing Ultimate, a user expected a steady stream of goodies (eye candy, utilities, power-user stuff, things straight out of the microsoft labs, etc.). Unfortunately, since the initial release of about three Extras (one of which -- the most popular, DreamScene -- is still in beta), no others have been released!! Absolutely appalling.

I have to agree with the 'absolutely appalling' sentiment...I'm too am quite disappointed with the state of affairs regarding 'Ultimate' extras..or should I say the lack of them.

And no, I'm not critising Vista as an OS, it is very good indeed, but Microsoft has betrayed its Vista Ultimate customers big-time

They live...

And again, actually Ultimate is not just Home Premium + Extras, it is Home Premium + Business + Extras...

Update on the Windows Ultimate Extras from WWW Link (07/02/2007)



In other words, they'll fine-tune DreamScene, but don't expect anything new for awhile.

Well, at least they're talking to us now. Many people had written to them in the past, but gotten no response.

Anyone else notice that the portrait photos of the Ultimate Extra team-members have now been removed? I guess the team is officially disbanded.

I actually work at Office Depot and know first hand that it's a scam! As a tech I have nothing but complaints about the 'Ultimate' Vista(can you say BitLocker Drive Encryption!)The only thing good about it is the Stardock Dreamscape program...I mean does anyone actually use a 1/3 of the features that doesn't have you hold down ctl+atl.They (Microsoft) won't even help our store with some of the tech support and we sell their stuff!!!!

I hate to say it but I'm afraid that a class action lawsuit is coming!

Or maybe another commercial from MAC mocking the Ultimate Vista. They already did on Steve's recent keynote speech on WDC. They're mocking MS for having different versions of Vista at ridiculous prices while Mac's upcoming OS Leopard will only have one version will all the nice features at a price less than $200 bucks.

There is only one version of Windows Vista. Everything else is MBA 101 marketing segmentation crippleware. On this issue, Apple is dead on.

But Microsoft has the monopoly we gave them, so why do they have to care...at all?

Answer: Until they feel real concerted competition/pressure from any sector (and no it won't be coming from a shareware OS like Linux), they don't have to try and won't waste the resources to do so. That's simple business 101.

Huh? Linux as shareware? Where?