Conclusions

There is no doubt that Windows Vista is a major upgrade.  Microsoft has certainly spent a lot of time working on it, and a quick glance at the control panel will give you some idea of how many new features there are.

With build 5270, Vista has become usable, although Microsoft has a ways to go before you should consider installing it at home.  Internet Explorer 7 and Media Center in particular are not ready.  I also encountered several explorer.exe crashes, although nothing too serious.

Search is a big addition, and its nearly inescapable omnipresence throughout Vista point toward Microsoft's emphasis.  The fact that all of these search boxes can also search the Internet with MSN Search also paints a fairly dangerous-looking picture for Google.

Windows Presentation Foundation is a big deal, and will (hopefully) change the way people interact with their computers.  Naturally third party WPF apps refused to work in our install, but the potential is certainly there.  The WPF used in the various built-in apps did work and was compelling.  New levels of abstraction in user interface and graphics have been needed for a long time, and WPF promises much in this area.

As build 5270 is not feature complete it is difficult to say with finality how compelling Vista will ultimately be, but I can say that my 1-week use of Vista was positive.  Vista brings a lot to the table and it looks like it will be a solid upgrade for both the novice and experienced user.