Microsoft claim that Windows vista brings claririty to your world, so you can more safely and easily accomplish everyday tasks.

However many of the "innovative" new features Microsoft are developing for Vista are already available for Linux, in fact some of the features cut from Vista to ensure that it was released in a reasonable time are even available on Linux.

Lets look at the evidence :-

An examination of new vista features and the linux equivalent

1 )
Vista "innovation" :- Instant Search
Linux equivalent :- Beagle

2 )
Vista "innovation" :- Areo Interface
Linux equivalent :- Xgl

3 )
Vista "innovation" :- Desktop Widgets
Linux equivalent :- Superkaramba

4 )
Vista "innovation" :- Network Explorer
Linux equivalent :- Bonjor

5 )
Vista "innovation" :- Bitlocker
Linux equivalent :- Built-in filesystem encryption

6 )
Vista "innovation" :- IE Tabbed Browsing
Linux equivalent :- Firefox Tabbed Browsing

7)
Vista "innovation" :- Avalon Graphics
Linux equivalent :- Cairo Graphics

Justification
1 ) Beagle is a search tool that ransacks your personal information space to find whatever you're looking for. Beagle can search in many different domains, it uses smart filters that handle different document types as required. For example, for a text document or a PDF beagle will read the contents of the document (ie words typed) for music it reads the ID3 tag that contains the artist, album title etc. For email it examines the body of the email, the title and the sender and recipient.. in effect looking at each file in an intelligent manner - what does Vista instant search do to improve on this ?

Video :- Beagle Search In Use (flash based)
Video :- Beagles search "live query" functionality in action (flash based)

2) XGL capability include
alpha transparency and fading - select a window, hold the alt key and move the mouse wheel to change the transparency of any window
Window Expose - As seen on OSX now witness it on Linux, move your mouse to the top-left of the screen and all your windows shrink down so they fit on one screen ---- is vista eye candy better than this ?

Video :- Xgl Demo Video

XGL :- the future is NOW - Windows Killa Showcase

3) SuperKaramba is, in simple terms, a tool that allows you to easily create interactive eye-candy on your desktop.

Sample Karamba screenshot displaying various widgets (screenshot)

This thread is intended to prompt discussion rather than make a 'fan boy' type statement, and this is why minimal reference has been made regarding product activation and the WGA however it is evident that features such as these are causing issues for users, it would also be fair to suggest that features such as these to protect microsofts copyright will be enhanced further, however it is unknown how this will have a negative effect on the user experience.

Even if windows shipped at an unlikely low and realistic price, could it compete with the modern Linux desktop which would continues to evolve further at the time Vista ships?
Many of the wonderfull hyped, promoted, mentioned features in Vista are on Linux right now and performing better and faster, Beagle is an example of this... some are just simply looking better, xgl is an example of this.
Considering that linux distributions are updated as regular as clockwork it would be fair to say that 'new' distributions would be available as Vista ships bringing with them even greater enhancements and developments.

Its obvious that the people who have criticised the Linux desktop in the past need to take another look because when compared to Vista's features its apparent that Linux is light years ahead, the real problem that Linux has at this point in time is marketing..
Distributions such as Ubuntu and SuSE LED have all the features and ease of use of a desktop OS and should be considered

Please watch the videos and look at the screenshots before commenting !!!