I tried the Vista build 5308, and I found the interface kinda confusing. Sure it was pretty, animated and all out eye candy, but that isn't the primary goal of an OS, is it? Infact, I found the transparencies to be more of an irritant than beneficial. In terms of performance, I found it a bit sluggish (though it is a beta, so I can ignore that). What I really find exasperating is the very fact that if you want to use Vista in all it's glory, you need to have a graphics card with DX9 support inbuilt. Lots of people, however, run with IGPs, so they won't be able to see the "clearer" view of Vista. Let's wait for the final release and see what useful feature MS throws at us.