To a certain extent, this is exemplary of what has happened in the real world with Vista.  A lot of people gave it bad reviews, and most of the computer using public avoided buying it without any real knowledge.

However, let's be honest.  Even though Vista DOES look really nice and has lots of neat things built in, it deserved the bad reviews it got, and consequently the consumer snubbing it suffered.

For starters, the Aeroglass technology that makes the user interface look so pretty isn't fully compatible with all software, and a program can switch your video card into a video mode that isn't compatible with aeroglass.  The result is that Vista will look like warmed over crap -- i.e. much worse than your Windows XP interface.

The security "improvements" seem inconsistent and sometimes prohibit you from doing legitimate tasks.  For instance, I like to organize my start menu.  I create a graphics folder and put my graphics programs in it.  I create a network folder and put my networking apps in it.  Etc.  Annoyingly, I get a security prompt every single time I click-and-drag a program from one place in the start menu to another place in the start menu.  Sometimes, even after I confirm that I really want to and give administrative privileges to the operation, it still refuses to move the shortcut.  This usually goes away when I reboot (yes... I often have to REBOOT MY COMPUTER in order to rearrange my shortcuts)

The operating system freezes a lot.  A whole lot.  More than Windows XP did (even though I'm on dramatically superior hardware).  I don't know why.

Often, even when I'm running just a few programs -- none of which should use much CPU or memory -- my computer seems to struggle to provide a useable UI.  With my QUAD CORE 2.4Ghz processor and 2.5 GB of Ram and dual Nvidia 9500 video cards, I am perplexed by this slowness.  I eventually disabled all of the Aeroglass visual features, and pared down the operating system to it's bare minimum (which looks a lot like Windows XP) and I still hit a brick wall during my normal computing.  The bizarre part of this is that if I run virtual box (effectively an emulator) with Windows XP the Windows XP virtual machine seems to work without any hiccups, even while the Windows Vista host operating system is struggling.

Music playback is always flawless, as one would hope, But I get occassional paused and stutters in video playback, regardless of what media player I use.  Granted, this is seldom, but I don't experience comparable glitches on my Windows XP laptop, which has a celeron 1.4 Ghz processor and ATI Radeon X300 video card.

Windows Vista doesn't suck as much as everyone says.  But it was expensive, I've had to turn off the "neat new features" for performance reasons, and I am still annoyed by mild performance issues and inconsistent security features.  Why do I use it, then?  Since I do 3D animation, I want the full use of my 64-bit quad-core processor.  Well, my roommate had unending problems with 64-bit Windows XP, and the alternative was Vista.  For better or worse, Vista at least appears to be well supported by hardware vendors.  And I've been able to muddle through it.

I decided to check it out.  First, I started searching the names of people I have been looking for -- friends from when I was younger, and people that I've never been able to find.  No luck with Cuil.  Then I decided to look up some of my friends who I have found via Google, and occassionally get in touch with.  No luck with Cuil.  Then I decided to look up my own names, aliases, and stuff that I have posted on the internet.  Cuil returned results (let's face it -- I'm all over the internet), but returned results that seemed odd and unlikely to me.

Notably, searching for "Drowlord" didn't pull up this website (www.drowlord.com) in the first several pages of search results.  It did, however, pull up my profile on www.pollsb.com and www.piratebay.org and various other torrent and social networking sites -- sites that I wouldn't prefer to be the "first hits" for people who might be looking for me.

I hardly provided a fair or comprehensive set of tests, but Cuil doesn't appear to be a google-killer for the searches that leapt most immediately to mind.

This is similar to having DVDs, but cooler in several key areas.

1.  All of my video is organized 100% of the time, with no incremental effort.  i.e., I don't have to put them back when I'm done, like you have to do with DVDs.  And nothing gets put back in the wrong case.

2.  I can "lend" my videos to someone without fear of them not returning them.  I just pop in a DVDR and burn them a copy, and... who cares if they bring it back or not.  It's a $0.20 piece of plastic, rather than a $20 piece of commercial media.  And I'm not denied its use while it's being loaned.

3.  There is no chance of the media being damaged by carelessly dropping it on the floor or spilling something on it.

4.  I can effectively and cheaply and easily back up my media.  Buy a $100 hard drive, and copy my favorite 1000 movies, and then put that hard drive in a safe place.  Imagine backing up your movies for $0.10 each, and even bringing them with you on business trips and vacations!

However, the world has changed, and many people have had the same idea, converging in a technology known as DLNA.  The idea with DLNA is basically exactly what I described above -- but add internet video access (like youtube), and Tivo functionality, and imagine every TV and receiver having a built-in computer, so you don't need those computers on every TV, and it works with a remote control.

Well, the world isn't there, yet, but that's where we're going.  TVersity is the first "server" for DLNA that I've used which seems to work with the PS3, which is the first "client" for DLNA that I've had ready access to.  And it is quite awesome.  Although it hasn't been 100% stable, so far.

Port forwarding is an inherently malicious networking "hack" devised to compensate for problems with Network Address Translation (NAT).  NAT allows several personal computers to share a single internet address for outgoing network connections.  Unfortunately, people outside the NAT device (a router), cannot communicate with computers inside the NAT-ed network.  This is fine, since home users don't normally run public servers.

However, there are the online gamers -- who have to set up "public services" to play certain games -- who are unable to network with other gamers behind a NAT router/ Firewall.  The feeble "Port Forwarding" hack was created to make their games work.  Unfortunately, creating a firewall, Nat, routing devices (with wireless) has become the defacto standard among broadband internet service providers, and Port Forwarding is no longer viewed as the feeble patch that it is.  People use it as if it were a legitimate internet routing technology.  Which it's not.

The problem:  See... I do web sites.  I might browse www.[website].com with my web browser and get an error, so I use troubleshooting tools on www.[website].com to try and figure out the problem... This doesn't work real well that www.[website].com is two different computers -- one when you browse a website, and a different one when you use troubleshooting tools (like remote desktop).  Unfortunately, Port Forwarding leaves no traces to let you know that it is happening.

I kinda have to grind my teeth when I encounter this, because I respect some people who resort to this kind of despicable amateur networking to save a buck.  I can't really bitch to anyone that would understand the issue, because I'm the only person I know who does networking and ACTUALLY BOUGHT legitimate IP addresses for each computer that I make public.