[citation][nom]magicandy[/nom]Not sure where you're getting your info but DX11 has been officially supported for Vista right from the start. The "tricks" you speak of are normal Windows Updates that require you to have Service Pack 2 installed and another Windows Update (KB971512). DX11 was never a Windows 7 exclusive like DX10 was for Vista.[/citation]
You say that you needed SP2 and another update that didn't come out until well after Vista came out, perhaps years afterwards, yet you next say that Vista never needed tricks to get DX11, a completely contradictory set of statements.
[citation][nom]captaincharisma[/nom]LOL yea people have been screaming about that to linux since the 90's[/citation]
Linux is already a viable gaming platform for those whom care to try it properly.
[citation][nom]soldier37[/nom]Ugl;iest UI ever. No way that is going on my desktop looks like a windows phone home screen, no thanks! Good luck with it. Another Vista.[/citation]
Considering that Vista has a higher market penetration than Linux and OSX put together (or maybe very close, but still), it was obviously not a complete failure. Besides, with SP2, most of Vista's problems are solved. Considering that the only issues with Windows 8 are with Metro, a problem that isn't even very bad when used and doesn't even need to be used much at all, I can see Windows 8 easily doing better than Vista. 8 is faster, more stable, uses less resources, and has other advantages. Vista had none of these, so it didn't do very well, but it is still a prevalent OS today.
Considering that the start menu is an easy thing to get back in Windows by using free third party programs such as Classic Shell and ViStart/ViOrb (both of which are older tried-and-true programs and not beta/alphas), Windows 8 has the potential to be far better than Windows 7 in every way except for the fact that 7 came out recently and businesses only started to switch over, so Windows 8 will likely be a more consumer used OS than 7 will end up having been by the time 8 get's replaced and 8's replacement gets replaced.