I hope Vista’s New Interface Helps
I've been a Mac user for over ten years. I've also been a Software Engineer for over ten years. I REALLY hope that the new Vista user experience help up the quality of Windows Software.
Some parts of the city or town you live in no doubt have some fine examples of architecture. When you want to build in these areas the planning authorities want you to think about the surrounding architecture. They want something sympathetic. I'm also in no doubt that some parts of the city/town you live in are terrible. No one really cares about these parts of town and no one really cares what you build there.
As Microsoft have improved Windows' interface I hope it inspires the engineers who write third part software to improve their user's experience. I really think it will.
MacOS has always had a really consistent feel to it and this has never been lost on me. Applications that stray from the standards really jar and sometimes make the application unusable on MacOS. This is most noticeable when you run an X-11 based application... it just does fit well.
I'd encourage Windows developers to follow Microsoft's lead and create interesting, fun but familiar standardized interfaces.