I did have the chance to use Longhorn, was probably a version before it got "redone." Its gonna be a good OS with much more features. Can't wait to see what it has to offer up.

What is special about DX10 is it offeres new graphical advances and capabilities. Grass and shurbs can be dynamic with a player, so instead of walking throw a shurb the shrub moves. Lighting is much improved as I think you can see on Fs10 screenshots. It basically allows for everything we have now better and even some new things to make a game look that much more real. Honestly I am looking forward to it more than Vista.

Also I read Vista will have an all in one package with "all versions" you just need to choose what features you want and unlock them via activation codes. Good move Microsoft for the consumer and especially the pirate who will have that code lock system cracked in under a week.

And no FS10 will not require Vista, and DX10 will not require XP. I can say this because if FS10 only ran on Vista and DX10 only worked on Vista Fs10 would go the way of CFS3 and no one would buy/use it because they did not want to upgrade. M$ would make no money and drop the series for probably a few years untill most people migraded to a more compatible system of DX10. Thook at the past, most if not all dx versions are backwards compatible(with maybe some OS patching) but still compatible. I think they say it will maximise your experience on Vista because it is being Devloped for Vista, Uses DX10 a Vista native, and Vista offers 64bit suppot. If FS10 is 64bit enabled it will be god like.