• Parental controls (Tiger's got 'em)
  
  
• "Auto-Play" controls, which look just like the CDs & DVDs preference pane
  
  
• Indexing and Search Options (which we know in Mac-land as the mds and mdimport processes that support Spotlight, and will probably be just as irritating under Windows)
  
  
• Wow! Sudo execution! Imagine that.
  
  
• Windows Update—in its own applet, instead of a browser! My oh my!
  
  
• iPhoto! Or something.
  
  
• An iTunes killer if I ever saw one. Replete with Furiously Non-iPod MP3 Player™ icon.
  
  
• Exposé, or some facsimile thereof. Note that they couldn't replicate Exposé's window-placement functionality exactly, though it would have been the most functional way to solve the z-stacking/window-finding problem, lest it look like too blatant a rip. So instead they've done this DirectX-based 3D-object-mapped stuff that requires entire motherboard chipsets to be labeled as "Vista Ready" (psst—Quartz ran with no performance penalty on legacy hardware at least a generation old upon introduction). The result, even if we accept that the jagginess will be fixed by the time it's released (I don't even want to know how well-thought-out the compositing engine can be if "jagginess" is a problem at any stage), is something that's rather less useful than simply tiling the windows in 2D; instead, you've got to pick a window from a 3D stack, where you can't see all of every window, and you have to be a lot more careful about where you click to select the one you want. The beauty of Exposé is that you spend a total of 1.5 seconds using it; there's no thought involved. You just click, see, and grab. Is it really an improvement if you have to rotate the desktop-universe around like Google Earth, looking for a sidelong view where you can both identify the window you want and click on it accurately? I'm afraid the result might end up being more like SphereXP—something that's good for eye candy, but doesn't actually give you any more functionality, and indeed only gives you more work to do (note that SphereXP doesn't give you access to all your windows at once—it's instead just a dolled-up virtual desktop manager, where you have to rotate the world all over the place until you find your window or get sick of running it, like one friend of mine did after using it for about three days, about two of which consisted of pretending the novelty hadn't yet worn off).
  
  
• ...Where were we? Oh yes: Where have we seen this before?
  

UPDATE: David Pogue has a similar report.

You know, one side effect of this much time passing since the last Windows release is that Apple has received a whole lot more positive press opportunities as an OS developer than Microsoft has—all MS has been able to do is weather doomsaying columns about Vista's endless delays and a drumbeat of reports of viruses and vulnerabilities. I think the general public's impression of Microsoft has soured quite a lot in the intervening years, and Apple's been seen as a much more proactive player. I'm sure the iPod and the Apple Stores have played a big role in this increased visibility, but they've regained household-name status as computer makers too... and I haven't seen so few Apple-bashers in the continuum since—well, ever.

I don't think Vista's release will do much to dispel that, either. If people are whispering recognition of these features through the audience as being Mac OS X features, then all it'll do is cement this impression of MS in the general public. It's not a great time to be Bill right now...

Via Matthew N.