Still pondering whether or not to get Windows Vista on Tuesday? I'll give you 10 reasons why you shouldn't from APC Magazine. Expensive! Lousy drivers! UAC! DRM! Case closed! Er, not quite. Here's 10 reasons why you should... also from APC Magazine. Multimedia! Better drivers! Search! Undelete! DirectX 10! Case closed! Uhhh... I'm not making this any easier for you, am I?

While you ponder that imponderable, I'm going to move on. It seems that government officials in South Korea--one of the most wired nations on Earth--are recommending that the citizenry not upgrade to Vista. Why? Because, apparently, South Korea is mad for ActiveX, the proprietary browser plug-in technology that powers much of the country's web services, from online banking to stock trading, shopping, and gaming, and apparently many of those services cease to work in Windows Vista (presumably because of UAC). More than a reason not to upgrade to Vista, this seems like a fantastic demonstration of how stupid it is to build web services on proprietary technologies. The irony, of course, is that ActiveX is Microsoft's own proprietary invention.

In gaming news, FPS luminary John Carmack--you know, the Doom and Quake guy--says he's not exactly chomping at the bit after Vista or DirectX 10 just yet. "Personally, I wouldn't jump at something like DX10 right now," he says. "I would let things settle out a little bit and wait until there's a really strong need for it." For now he's quite satisfied with Windows XP and accuses Microsoft of "artificially" forcing gamers to upgrade with DX10. "Nothing is going to help a new game by going to a new operating system. There were some clear wins going from Windows 95 to Windows XP for games, but there really aren't any for Vista. They're artificially doing that by tying DX10 so close it, which is really nothing about the OS ... They're really grasping at straws for reasons to upgrade the operating system. I suspect I could run XP for a great many more years without having a problem with it." He calls DirectX 9 "quite good" and also praises the Xbox 360's graphics API.

Phew. To catch up on the previous four days of our Vista Countdown, hit the archive.