I was checking out the Longhorn beta shots:
http://elliottback.com/wp/archives/2005/07/09/long horn-5203-screenshots/ (remove the space in the url that slashdot adds automatically).
So, the OS looks like CRAP. Usability is out of the window, haven’t they LEARN anything from OSX’s transparency fiasco?

Longhorn looks bad, windows look VERY BUSY. I am 100% sure that if you could time travel and get a laptop running Longhorn to a *computer user* of 1985, he would not be able to figure out that UI, while that wouldn’t be the case for OSX and even Gnome.

The ONLY good thing that I can see in these shots is the font quality:
http://elliottback.com/wp/wp-content/lh96cc.jpg
Best font quality, ever.