The summer is now officially over and there has not been any Windows Vista Ultimate Extras as promised! In July, the Ultimate team the Ultimate Team directory promised us a that the remaining language packs and DreamScene would be released, so far no trace of them!
Windows Vista Ultimate with the Ultimate Extras was a smart way to get consumers to pay a whole lot of extra money, about 60% more than the Home Premium version, to get nothing! Yes, there has been some extras released, but that was like 8 months ago! Since then we have seen some language packs removed and a technical preview of DreamScene.
During the spring I several times tried to get in contact with the Ultimate Team to ask some questions about the Extras and they all said - “sure, no problem”. But once they got the questions I heard nothing (except for one who said he was not the correct person to answer the questions).
Long Zheng has a nice article on The Ultimate Con, in which he shows how Microsoft tries to wash out the Extras information in Vista in Vista Service Pack 1.
I have not, since a few months back, recommended Windows Vista Ultimate to friends and colleagues - it’s a waste of money. You can upgrade if the team in the future get some speed or competence to deliver something good and useful.