They must be brining this tech over from one note. I've been doing this for years.

Myself and every other person with an XT I've talked to so far bought theirs from the Dell outlet. Mine was $800 with a 20% off coupon. Specced at 3gb RAM, 1.33GHz proc, and 120GB hdd.

I use a tablet PC daily, in tablet mode more often than not, and touch (not necessarily multi touch) has made me much more productive in my daily tasks. However, I will say it takes some getting used to.

Precision tasks like dragging a window corner or clicking in the address bar can be difficult at first, as the video demonstrates. You just have to get used to your calibration settings, and realize where you think you're pressing isn't always where the OS thinks you're pressing. So you get used to pressing a little to the top and left in order to get dead on.

However, Windows 7 has made many precision tasks in vista not so precise anymore. Minimizing and maximizing windows is easier with Aero snap; a lot of people used to accidentally close windows. Clicking on items in the taskbar is easier because of the bigger icons. To access jump lists, you just flick up (rather than press and hold as the video showed). And when you're using touch input, spacing between items is increased.

Little things like this have been done thoughout the OS to make it more touch friendly, and I personally feel it's a very usable touch environment.

XP had many more than 2 editions:

Windows XP Starter
Windows XP Edition N
Windows XP Edition K
Windows XP Edition KN
Windows XP Home
Windows XP Professional
Windows XP Embedded
Windows XP MCE
Windows XP Tablet
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition 2002 (Based on XP Codebase)
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition 2005 (Based on Server 2003 Codebase)
Windows XP x64 Edition (Supports x86-64)

You just think there are two because those are the only two you were offered. With Vista, If you're a home user, you realistically have 3 choices, home, home premium, and ultimate. Really, there are only two because only power users need ultimate. Futhermore, if you're a business you have two choices: business and enterprise. I really don't see how it could get much simpler than that and still maintain reasonable price points.

"You'll get a lot more sales that way."

That may be true, but it also might not maximize profit. I'm sure a company as large as Microsoft has whole departments devoted to demand modeling.

I'm also sure they don't need to troll Engadget comments for advice on how to run their business.

The first thing I would do if I got this (and that's a BIG "if" for $5k) would be to install Windows 7. Windows has a better interface for pen and touch, with better handwriting recognition, a better pen input interface, better touch support, and a better touch interface. Also, all of the best tablet applications are of course windows only, since windows is the only tablet platform.

I really have to say, however, this is one of the best looking and most powerful tablets out there.

The difference is Dell has to support XP, and I suspect Dell is using this price increase as a way to discourage downgrades so as to reduce XP support training. In 1 year they're going to have people calling in with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 problems, and I assume they're going to want to minimize the XP calls.

With the HD Netflix in the new xbox update, this is too little too late.

"do they always compare the short comings of the previous Windows with the new one? Or do they usually present the new features (not improvements) of the new Windows vs the previous Windows?"

These are videos from with WinHEC, the Windows Hardware Engineers Conference. Obviously things boot performance and battery life are going to be of prime interest to this audience. New features such as the taskbar and multitouch were demoed already at the Professional Developers Conferenceo on the 27th. Performance improvements are usually contrasted with the previous version of windows because, being a Windows developer conference, hardware or otherwise, that's what the audience is currently using.

"I also don't really like how they're naming this, it's really Windows 6.1, but they're calling it 7? Don't see the significance in it, since it technically ain't the 7th Windows in any way?"

This issue is completely irrelevant for end users, but the MS corprate VP Mike Nash has been has something on this topic:

"There's been some fodder about whether using 6.1 in the code is an indicator of the relevance of Windows 7. It is not.

Windows 7 is a significant and evolutionary advancement of the client operating system. It is in every way a major effort in design, engineering and innovation. The only thing to read into the code versioning is that we are absolutely committed to making sure application compatibility is optimized for our customers."

"Doesn't that mean whatever problems you still had with compatibility on Vista still will be problems on 7?"

Yes and no. There are going to be some applications which will never work, (those that expect and require administrative privledges. But MS has been releasing compatibility packs all the time, helping programs work with Vista. In 7, there is a compatibility analyzer which will help determine what an EXE needs to work on the OS.

"I'm sure many of them will be peeved, and would like to see a discount on 7, or a lower price tag on the upgrade on 7."

An upgrade from XP to Vista Home Premium is $74 on amazon. I don't think that's too much of a burden, and I'd expect similar prices for Windows 7.

"the bar itself doesn't, it's thicker and the icons are bigger >.> I like my screen space thank you very much."

The new bar is 10px taller than the old one. On a 1280x800 screen that's a 1% decrease in screen space. If you want, you can enable small icons and disable grouping to make it look just like the Vista taskbar. Of course, there's always auto-hide as well. As for being cluttered I don't see where you're coming from with that, since in every aspect, from removing quicklaunch to consolidating icons in the notification area, the new taskbar is less cluttered.

There's actually a demo video somewhere of multitouch in Windows 7 on the XT. The gestures look much smoother than N-Trig's.