http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4698072.stm
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Never.
Hell, I'll buy Vista just for the new Alt-Tab design.
You will see more of these articles since DX10 does NOT work on XP.
DX10 will also require new videocards. First time ever there will be no fallback to software rendering for non-conforming cards (this was confirmed by one of the project leads of the Microsoft Flightsim team on forums when discussing FSX and DX10 some time ago).
It should still be backwards compatible with earlier DX versions though, allowing older software to work fine (or maybe you will have DX9 and DX10 installed side by side with Windows switching between them as needed, I don't know, but the effect is the same).
The Vista requirement is not so strange, as DX10 will make full use of Vista's new features and architecture and therefore can't really be made to work on any other platform without a major rewrite.
lol! Oh man! That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Looks like plenty of gamers are going to be pirating copies of vista :P. Lol, I doubt to many games are going to be using DX10 for awhile, its not compatable with anything right now. Could be a bad move of MS's behalf, maybe not. The only thing that doesnt make sence is that you need a new video card, but I guess they want to milk the videocard companies even more :P. It'll probably be a year or so before thoes special cards are actauly affordable :P.