Windows MCE (Score 2, Insightful)

I have always seen Windows as a necessary evil. If I want an easy to use restuarant touch screen system for reasonable money I have to use Windows. I still use a Mac for back of the house and my co-located webserver is RedHat, but for for touchscreen ordering, Windows is something I always tolerated. But, I just finished building a Windows MCE 2005 system and I love it. MSFT for once is getting something right. If I had one complaint it would be stability. Nothing worse than having to Ctrl-Alt-Del in the middle of the big game, kill off some offending creature, and restart MCE. But, overall, they have done a lot right. I imported my whole iTunes library off my home Mac and it attached album art to all my old mp3s. The ovrlays, guides, wizards, etc. all work with minimal input. The biggest problem facing MCE adoption is cost. Unless you are a DIY guy, OEM systems start at nearly $2gs. And, an HDTV with 720p support is almost a necessity for maximizing your MCE PC's potential. 480p is passable, but anything less, including 1080i, is nauseating for anything but basics. However, nothing beats playing some Halo on your HDTV with a wireless mouse and keyboard on your 7.1 surround home theatre system. It almost worth it for that alone.