The analogy that this causes the same stir as XP activation is ludicrous; not because it's not true, but because it's actually happenning that way. XP Activation is -still- a bitch. But this 'oh no my OGL/old DX games are going to run 10FPS slower' lark is just silly. Who cares. Stay with XP. MS won't be ditching it for another 9 years. If in 9 years you are still using the same old hardware then for gods sake!!! Just die. You've been living miserably anyway!
On the other hand, reports on Vista beta 1 gaming is that it actually runs stuff faster than XP. So, come final Vista release, turn off all the fancy services that make your desktop look great and spin around 360 degrees on every angle and you'll be back to a similar standing point anyway. Also the whole 'software emulation layer' is not going to be nearly as major as the OGL clan especially are making it out to be. It will, as it always has been and always will be, up to the graphics card maufacturers to provide the appropriate drivers for OpenGL (and probably now legacy DX).
... crap, crap, crap. I'm sorry, but everything you said in that paragraph was in fact gossip.
On the other hand, reports on Vista beta 1 gaming is that it actually runs stuff faster than XP. So, come final Vista release, turn off all the fancy services that make your desktop look great and spin around 360 degrees on every angle and you'll be back to a similar standing point anyway. Also the whole 'software emulation layer' is not going to be nearly as major as the OGL clan especially are making it out to be. It will, as it always has been and always will be, up to the graphics card maufacturers to provide the appropriate drivers for OpenGL (and probably now legacy DX).
So, the facts so far (not gossip) are
... crap, crap, crap. I'm sorry, but everything you said in that paragraph was in fact gossip.