cranioscopical[/b], correct me if I'm wrong, but other than more multimedia choices (including the ubiquitous DRM), what more are we doing today? Office suites haven't changed much at all except around the edges. Most people still use spreadsheets for a thousand tasks, I was very happy with game play back then, but today, I'd much rather play on a dedicated game console.
-zridling
Well, just a couple of quick examples.
You may or may not not like 'em but the constituent parts of the Adobe suite make stuff from ten years ago look fairly shabby.
I'd submit that office suites *have* improved a lot over the past decade. I use WordPerfect for reasons of my own, and there's no comparison between now and 10 years ago.
Preference for dedicated console or not, have you noticed that games are just a bit better on a PC today than in 1998?
Don't forget, too, that compared to ten years ago we're dragging down performance by trying to protect ourselves from irritation and assault every time we talk to the outside world.
other than more multimedia choices
Why other than? There are more, they're more demanding, and I for one use them more than I did 10 years ago.
just as soon as I do, the "corporation" wants me to trash my DVD collection and reinvest in Blu-Ray at three times the cost.
Red herring alert 
In principle, however, I do share your frustration. Like almost every computer user, I want what I want, I want more of it, and I want it 5 minutes ago.
By now, I was kind of hoping the computer would find a way to deposit money into my checking account daily.
Well it works fine for me. Should I introduce you to one of my friends in Nigeria?